Leaders in Outsourced CIO Services for Nonprofits

You need to work with a partner who not only understands your investment portfolio, but also your institution as a whole. As one of the pioneers of outsourced CIO services for nonprofits, we’re leaders in a range of customized investment solutions and resources designed to fit your organization’s needs. As your partner, Commonfund OCIO will seek to preserve and grow your long-term purchasing power and, maintain intergenerational equity to support the mission of your institution.

Meet Our Team
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Investment Management and Advisory

For organizations seeking full discretion

As your Outsourced CIO provider, we will advise on your total portfolio and implement a strategic policy that aligns with your institution’s mission. We will collaborate with you on the goals for your portfolio, focus on investment performance, and communicate with you, your committee and board to provide updates to the portfolio and ongoing education. We will assume discretion over the day-to-day management of your portfolio. This discretionary relationship will be governed by an Investment Advisory Agreement that specifies all the details and responsibilities of both parties.  You will have a dedicated OCIO team to support your needs. You are further supported by an 80+ person investment team and the firm’s resources, including investor services, operations, risk management, and more. Additionally, to keep you informed, you will have 24/7 access to your investments through our client reporting portal. 

If you’re interested in aligning your portfolio with your organization’s mission, we have capabilities in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and impact investing, as well as a proprietary framework that will help form your approach to responsible investing. 

See our brochure

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Investment Solutions

For organizations seeking to maintain discretion

We provide an investment solution designed to streamline the management of your investments while you maintain discretionary authority over asset allocation and rebalancing decisions. Our investment solution can offer diversification and oversight through multi-asset and multi-manager investment funds. You can construct a portfolio of individual funds which provides access to institutional managers, public and private markets, and alternative strategies such as private equity. 

Your dedicated relationship manager serves as a resource to your staff, investment committee, and board, providing insight into your investments and allowing access to our resources. In addition to your relationship manager, you’ll be supported by the Investor Services team which provides transactional assistance, as well as general inquiries. To keep you informed, we provide frequent updates on the markets, and your investments as well as governance through the Commonfund Institute, our educational arm, and investors have 24/7 access to their investments through our client reporting portal. 

See our brochure

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Specialized Mandates

We also partner with institutions that are seeking an investment manager to assist them with a particular portion of their overall investments, these specialized mandates may focus on areas like operating assets or complex, difficult to access alternatives such as hedge funds, private markets strategies, ESG or impact investing. Each relationship is customized to the needs of the client organization while benefiting from investment and support resources that Commonfund provides to our OCIO clients. 

Is Outsourcing the Best Fit for Your Organization? 

Commonfund Institute has prepared an Outsourced CIO roadmap to guide you through the process of exploring, considering and transitioning to an OCIO. Start your journey today!

I. Exploration

Dive in here to uncover the essence of OCIO, understand why it's becoming the choice of many investors, and decide if it's the best fit for your organization.

Understanding if an OCIO is right for you

II. Consideration

Understanding what an OCIO entails is one thing; discerning the essential steps and details necessary when evaluating various OCIO providers is another. Delve into our curated materials to discover the optimal OCIO collaborator for your organization.

Considering an OCIO

III. Transition

After thorough investigation, you're poised to transition to an OCIO. What's the best approach to crafting your RFP to maximize the benefits of this partnership? Alternatively, if you're already working with an OCIO but they're falling short of your standards, what steps should you take?

Transitioning to an OCIO

Asset Management for Nonprofits

We’ve worked exclusively with nonprofit investors for almost 50 years and served as a discretionary OCIO for over 20 years. We’re proud to work with organizations that include:

Educational Endowments | Foundations and Philanthropic Organizations | Hospitals and Healthcare Organizations

See All Nonprofits We Serve

How We Manage Your Investments

Our total institutional approach to investment management involves addressing wide-ranging factors that extend well beyond portfolio management. We manage customized investment programs for endowments, foundations, and other nonprofits. We generally apply the endowment model of investing to institutional portfolios, providing investment flexibility by using managers for discretionary and non-discretionary outsourcing engagements. The portfolios are diversified across asset classes (including equities, fixed income, hedge funds, real assets, and private investments) and may include both active and passive strategies all within our risk management framework.

Why Choose Commonfund’s OCIO Services?

Working with an outsourced CIO partner provides ongoing professional investment assistance—this means a more comprehensive approach to your institution’s finances than you’d likely be able to manage alone. Effectively managing a large, complex, global portfolio is a full-time job, so delegating this responsibility to us means your committee members may have more free time to spend on strategic priorities for your organization. We’re dedicated to helping you navigate the complexities of investing.

  • Over 50 years of experience working with nonprofits
  • Flexibility and scale to independently source capacity-constrained1 investment managers
  • Ability to implement customized portfolio solutions (ie.  responsible investing options)
  • Asset management services supported by resources and expertise
  • Consistently ranked among the top outsourcing managers for nonprofits by Pensions & Investments

2024 PI OCIO Rankings Rankings shown from Pensions & Investments were published in July of 2024 and are based on reported assets under management as of March 31, 2024. Commonfund did not pay a fee to be included in such report. Read more about survey rankings and awards.
  1. Capacity-constrained or otherwise difficult to access managers are fund managers that may accept only a limited number of investors and/or were oversubscribed in their last vintage fund and/or are selective in choosing limited partners. The assessment of whether managers are capacity-constrained or otherwise difficult to access is based on Commonfund's internal databases, qualitative assessment and conversations with managers and has not been independently verified.

Monitor and Manage Your Accounts 24/7

Visit the Portal

Our client reporting portal provides 24/7 access to your accounts with insight into your portfolio performance, fund information, cashflow management, audit support, private placement memorandums, and subscription documents.

Visit the Portal

Outsourced CIO Resources

Outsourced Cio

Increased Use of OCIO for Independent Schools

Learn More
Outsourced Cio

Commonfund OCIO Names Julia Mord Chief Investment Officer

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Outsourced Cio

Understanding OCIO Partnerships: Key Insights and Best Practices

Learn More

Interested in Commonfund OCIO?

Is your institution thinking of outsourcing?

Commonfund has been working with nonprofit investors to provide total portfolio solutions for over five decades and as a discretionary OCIO for over 20 years. We have learned that building a partnership is critical to the success of an organization, and different than a traditional consulting relationship.

Fill in the form to connect with one of our investment professionals and learn more.