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Perspectives | Insights Blog
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...
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Perspectives | Articles
As a leading Outsourced CIO firm serving nonprofit organizations, we consistently re-evaluate our organization and processes looking for opportunities to improve how we work and serve our clients. To...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
Get into the holiday spirit with Commonfund Institute’s winter reading and holiday gift-giving list. This thirteen-title line-up, compiled of recommendations from our Commonfund colleagues, promises...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
On November 9, 2021, Commonfund Institute held its first virtual Investment Stewardship Academy session since the program began nearly 30 years ago. The course focused on committee decision-making...
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Perspectives | Articles
Climate change is a source of concern around the world—from environmental scientists to government policymakers to ordinary citizens. In a more figurative sense, the climate for responsible investing...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
The fourth blog in the “Six Ps of Investment Stewardship” series addresses People, specifically how boards function within an organization. To learn more about the first four principles in the series...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
The effects of COVID-19 have been felt across the entire nonprofit sector and the independent schools’ community is no different. For the Commonfund Benchmarks Study® of Independent Schools...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
Many educational institutions are facing unpredictable financial challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Costs associated with implementing technologies for virtual learning, decreased...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
For the third straight year, Commonfund Benchmarks Study® of Independent Schools (CSIS) participants reported average new gifts to endowment declined, this year falling to an average of $1.2 million...
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Perspectives | Articles
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...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
For fiscal year 2020, independent schools reported an average return (net of fees) on their endowment assets of 2.8 percent. In this infographic, we report the key highlights from the 2020 Commonfund...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
To more accurately plan for future expenses and budgeting needs most colleges and universities look to the Higher Education Price Index (HEPI). The HEPI is an inflation measure for current business...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
There are fundamental principles of effective endowment management that we have organized into what we call “the 6 Ps of Investment Stewardship”– Purpose, Policy, Process, Portfolio, People and...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
In the midst of a global pandemic, many non-profit business models are being challenged which has put significant pressures on staff, governing boards and committees. These pressures on time and...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
This year has been incredibly difficult. One of the most contentious and turbulent presidential elections and transitions in American History. COVID-19 and the consequential social and economic...
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Perspectives | Articles
Commonfund continues to be committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts throughout the organization. The Commonfund Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Office has created a Diversity,...
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Perspectives | Articles
Founded in 1909 in response to the ongoing violence against Black people around the country, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is the largest and most pre-eminent...
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Perspectives | Articles
William Massy has spent his entire career at the intersection of academia and administration, as a microeconomist; professor, dean and CFO at Stanford University; author; and now, an independent...
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Perspectives | Articles
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...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
The central document guiding the management of a nonprofit institution’s endowment—essentially, the strategic plan of the investment committee—is the investment policy statement (IPS). The IPS should...
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Perspectives | Articles
The Commonfund Higher Education Price Index® (HEPI) is an inflation index for colleges and universities. It has been calculated since 1983 and includes inflation data going back to 1961. Commonfund...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
Six key words – Purpose, Policy, Process, Portfolio, People, and Perspective – form a framework for effective endowment stewardship. As trustees, investment committee members, and senior management...
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Perspectives | Articles
In recent years, responsible investing has received mounting levels of attention from all quarters of the investment management field, from institutional investors large and small to global asset...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2019, independent schools reported a 5.7 percent return in endowment assets. In this infographic, we report the key highlights from the 2019 Commonfund Benchmarks...
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Perspectives | Articles
"Instead of just optimizing for skill, why don’t we optimize for luck? " Optimize Luck originated in a group discussion I facilitated for the Investment Institute, a membership organization for...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
A critically important asset for many nonprofit organizations is their endowment, sometimes referred to by a different name such as long-term investment fund. So important is this pool of financial...
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Perspectives | Articles
Once an institution decides to pursue the outsourced CIO or investment office option, it usually leads to the creation of a request for proposal, or RFP. Considering that the outsourced model is a...
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Perspectives | Articles
In this Council on Foundations-Commonfund Study of Foundations viewpoint, it's about analyzing and interpreting the data we've collected. What do they tell us? What trends are emerging? How are...
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Perspectives | Articles
The Surprising Outcomes When Diverse Groups and Homogeneous Groups Tackle the Same Problem In late 2018, Commonfund established a Diversity Office with the objective of benefiting from the strengths...
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Perspectives | Articles
Fiscal 2009 was an epochal year. In March, the stock market decline wrought by the financial crisis and Great Recession reached its nadir as investors sensed the worst had passed. With the turn in...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
Schools participating in the Commonfund Benchmarks Study® of Independent Schools (CSIS) for the 2018 fiscal year reported an average return (net of fees) on their endowment assets of 7.4 percent. The...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
Fifty-six healthcare organizations participated in the 2016–2017 Commonfund Benchmarks Study® of Healthcare Organizations. These organizations reported an average investable asset pool of $2.1...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
Three days after becoming Executive Director of the Commonfund Institute, I found myself at Yale University in New Haven giving welcoming remarks at our annual educational program. Although I will...
