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Higher Education Price Index Forecast June 2025
According to Commonfund Institute's latest update, the HEPI forecasts a 3.7 percent inflation rate for U.S. colleges and universities in fiscal year 2025. The latest forecast, based on data through...
Commonfund OCIO Point of View
Episode 7 In this episode we cover our macro-economic outlook, the markets have rebounded significantly, while concerns about tariffs have lessened. However, global growth has been downgraded,... Learn More
Investment Governance | Are You Asking These Three Questions?
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...
Foundation Spending Strategy – Meeting the Moment in 2020 and Beyond
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...
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...
A Financial Framework for the COVID Crisis
Despite the fall semester looking much better than the worst-case scenarios contemplated in early summer, higher education in America continues to grapple with the enormous challenges that the...
Chart of the Month | Recession Impacts on Employment and Wages
It may come as a surprise to many that average disposable personal incomes have increased by 6.6 percent from February prior to the pandemic through August. This is down from a high of 9.8 percent in...
The Key Endowment Questions for Challenging Times
During this time of unprecedented challenges, the financial health of colleges and universities is a critical concern. Boards, investment committees, institutional leaders, and their advisors must...
How to Measure Private Equity Investments
Private capital investors use a particular set of quantitative and qualitative measures to assess performance. While the standard benchmarks used for marketable securities are sometimes applied to...
Top Ten Tips for Better OCIO RFPs
A tightly run RFP process can help ensure your organization will find an ideal investment partner to help you fulfill your organization’s mission. As the second installment of our blog series on the...
Viewpoint | Meeting the Moment
Some foundations have responded to the call of mission by increasing spending in response to exceptional needs created by COVID-19. But there is a trade-off: the potential erosion of endowment value...
Chart of the Month | Low Rates Make Record Government Debt Manageable – For Now
Few people would have predicted that U.S. equity markets would be higher today than at the start of 2020 if told that a virus would infect over 7.0 million people in the U.S., cause over 200,000...
Marvin Owens, Senior Director, NAACP Economic Department
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...
Chart of the Month | Are Value Stocks Finally Going to Make a Run?