Research Center
Select a Topic:

Featured
Private Equity | Private Equity Insights
Understanding Buyouts and Growth Equity Investments
Buyouts and growth equity are two investment strategies within private equity that offer investors exposure to companies of differing scale. Buyouts often involve more complex restructuring and...
Featured
Perspectives | Insights Blog
Summer Literary Journeys: A Pathway of Pages into Growth, Grit, and Collective Imagination

Featured
Perspectives | Index
Higher Education Price Index Forecast June 2025
POPULAR ARTICLES
Investment Strategy | Articles
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...
Perspectives | Press Releases
FY23 NACUBO-Commonfund Study Released
U.S. Higher Education Endowments Report 7.7% Return for FY23 While Spending More in Support of Their Missions 50th anniversary NACUBO-Commonfund Study shows participating colleges and universities...
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...
Stay connected with the Insights Blog

Featured
Perspectives | Insights Blog
Investment Stewardship Academy: Takeaways for Navigating an Evolving Landscape
For over 30 years, Commonfund Institute has hosted the Investment Stewardship Academy (ISA) to bring institutional investors together to learn, collaborate, and better support the missions they... Learn Morecommunity_college

Responsible Investing | Articles
Intergenerational Equity and Sustainable Investing
Intergenerational equity was defined by economist James Tobin in 1974. He wrote, “The trustees of endowed institutions are the guardians of the future against the claims of the present. Their task in...
community_college

Responsible Investing | Videos
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...
community_college

Private Equity | Private Equity Insights
Private Capital Secondary Market | An Overview
COVID-19 is impacting the world in unprecedented ways. Today, it is estimated approximately 75 percent of the U.S. population or, almost 250 million people, are staying at home. Globally, over 1.5...
community_college

Governance And Policy | Videos
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...
community_college

Market Commentary | Articles
Higher Ed in the Age of COVID-19
Commonfund convenes an expert panel to take on the short- and intermediate-term threats that higher education confronts in the face of a national emergency the likes of which have not been seen for...
community_college

Governance And Policy | Articles
How Can Trustees Achieve Intergenerational Equity in the Face of Rising Costs?
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...
community_college

Governance And Policy | Videos
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...
independent_school

Responsible Investing | Articles
Viewpoint | Responsible Investing Practices: Evolution, Not Resolution
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...
community_college

Private Equity | Private Equity Insights
How to Select a Private Equity Manager
Are you are considering investing directly with a private equity manager? If you opt to go direct, you will be tasked with selecting, managing and disposing the assets entirely on your own. It may be...
community_college

Perspectives | Articles
Optimize Luck
"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...

Private Equity | Private Equity Insights
Ardent Venture Partners
Commonfund Board Member, Michael Warren, interviews Phil Bronner of Ardent Venture Partners.
An Insider's Guide to the Chinese Economy