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Perspectives | Articles
Every year, the NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments® (NCSE) reports new data—on investment returns, asset allocation, risk management, donations and gifts, and much more. But some data points are...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
2017’s tax legislation is the latest in a growing list of challenges facing higher education. The new excise taxes on endowment earnings of the largest private universities, coupled with the...
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Perspectives | Articles
Since our founding in 1971, a core element of the Commonfund mission has been to provide insights on a broad range of governance, policy and investment challenges. An engaged governing board is...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
It was another taxing weekend (literally) at Commonfund as we digested 1,097 pages of the conference agreement for the tax reform bill (the “Tax Act”) and its implications for our country and for the...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
UPDATE: Since this blog was published there have been further developments related to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Please see our post Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: CPI Plus More for our latest thinking....
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Perspectives | Articles
Investors often ask about the difference between time-weighted return (“TWR”) and internal rate of return (“IRR”). In general, TWR is used by the investment industry to measure the performance of...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
Like nearly everything in the financial markets, risk is cyclical. History repeats itself. The echoes of past crises are always heard in present ones, yet new crises are rarely predicted and not...
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Perspectives | Articles
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...
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Perspectives | Articles
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...
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Perspectives | Articles
How much does investment management cost? Fiduciaries, donors and stakeholders at endowed institutions have a strong interest in finding a good answer to this question, particularly in this era of...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
As a result of the evolving landscape of the healthcare industry, organizations are increasingly being shaped by pressures affecting both the revenue and expense sides of the income statement. On one...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
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...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
Excellent boards are made, not born. Achieving excellence in board governance requires success in four crucial areas: capable leadership, a sound organizational structure, attention to fiduciary...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
Treasury managers face a new challenge to an old problem. Their institutions historically have relied on operating investment income to provide a necessary influx to operating budgets. Prior to 2008,...
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Perspectives | Articles
How long is the long term? A year ago, private and community foundations appeared to many observers to have recovered from the losses suffered in the 2008–09 global financial crisis. Double-digit...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
With each state having its own court system, uniformity among the states did not exist. While there was agreement on basic common-law trust principles, variations still emerged. As the American...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
Two important laws enacted in the last 15 years have had an impact far beyond the intent of their original authors, causing major, if little-noticed, changes in nonprofit governance. The...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
An operating charity in the Northeast is in the process of implementing a risk-based investment policy for its $30 million endowment. The organization’s seven-member Investment Committee includes...
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Perspectives | Articles
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...
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Perspectives | Articles
How long is the long term? A year ago, endowments appeared to many observers to have recovered from the losses suffered in the 2008-09 global financial crisis. Double-digit investment returns had...
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Perspectives | Insights Blog
“Outsourced CIO” (or OCIO) is a term that might not be familiar to many. In the past it has been defined as a traditional consulting model in which the process of interviewing potential investment...
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Perspectives | Articles
Impact investing is showing growth around the world. According to the most recent J.P. Morgan/Global Impact Investing Network Impact Investor Survey, the number of institutional investors engaging in...
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Perspectives | Articles
It is often said that we live in a world of change, but it is surprising how slowly that change can occur. Seven years after the onset of the Great Recession, many business school students are still...
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Perspectives | Articles
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...
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Perspectives | Articles
For investors building multi-manager portfolios, a look at an alternative hedge fund beta. Approaches to stock selection vary widely across the hedge fund universe, even among managers practicing the...
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Perspectives | Articles
Investment returns of less well-diversified portfolios have flourished in the accommodative market environment created by central banks. But what will happen when rates rise? In the last five years,...
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Perspectives | Articles
On campus, the thinking about operating asset management is changing with the times. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession, liquidity was the primary concern on university...
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Perspectives | Articles
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...
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Perspectives | Articles
Today, few OCIOs that serve nonprofits are total institutional partners. Six questions can help you find one who takes a holistic approach. Not long ago, the definition and scope of an “Outsourced...
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Perspectives | Articles
Investing according to environmental, social and governance principles is maturing into a distinct discipline. Robust research results dispute the conventional wisdom about performance trade-offs. If...
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Perspectives | Articles
Facing cost pressures and a new regulatory regime, healthcare organizations — especially those in the small and mid-sized range — should consider adopting the principles of the endowment model....
Fiscal Year-End and Mid-Year 2021 Market and Investment Review