The Seismic Shifts Impacting Nonprofits Today
Commonfund recently hosted its 27th annual Commonfund Forum, March 9th-11th, in Orlando, Florida. This Forum Spotlight explores the financial and operational implications of these major shifts,...
2025 Policy Outlook: What Endowments and Foundations Should Know
Looking back at 2024, uncertainty was the name of the game: inflation, interest rates, market volatility, emerging technology, recession potential, and geopolitical risks all played a role. As we...
Investing in the Creative Economy - Commonfund Coffee Talk
Investing in the Creative Economy In this Commonfund Coffee Talk, the Institute’s executive director, George Suttles, is joined by Upstart Co-Lab founding partner, Laura Callanan, to discuss impact...
Council on Foundations-Commonfund Study of Foundations 2023 Results
In a recent webinar, Commonfund Institute and the Council on Foundations reviewed the highlights from the Council on Foundations-Commonfund Study of Foundations 2023 Results.
The Role of the Endowment in Transforming Trinity College
Commonfund hosted its annual Commonfund Forum, March 10-12th, in Orlando, Florida. The agenda included a range of sessions on relevant topics for institutional investors. In this Forum Spotlight,...
CIO Roundtable
Commonfund hosted its annual Commonfund Forum, March 10-12th, in Orlando, Florida. The agenda included a range of sessions on relevant topics for institutional investors. This Forum Spotlight...
Topline Findings from the FY2023 CSIS
Commonfund Institute's Director, Allison Kaspriske and Amanda Novello, Senior Policy and Research Analyst joined Elizabeth Dabney, Senior Director of Research and Data Analysis at NBOA for an...
Will AI Save the World or Ruin It?
Commonfund hosted its annual Commonfund Forum, March 10-12th, in Orlando, Florida. The agenda included a range of sessions on relevant topics for institutional investors. This Forum Spotlight...
Impact and Value-Aligned Investing - Commonfund Coffee Talk
Impact and value-aligned investing The final session in our Commonfund Coffee Talk 2023 series, foundation leaders discuss impact and values-aligned investing, a focus for many foundations and the...
Beyond DEI Toward Reparative Care - Commonfund Coffee Talk
Beyond DEI Toward Reparative Care The second session in our Commonfund Coffee Talk 2023 series, foundation leaders discuss how institutions can use their power, move beyond baseline DEI, and toward...
Meeting Mission through Investments - Commonfund Coffee Talk
Meeting Mission through Investments The first session in our Commonfund Coffee Talk 2023 series, foundation leaders discuss mission-oriented investment strategies, governance, implementation, and...
Commonfund Forum 2023 Welcome Address
Commonfund hosted its 25th annual Commonfund Forum in Boca Raton, Florida. Mark Anson, Commonfund's Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, opened the conference with a welcome...
CIO Roundtable - A Discussion on Investment Stewardship
At the 25th annual Commonfund Forum, in Boca Raton, Florida, we hosted a distinguished panel of CIOs who shared their perspectives on portfolio management. They discussed their best investment ideas,...
Secular Changes and Challenges Facing Nonprofits Today
Commonfund recently hosted its 25th annual Commonfund Forum, February 13-15th, in Boca Raton, Florida. The agenda included a range of sessions on relevant topics for institutional investors. This...
Rising to the Occasion | A Discussion with Three HBCU Presidents
Earlier this month we hosted our 25th Commonfund Forum in Boca Raton, Florida. In celebration and acknowledgment of Black History Month, we hosted a breakfast discussion with a distinguished group of...
Community Foundations - Challenges & Opportunities - Commonfund Coffee Talk
Community Foundations - Challenges & Opportunities
Impact and Values-Aligned Investing - Commonfund Coffee Talk
IMpact and Values-aligned investing The second session in our Commonfund Coffee Talk series focuses on the opportunities that foundations have in the impact and values-aligned investing spaces....
The State of Private and Community Foundations - Commonfund Coffee Talk
The State of Private and Community Foundations Our 2022 Commonfund Coffee Talk series kicked off with a focus on the challenges facing private and community foundations, what they are doing to...
Video Guide to Investment Outsourcing
One critical decision nonprofit boards continue to face is how best to implement an investment policy. They typically face three options for doing so.
The Great Reset: The Emerging Age of Re-imagination, Reconnection and Renewal – and Generation RE
A great reset is now upon us. Less obvious is the reality that the world was quietly being reset prior to the pandemic. The rules of business were being rewritten by an extraordinary cadre of...
CIO Roundtable
Fiduciaries are entrusted with fulfilling their organization’s mission largely through effective stewardship of financial assets. In the 50+ years since Commonfund was founded, perpetual investing...
Imagining What's Next for the Global Economy
If someone had told you in January of 2020 that the world would be plunged into a global pandemic the likes of which had not been seen since 1918, you probably would have guessed that the impacts on...
Asset Allocation and Risk - Commonfund Coffee Talk
ASSET ALLOCATION AND RISK | LOOKING BEYOND VOLATILITY Our second Coffee Talk focused on asset allocation and risk, and the key factors and inputs that maximize the likelihood of achieving...
Good Governance in a Crisis - Commonfund Coffee Talk
Good Governance as the Guardrails in a Crisis | What Does It Look Like for Nonprofits? Our first Coffee Talk webinar focused on good governance practices as key to surviving a crisis and thriving in...
Highlights from the 2020 Council on Foundations-Commonfund Study of Foundations
In a recent webinar, Commonfund Institute and the Council on Foundations reviewed the highlights from the 2020 Council on Foundations-Commonfund Study of Foundations. Featuring speaker Kristen Scott...
