Commonfund’s Investments with Diverse Managers Continue to Grow
Commonfund continues to build exposure to diverse managers1 as a source of return and diversification for our clients. In 2024, we closed the year with allocations to 50 different diverse managers,...
Celebrating Native American Heritage Month: A Resource Guide
Commonfund, in conjunction with our Native American Heritage Month subcommittee, has created a resource guide to help all of us celebrate the contributions of Native Americans and Indigenous people...
Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month: A Resource Guide
National Hispanic Heritage Month (Spanish: Mes Nacional de la Herencia Hispana) is an annual celebration commemorating the history, contributions, and culture of U.S. Latino and Hispanic communities.
Key Takeaways from Commonfund’s 5th Annual Diverse Manager Day
On May 15th, 2024, Commonfund held its 5th annual Diverse Manager Day. While Commonfund investment teams meet with hundreds of diverse managers each year, this one day is dedicated to due diligence...
Celebrating Pride Month: A Resource Guide
Pride month is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and asexual people (LGBTQIA+) as a social group....
A Closer Look at Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Earlier this year, in partnership with the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), Commonfund released the 2023 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments (NCSE),...
Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month got its start as a congressional bill, inspired by Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month, with the mission of bringing attention to the...
Adding Alpha through Emerging Investment Managers
Commonfund Forum 2024 convened a panel of emerging investment managers to spotlight their unique investment approaches. Moderated by Caroline Greer, managing director at Commonfund OCIO, the...
Celebrating Black History Month: A Resource Guide
Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing their central role in U.S. history. Also known as African American History Month, the...
Commonfund Announces 2024 Diverse Manager Day
Commonfund begins the New Year with the exciting prospect of continuing to build out our diverse manager commitments. In 2023, we hit a milestone, reaching 10.9 percent of assets under management...
Celebrating Women's History Month
Women's History Month 2023 | Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories Women’s History Month is an annual declared month that highlights the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary...
Diversity and Inclusion: Ways to Make a Change
Throughout American history, discrimination has not only been ever present, but era-defining. In each of those eras, however, there have been pivotal moments where activists organized, made...
Evolving Our Definition of Diverse Managers
Investing in diverse managers has evolved considerably over the last five years, catapulted by client demand, broad social concern over events such as the murders of George Floyd, as well as a...
Diversity and Diversification: The People Edge in Portfolios
Can diverse people managing investment portfolios deliver an edge in performance? A growing body of research shows that diverse managers—defined by gender, race, ethnicity or other...
21st CASE Commonfund College and University Foundation Award
Since 2001, the CASE Commonfund College and University Foundation Award has recognized individuals who have contributed to the advancement of the college and university foundation field.
Commonfund's Third Annual Invitational Diverse Manager Day
From February 9th-11th, Commonfund held its third Diverse Manager Day event, with 20 managers identified through its Diverse Manager Portal and other sources. These diverse managers1 cover a broad...
Celebrating and Honoring Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
On January 17, 2022, the nation will celebrate the legacy and leadership of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King—a graduate of Morehouse College—was a Baptist minister, a peace seeking civil...
Viewpoint | Diverse Managers
The inclusion of diverse managers in institutional portfolios offers access to a broader array of investment talent. Data indicate that foundations are beginning to recognize and act on this...
How to Invest in Diverse Managers
A U.S. capitalist system where approximately one percent of all capital is managed by women and people of color, who make up 70 percent of the population, perpetuates and increases inequality and...
CASE Commonfund College and University Foundation Award 20th Anniversary
For the past 20 years, the CASE Commonfund College and University Foundation Award has recognized individuals who have contributed to the advancement of the college and university foundation field.
Commonfund Trustee, Dr. David A. Thomas, Wins 62nd Annual HBR McKinsey Award
Commonfund's Trustee, Dr. David A. Thomas, wins the 62nd Annual HBR McKinsey Award, for co-authoring the article titled "Getting Serious About Diversity: Enough Already with the Business Case." The...
From Generosity to Justice | Observations from the President of Ford Foundation
The theme for Commonfund Forum 2021 was “Transformation.” The objective of the agenda was to deliver timely, useful content on core subjects related to nonprofit endowment and financial management...
Commonfund’s Second Invitational Diverse Manager Day
Earlier this month, Commonfund held its second invitational Diverse Manager Day with 19 managers identified through our Diverse Manager Portal. These diverse managers1 , from historically...
Investing in Racial Equity: A Primer for University & College Endowments
Commonfund and Commonfund Institute are very happy to contribute to the new report from Intentional Endowments Network (IEN), “Investing in Racial Equity: A Primer for University & College...
Observations on Diverse Manager Selection Across Asset Classes
At Commonfund, we believe diverse managers offer clients access to investment talent and valuable investment opportunities and therefore should be explored and invested in. Overlooking the merits of...
Commonfund’s First Invitational Diverse Manager Day
On January 16th Commonfund held its first invitational Diverse Manager Day. The day was made possible as a result of the success we had from submissions to the Diverse Manager Portal launched last...
Announcing the Commonfund Diverse Manager Portal
In the fall of 2018, Commonfund announced the creation of its Diversity and Inclusion Office with the mission to “intentionally promote and foster inclusion and equity across Commonfund and our...
Looking at Gender Lens Investing
What is Gender Lens Investing? Gender lens investing has garnered significant traction in the last decade. Broadly speaking, it aims to achieve financial returns and benefit women. Given the breadth...
Traits of High-performing Boards … and Steps Toward Becoming One
When this was published, Tom Hyatt was a partner in the Washington. D.C. law firm of Dentons US LLP and an authority on nonprofit governance. This blog is excerpted from a presentation he made at the...
Emerging and Diverse Manager Programs: Worth Doing Well
Michael Rowland was the Commonfund Institute Summer Intern in 2019. When this was published he was a rising senior at Case Western Reserve University majoring in Finance and Accounting. What are...
Commonfund Hosts Girls Who Invest at NYC Event
Girls Who Invest (GWI) is an organization focused on bringing more women into the field of asset management, a goal that Commonfund strongly supports. Every year, GWI invites rising juniors into...
The 5 Top Stewardship Imperatives
Christopher K. Merker, PhD, CFA, is a financial advisor and director of Private Asset Management at Robert W. Baird & Co. and an adjunct professor at Marquette University. He is also the co-author of...
Museums and Cultural Institutions: To Accept or Not to Accept, That Is the Question
In the last few months, high profile nonprofit institutions have come under intense scrutiny for ethical dilemmas pertaining to the stewardship of resources meant to support mission. In a three-part...
Applying the Endowment Model to Diversity and Inclusion
Commonfund recently launched a Diversity Office, a formal, cross departmental effort focused on diversity and inclusion. The mission of the Commonfund Diversity Office is to intentionally promote and...
Investing in Diversity
At Commonfund, we scour the globe to find investment managers that we believe have the ability to consistently produce excess returns (alpha) over and beyond their benchmark. But alpha alone is not...
How Does Board Structure Affect Performance?
The structure of a board has an important influence on its effectiveness, and being cognizant of these matters is essential to improving a board’s performance. In this article, we’ll discuss four...
What is ESG Investing?
Generally speaking, Environmental Social and Governance, or ESG for short, is used to describe a group of characteristics that can have a material impact on the long-term success of a company and,...