Endowments and Foundations - Articles & White Papers
Institutional research and articles covering investment policy and practices at endowments, foundations, non-profits and charities. A number of white papers examine the so-called "endowment model" pioneered by the Harvard and Yale endowments; a well-diversified portfolio with a relatively high allocation to alternative investments. Other popular papers examine trends in asset allocation... by endowments and foundations, the quest for performance, and the potential for US foundation endowments to impact the world positively, investing according to an ESG or SRI philosophy. A key challenge for endowments, foundations and charities is to withdraw cash in a sustainable manner, and a number of reports look at sustainable "withdrawal rates". A number of broader investment concepts are considered from an endowment/foundation perspective, such as the outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) model, risk management and active equity investment. Further research articles and surveys in this section cover issues related to endowment performance, investment risk tolerance, and strategies for nonprofit institutional investors.
Climate change presents a potential systemic risk to the financial system. This 60-page guide by the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change aims to serve as a ‘how-to guide’ for institutional investors who are beginning to construct and conduct scenario analysis.
bfinance's 2018 Asset Owner Survey is the firm's largest investor research study to date. It provides invaluable insights into some of the key challenges faced by asset owners around the world. Key themes examined include: entering new asset classes; improving diversification; active, passive and smart beta; ESG in practice…
This FCLT paper addresses the challenge of managing multiple-horizon portfolios by outlining why such management is important, considering the barriers and hurdles, and then proposing a range of tools that funds could use, as appropriate to their situation.
The Asset Owner 100 is a new Thinking Ahead Institute study which gathers data on the total assets of the top 100 asset owners around the world. The study includes data on pension funds, outsourced CIOs (OCIOs), sovereign wealth funds, endowments and foundations. The largest 100 asset owners in the world represent…
Healthcare systems and hospitals are adapting to various opportunities and challenges afoot in their operating environment. This report by Goldman Sachs Asset Management highlights the varied investment practices that healthcare systems and hospitals pursue, often dependent on an organization’s resources and overall…
For the fifth successful year, Newton Investment Management has conducted a survey among leaders and decision makers in the UK charity sector. This report covers diverse aspects of the management of charitable portfolios, and provides an industry benchmark to see how aligned managers' investment experience and…
Long-term investors (LTIs), such as pension funds, super funds, sovereign funds, and endowments, are increasingly engaging in innovative investment activities. Many have sought to use their time horizon and their scale as comparative advantages in order to access financial markets on better terms, aligning their own…
We present the first estimates of investment returns and distribution rates for U.S. non-profit endowment funds, based on a comprehensive sample of more than 28,000 organizations drawn from Internal Revenue Service filings for 2009-2016. Endowments badly underperform market benchmarks, with median annual returns 5.53…
Total portfolio-level benchmarking for institutional investment pools can be approached in a variety of ways, based on which goals fiduciaries are attempting to achieve with each comparison. There are different types of benchmarks that can be used to accomplish specific goals. Portfolio-level benchmarks are typically based…
Institutions go on forever, but chief investment officers unfortunately don't. Five-year returns give us a good -- albeit imperfect - picture of how CIOs are doing their jobs. A longer timeframe would blur the responsibility for results as CIOs come and go. In our chart below, the median tenure of CIOs happens to be…
This paper provides a framework for categorizing all potential investment consultant conflicts and biases as well as a series of mitigation steps that can help address those conflicts and biases.
When it comes to creating alpha, fixed-income managers that stay ahead of rapidly evolving technology will have an advantage over those that remain stuck in the analog world. But how do you assess how well your manager is navigating the changing technological landscape?