Investing in ESG and Sustainability
ESG and environmentally sustainable investments are increasingly capturing the attention of the institutional investment community. Historically, we saw more conversation and less broad investment...
The CASE Commonfund College and University Foundation Award | Twenty Years of Celebrating Leadership
CASE Online Conference | General Session | March 30-31, 2021 Commonfund Institute Executive Director, George Suttles, joined past CASE Commonfund award recipients in a discussion celebrating twenty...
Commonfund Award Presentation and Leadership Discussion
Commonfund has been a partner and supporter of CASE for the past several decades. Our aligned missions of serving educational institutions and enhancing resources for ongoing financial success are...
Forum 2021 | Welcome Address
Mark Anson, PhD, CFA, CAIA, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, Commonfund, welcomes you to Commonfund Forum 2021. This video is a Commonfund Forum 2021 Spotlight. Click here to...
A Fireside Chat with Darren Walker | From Generosity to Justice
Forum 2021 keynote speaker and Ford Foundation President, Darren Walker, shares his bold vision for the future of philanthropy. Since his arrival in 2013, Mr. Walker has transformed the venerable...
Infinite Challenges, Endless Opportunities, Finite Resources
Board members, trustees and others that have oversight of endowed portfolios have well-documented fiduciary duties that govern how they carry out those responsibilities. In times of relative calm,...
Tools for Creating Effective Strategic Policy
Commonfund has worked with nonprofit investors for 50 years. Over that time, we have developed a set of proprietary tools and data to assist boards and investment committees in their quest to create...
Promoting Gender Equity in Leadership Roles
Dr. Kellie A. McElhaney is on faculty as a Distinguished Teaching Fellow and the Founding Director of the Center for Equity, Gender and Inclusion (EGAL) at the Haas School of Business at the...
Exploring Foundations’ Response to COVID-19
Earlier in February at the 2021 Yale Philanthropy Conference, our own George Suttles, Executive Director of Commonfund Institute hosted a panel which included Tim Yates, President and CEO of...
Implications of Increased Spending for Foundations
In this Commonfund Xchange, Commonfund Institute Executive Director, George Suttles, moderated a discussion with two leading practitioners: Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation Chief Finance and...
Top Hedge Fund Investors - Ten Years Later
In July 2010, I published the book Top Hedge Fund Investors: Stories, Strategies, and Advice. My co-author and I interviewed nine leading allocators to hedge funds, including one Mark Anson, who...
Cultural Institutions and the COVID-19 Crisis
Board members, investment committees, and senior staff are charged with the fiduciary responsibility to make informed decisions when guiding the investment activities of their organization. The...
Enhancing Investment Stewardship with Fund Governance Analytics
Strong board performance is critical for every organization dedicated to achieving its mission, which is why Commonfund Institute makes it our mission to advance best investment stewardship...
Stewarding Foundations Through the COVID-19 Crisis
The COVID-19 crisis has put tremendous strain on local communities across the country and foundations have been asked to rise to the challenge while endowments have declined in value due to market...
Examining the Sustainability Conundrum
Sustainable investing, sometimes called ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) investing, has been a hotly contested topic for years. And the debate continues with both supporters and naysayers...
CARES Act | Implications and Opportunities for Nonprofits
On March 27, 2020, President Trump signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”), establishing the largest aid package in our nation’s history. The $2...
Higher Ed in the Age of COVID-19 - A Panel Discussion
With COVID-19 exploding every expectation of normalcy in U.S. higher education, Commonfund convened a panel of experts to identify, analyze and offer potential responses to the critical challenges...
A Global Perspective for Long-Term Equity Investors
Watch this short video on our Global Perspective for Long-Term Equity Investors. Over the past decade U.S. equities have consistently outperformed international markets, leading many investors to...
CIO Roundtable: The Past, Present and Future of Endowment Investing
Fiduciaries of nonprofit organizations are entrusted with fulfilling the missions of their organizations in large part through effective stewardship of financial assets. In the 50 years since the...
Playing to Win
In this Forum 2019 general session, Commonfund experts share research into much of the conventional wisdom around institutional portfolio management, with some surprising results into which...
Welcome Address and Overview | Forum 2019
Mark Anson, Commonfund Chief Executive Officer and CIO opens Forum 2019 with welcome remarks and a review of the global economy. Download the slides in this presentation.
Investment Strategies for Long-Term Investors
Kris Kwait, Deputy CIO and Head of Investments, discusses investment strategies for long-term investors in the current market environment.
Evolving Asset Allocation and Policy Portfolios
In this Forum 2018 general session, Commonfund experts share research findings and techniques we employ to help investors understand not just the characteristics of their portfolio in isolation but...
The Absent Superpower
In this Commonfund Forum 2017 Spotlight, geopolitical strategist and author Peter Zeihan examines how the hard rules of geography are eroding the American commitment to free trade; how much of the...
No More Gatekeepers
In this Commonfund Forum Spotlight, founder of DonorsChoose.org Charles Best shares how as a 24-year-old teacher at a Bronx high school, he created a model of giving hailed as "the future of...
Monkeynomics
In this Commonfund Forum 2017 Spotlight, Dr. Laurie Santos demonstrates that primates have much to teach us about our own economic decision-making. Both monkeys and humans know a bargain when they...
The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined
Sal Khan is the founder of the Khan Academy, a nonprofit with the mission of providing free, high-quality education to “anyone, anywhere” in the world. A former hedge fund analyst with degrees from...
An Insider's Guide to the Chinese Economy