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Private Equity | Private Equity Insights
Unconventional Thinking – A Reset of the Investment Opportunity in Upstream Energy
Step back in time a little over a decade ago to 2014 and recall the state of the global economy. Five years earlier, global GDP had experienced a significant contraction in the wake of the Global...
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Governance And Policy | Insights Blog
A Closer Look at Private Family Foundations
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Governance And Policy | Podcasts
Purpose-Driven Governance in the Nonprofit Sector
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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
FY24 NACUBO-Commonfund Study Released
U.S. Higher Education Endowments Report 6.8% 10-Year Average Annual Return, Increase Spending to a Collective $30.0 Billion Annual NACUBO-Commonfund Study shows participating institutions spent...
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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Responsible Investing | Insights Blog
Four Takeaways from the 2025 Nest Climate Campus Event
At this year’s Nest Climate Campus event, held September 23-25, 2025, during NYC’s Climate Week, the conversation around climate shifted—from ideals to execution, and from rhetoric to financial and... Learn More
Private Equity | Private Equity Insights
Data Centers, AI and the Evolving Energy Landscape
You can't just flip the switch. As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to reshape industries and redefine technological capability, it is also poised to become one of the most significant drivers...
Perspectives | Insights Blog
Key Takeaways from the 2025 CASE Conference for College & University Foundations
Commonfund Institute provides analysis and thought leadership across the nonprofit institutional investing space. But investments don’t happen in a vacuum – they are part of the institutional...
Responsible Investing | Insights Blog
Fiduciaries Guide to Mission-Aligned Investing
At Commonfund Forum 2025, Caroline Greer, Managing Director, Commonfund OCIO and George Suttles, Executive Director, Commonfund Institute sat down with panelists, Margot Brandenburg, Senior Program...
Outsourced Cio | Insights Blog
Increased Use of OCIO for Independent Schools
Data from the 2024 Commonfund Benchmarks Study of Independent Schools (CSIS) show that schools across the size spectrum reported an increase in use of an outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO)...
educational-endowments
Investment Strategy | Insights Blog
In Pursuit of Intergenerational Equity: Inflation is the Big Headwind
For all the differing goals and objectives laid out by colleges and universities for their endowments, one that is universally shared is intergenerational equity, or the concept that endowed...
Investment Strategy | Articles
Portfolio Construction in the Era of the Mag 7
How do you build your U.S. equities allocation when a handful of stocks account for more than half of the S&P 500’s return? The aptly named Magnificent 7 stocks (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta...
Governance And Policy | Insights Blog
A Closer Look at Religious Independent Schools
Earlier this year, Commonfund Institute released the 20th annual Commonfund Benchmarks Study of Independent Schools (“CSIS” or the “Study”), reporting on key investment governance trends and insights...
Perspectives | Insights Blog
Four Challenges Impacting Nonprofits Today
Commonfund OCIO President and CEO, Tim Yates, sat down with panelists, Janine Anthony Bowen, Trustee of Georgia State University Foundation and Partner at BakerHostetler, Dr. Alison Morrison-Shetlar,...
Governance And Policy | Insights Blog
A Closer Look at Community Colleges
Earlier this year, Commonfund, in partnership with the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), released the 2024 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments (NCSE). The...
Investment Strategy | Insights Blog
Investment Committees: Preparing for the Unforeseen
In the world of investing, crises are inevitable. Yet, many investment committees find themselves unprepared when these crises strike because they haven’t taken the necessary time to scenario plan....
Investment Strategy | Insights Blog
Reflections on the NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments 2024
Mid-February can be a challenging time of year. For sports fans, the lull between the end of the football season and the beginning of baseball season can feel like an eternity. For many, February...
Commonfund OCIO Point of View