On September 19, Center-invest Bank held a meeting with the heads of the largest endowment funds, which make up 90% of the capital of all endowment funds in the Southern Federal District.

The meeting participants discussed fund management strategy, asset diversification, fundraising, and the purposes of income from trust management.

Center-invest Bank is the oldest donor and the largest management company in the target capital market of the Southern Federal District. The bank ranks 15th in the National Endowment Association’s ranking of Russian management companies working with endowment funds.

Center-invest Bank currently manages the capital of four endowment funds for the South of Russia with total assets of 490 million rubles, and payments in the form of scholarships and grants from management income have amounted to more than 188 million rubles:

• Education and Science of the Southern Federal District Endowment Fund;
• Southern Federal University Endowment Fund;
• Don State Technical University Endowment Fund;
• Rostov State University of Economics (RSUE) Endowment Fund.

The bank uses a conservative investment strategy. Over the period from 2007 to 2024, not a single portfolio under the bank’s management recorded a negative annual return, including during the crises of 2008, 2014, 2021 and 2022. This allows endowment funds to plan their activities with confidence and fund important continuing education programs.

Endowment funds are an effective financial instrument for the efficient support of education and science by business. The endowment will be built up from the founders’ funds, individual donations and public fundraising.

The first endowment fund in Russia, Education and Science of the Southern Federal District, was created by the shareholders and clients of Center-invest Bank in 2007. This is currently the largest endowment fund in the southern part of the country, a real and effective financial instrument for targeted support of education and science in Southern Russia. In 2024 Center-invest Bank increased the capital of the Education and Science of the Southern Federal District Endowment Fund to 307 million rubles.

Since 2003, Center-invest Bank and the Education and Science of the Southern Federal District Fund have been annually awarding scholarships and grants to the best students. More than 45,000 students from 25 leading universities in the Krasnodar Territory, Rostov and Volgograd Regions, Nizhny Novgorod, Astrakhan and the Republic of Adygea took part in the competitions sponsored by the Fund. Since 2024, the bank has expanded its scholarship program to students of secondary vocational education institutions. 3,840 students from 65 secondary vocational education institutions applied to participate in the competition and receive scholarships.

For more than 30 years, Center-invest Bank has been successfully implementing social and educational projects aimed at the development of present and future generations, supporting programs for the development of youth initiatives and improving the quality of education in Russia.