Portfolio Construction in the Era of the Mag 7
How do you build your U.S. equities allocation when a handful of stocks account for more than half of the S&P 500’s return? The aptly named Magnificent 7 stocks (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta...
Thinking Outside the Benchmark
Twenty years ago, Mark authored an article published in The Journal of Portfolio Management titled "Thinking Outside the Benchmark" to describe a new way of pension fund management. He concluded the...
Viewpoint | Top Concerns for Community Foundations: Donor-Advised Fund Regulations
Potential regulations on donor-advised funds (DAFs) and their effect on the philanthropic sector was the most-cited concern among community foundations in this year’s Council on...
Viewpoint | Top Concerns for Private Foundations: Financial Volatility and Target Returns
In this year’s Council on Foundations–Commonfund Study of Investment of Endowments for Private and Community Foundations® (CCSF; the “Study”) we asked a new question: What are the top two current...
Viewpoint | The Yin and Yang of Risk and Return
The conundrum of risk and return is that you can’t have one without the other. The key is finding the right balance for your foundation.
Time to Reassess Your Cash Strategy
Bank safety amidst a confidence crisis It’s not hard to find sore spots in the economy. High rates of inflation have hit pocketbooks and balance sheets and initiated the steepest interest rate hikes...
Celebrate! 25 Years of NBOA: The Endowment Landscape
A deep dive into independent school endowment's trends FY2005-FY2022, including analysis of asset allocation, performance, spending and contributions, plus a perspective on future developments....
Hedge Funds: Is Now Their Time to Shine?
Diversification may be underappreciated when both equity and fixed income allocations have been broadly positive. With both these allocations facing significant and potentially long-lasting...
Viewpoint: The Move in Marketable Alternative Strategies
In the 2021 Commonfund Benchmarks Study® of Independent schools we continue to see the allocation to marketable alternative strategies decline, raising questions about why and whether it will...
Viewpoint: The Short and Long of It
There’s a lot to consider in each annual Commonfund Benchmarks Study® of Independent Schools, e.g., asset allocation, spending, gifts and donations, responsible investing and more. This year is no...
Viewpoint | The Ever-Evolving 80/20
On average over the past decade, independent schools participating in the Commonfund Benchmarks Study® of Independent Schools have maintained an asset allocation that stays within a few percentage...
Increasing Giving During COVID-19: Thoughts for Philanthropy
The Council on Foundations has acted to support its members, their nonprofit partners, and the people and communities hit hardest by the impacts of COVID-19 by asking members to sign a pledge of...
Inflation is Expected to Rise. How Can Investors Protect Portfolios?
In March, capital markets entered their tenth year of post-crisis recovery. For diversified portfolios, these have been some of the most profitable times, characterized by strong returns, positive...
Hedge Fund Land: An Expensive Amusement Park?
In a series of articles, we have addressed two recent investment “fatigues” experienced by institutional investors: Active vs. Passive; and Global (ACWI) vs. US benchmarks. In this article, we tackle...
Not So Free: Implications of New York’s Excelsior Scholarships
Key Insights While opening opportunity to many New York families, the recently enacted Excelsior Scholarship Program will likely stress the financial resources of small private colleges and...
The Misperception of Illiquid Investments
With many market participants expecting low nominal returns across traditional asset classes in the coming years, the challenge of structuring a portfolio to achieve CPI +5%, or long-term purchasing...
CIO Roundtable: Is the Endowment Model a Crowded Trade?
Stuck in the past or ever-evolving? The endowment model gets a hard look eight years into the current market cycle. With core tenets of the endowment model seemingly under stress for the last several...
Active Management Fatigue and What to Do About It
Active management has struggled for several years, raising questions about whether active management can ever outperform again. Traditional active manager style tilts, like value and size, have...
Ideas for Next Gen Energy Investing
Advances in alternative energy technologies promise to reduce the world’s dependence on fossil fuels. Largely, however, they remain just that—a promise. So, where are the opportunities to invest in...
Unhedged Commentary: The $3 Trillion Question
Reprinted from Institutional Investor’s Alpha Spring 2016 issue The growth of the hedge fund industry over the past decade has been tremendous, with more and more institutional and retail investors...
The Big Picture: Integrating Investments, Finance and Development
Most things function a lot better when all the moving parts work together—nonprofit institutions included. The synergies afforded by collaboration across organizational boundaries may be the most...
Rethinking Risk and Diversification
Asset allocation is still the foundation on which better risk-adjusted returns are built. But asset allocation has changed, along with all the associated tools for pursuing return and managing risk....
Multi-Asset Investing: Form Follows Function
The design axiom captures the purpose of multi-asset investing Interest in multi-asset investing is growing and the inflows confirm it: Institutional assets committed to multi-asset investing are...
Viewpoint: A Different Kind of Climate Change
How have cultural, religious and social service institutions’ investment portfolios changed in response to the financial and market environment that has prevailed over the last several years? While...