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Investment Strategy | Articles

Mind the Gap: The Strategic Risk of Skipping a Vintage in Private Equity

Private equity (inclusive of buyouts, growth equity, and venture capital) remains a compelling long-term asset class, but recent periods of muted distributions and below-average returns have created...

Perspectives | Press Releases

2025 HEPI Report Released

Inflation for U.S. Higher Education Institutions Rises 3.6% in Fiscal 2025, Up from Fiscal 2024 Rate Norwalk, Conn., December 11, 2025 – Data from the annual Higher Education Price Index® (HEPI) show...

Investment Strategy | Videos

Chief Investment Officers Share Their Thoughts at Forum 2025

Commonfund hosted its annual Commonfund Forum 2025, March 9-11th, in Orlando, Florida. The agenda included a range of sessions on relevant topics for institutional investors. This Forum Spotlight...

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Investment Strategy | Insights Blog

Yesterday's Sector Laggards are Today's Leaders

Much to the surprise of market participants, global stocks have risen at an impressive pace year to date despite significant macroeconomic headwinds and regional bank troubles. In what can be deemed...
Governance And Policy | Insights Blog

Shaping Your Board - Key Considerations for Success

The structure of a board can help, or hamper, its effectiveness, and consideration of these matters is important to improving a board’s performance. Factors such as size, board chair, diversity and...
Investor Spotlight | Spotlight

The Forman Acton Foundation

A Community's Inheritance is a Scholar's Love of Learning Forman Acton valued education, no doubt about that: bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Princeton, a PhD in mathematics from Carnegie...
Perspectives | Articles

Taking a Regional Perspective

The Commonfund Benchmarks Study® of Independent Schools (CSIS) report provides and analysis of the investment and governance policies and practices of U.S. independent day and boarding schools. For...
Investment Strategy | Articles

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...
Governance And Policy | Insights Blog

Drafting Your Investment Policy Statement: 10 Critical Issues

Endowed institutions differ in their missions, capabilities and resources, and investment policy statements naturally mirror these differences. In that sense, there is no single ‘right’ investment...
Investment Strategy | Insights Blog

Bond Market Expectations Take a Wild Ride

In today’s environment, commentary can seemingly become stale in periods as short as hours, let alone days. Just last month, we wrote how despite tightening lending conditions from banks, other...
Investment Strategy | Videos

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,...
Perspectives | Insights Blog

Study of Independent Schools - Key Highlights [Infographic] 2022

For fiscal year 2022, independent schools reported an average return (net of fees) on their endowment assets of -11.3 percent. In this infographic, we report the key highlights from the 2022...
Investment Strategy | Videos

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...
Perspectives | Press Releases

NACUBO and Commonfund Partner on Higher Education Endowment Research

Partnership to produce 50th annual Study of Endowments WILTON, CT, and WASHINGTON, DC, March 13, 2023 – Commonfund and the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO)...
Investment Strategy | Insights Blog

Spending Policy | Old Technology Still Dominates

Every year I eagerly await the release of the NACUBO Study of Endowments (NTSE) and, when I finally get it, I read it cover-to-cover. Despite reading all 195 pages, the two most frequent questions I...