We believe members of the nonprofit community should have easy access to authoritative investment research that allows for comparison and insight to benefit future policies and objectives. In order to reach this goal, we partner with various organizations to conduct comprehensive surveys of the financial, governance, and policy practices of nonprofit institutional investors across the U.S.
In 2005, we partnered with the National Business Officers Association (NBOA) to create the Commonfund Benchmarks Study of Independent Schools (CSIS). This annual report studies over 200 independent day and boarding schools across North America that represent over $12 billion in assets. Our study covers the following topics:
Returns and Investment objectives | Asset allocation | Investment policies | Fund flows | Responsible investing | Governance | Board diversity
Read an overview of the findings in the most recent press release.
In 2012, Commonfund and the Council on Foundations combined studies to create the Council on Foundations-Commonfund Study of Investment of Endowments for Private and Community Foundations® (CCSF). This study examines investment and governance policies and practices at hundreds of U.S. private and community foundations, representing, on average, over $80 billion in assets. The topics covered include:
Returns and Investment objectives | Asset allocation | Investment policies | Fund flows | Responsible investing | Governance | Board diversity
Read an overview of the findings in the most recent press release.
Commonfund and the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) announced they are collaborating on renowned research on higher education endowments for institutions and investment managers. The five-year partnership will include the annual development and publication of the NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments (NCSE), the preeminent analysis of U.S. college and university endowment performance. The first study in this partnership, which will be the 50th edition of the NACUBO Endowment Study, is slated to be published in early 2024.
