For years, the so-called endowment model could do no wrong. Pioneered by large private colleges, it calls for broad diversification, including plenty of “alternative investments” like hedge funds, private equity, timber, and real estate.
Through 2007, the big colleges and foundations that mimicked trailblazers like Yale and Harvard posted investment returns that crushed those earned by smaller endowments.
Then came the 2008 financial crisis, and many of the colleges and foundations that embraced the endowment model fell just as far, if not further, than those that took a more traditional approach.
Now, as stocks roar higher, the endowment model appears to be faltering once again.
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2014 Endowment SurveyEfforts to Outsmart Market Give Ground to Basic Investment Strategies
While rich nonprofits used to do well with hedge funds, private equity, and other alternative investments, groups that invest in stocks are faring better. -
2014 Endowment Survey
Endowment Performance at Select Nonprofits
Results from a Chronicle survey of nonprofits show wide disparities in investment earnings. -
2014 Endowment SurveyWith Donors Riding Stock-Market Highs, More Charities Look to Capture Some of Those Gains for Endowments
More groups are stepping up planned-giving drives. -
2014 Endowment Survey
Groups Take Differing Approaches to Windfalls
Some spend freely from fattened endowments, while others stick to more stodgy and sustainable giving formulas. -
2014 Endowment Survey
Anti-Fossil-Fuel Movement Gains a Nonprofit Following
Membership in a network of foundations that have pledged to divorce themselves from fossil fuels has grown from 17 to 72 since January. -
2014 Endowment SurveyFoundations Struggle to Show Diversity in Hiring Money Managers
Knight’s leader Alberto Ibargüen has made it a priority to increase the number of minority-owned firms that manage the fund’s fortune. -
2014 Endowment Survey
How the Survey of Nonprofit Endowments Was Compiled
More than 230 nonprofit organizations provided data.