Research Center
Select a Topic:
.svg){kind=icon}
Endowment Spending - A Look Back
Gain a better understanding of how educational institutions evaluate spending policies today.
Fiscal Policy Impacts on the Economy: Maybe too early to tell….
We are now more than 100 days into the Trump administration and six weeks past the “Liberation Day” tariff announcements. In that time the S&P 500 has reached it’s all time high, sold off more than... Learn More
Western Washington University
Active minds changing lives. Right-sized, well balanced, with an extensive range of strong academic programs and some enlightening stats that speak to all of it: Western Washington University (WWU)...
Striking the Balance: A Fiduciary Approach to Risk and Investment Policy
Discover how to effectively balance risk and return as a fiduciary in your investment portfolios.
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...
Viewpoint: Being Objective
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...
Nonprofit Board Governance Best Practices
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...
What’s the Difference? Time-Weighted Return vs. Internal Rate of Return
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...
Northampton Community College Foundation
The dictionary defines a foundation as “an underlying base or support.” Of course, there’s another type of foundation, defined as “funds given for the support of an institution.” Northampton...
Hedge Fund Land: An Expensive Amusement Park?
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 tackle...
Viewpoint: Responsible Investing for Foundations
Introduction In recent years, growing attention has been paid to the use by endowed institutions of so-called responsible investing practices. The three main practices — environmental, social and...
Making the Case for Investing in Natural Resources
The natural resources sector is often characterized as cyclical, as producers and service providers experience underlying exposure to and commensurate volatility of commodities in the oil and gas,...
Not So Free: Implications of New York’s Excelsior Scholarships
Key Insights While opening opportunity to many New York families, the recently enacted Excelsior Scholarship Program will likely stress the financial resources of small private colleges and...
The Misperception of Illiquid Investments
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...