Author: Amy Paterson

Endowments using time-tested principles can attain excess returns and long-term results above what the global economy and indices offer, according to recently released research.

TIFF Investment Management’s Higher Education Endowment Results: Reflections on Recent Returns and Outlook for the Future whitepaper finds that institutions will attain alpha if they use equities as the cornerstone of their portfolios, alternative investments in a research-driven, intelligent way and pick public market managers using a set of key characteristics.

Read the full article, Financial Investment News: Endowments Can Obtain Alpha By Using Time-Tested Elements: Study

On April 20, 2022, TIFF Investment Management hosted the third of four sessions of our Fundraising Symposium. Each session has its own theme and set of presenters, but the purpose of each is the same: To help nonprofits leverage fundraising best practices efficiently and effectively in a post-pandemic landscape.

“Cultivating Major Donors and Transformational Gifts” was hosted by Charlie Cummings, Strategic Advisor at the Do Good Institute at the University of Maryland. Jeff Franco, CEO and Camino Consulting Group and Transformation Leadership Group and Adjunct Professor at the Do Good Institute, led an interactive presentation on the fundraising relationship between a nonprofit and its high net worth supporters.

TIFF Members can access the recording of the session and presentation materials through the Member portal. Download for a high-level summary of this informative event.

If you have questions or feedback or would like to receive an invitation to the fourth installment of the 2022 Fundraising Symposium, please email your name, affiliation, and title to memberservices@tiff.org.

The always highly anticipated annual university endowment results for fiscal 2021 (FY 2021) were released in February, triggering the usual flurry of articles in the financial media. These results received a great deal of attention, largely because of the uniquely strong returns. In our new white paper, “Higher Education Endowment Results: Reflections on Recent Returns and Outlook for the Future”, we aim to:

• Explain the context for the strong returns, focusing on the asset classes that drove this outcome
• Give our perspective on the outlook for market returns in the coming years
• Discuss some of the key investment tenets that, we at TIFF, believe contributed to strong outperformance from some select institutions

Expect more college and university endowments to invest in private equity and venture capital moving forward. That was one takeaway from a conversation with leaders of TIFF Investment Management, a firm that advises nonprofit organizations, including higher-education institutions.

The schools that saw the largest returns in fiscal 2021, a record year for university endowments, profited most from private equity and venture funds, said Kane Brenan, TIFF’s CEO, and Jess Portis, head of member portfolio management and services. That’s inspiring more college endowments to find ways to get a piece of the action. Private equity and venture capital accounted for just 2.3% of asset allocation in endowments between $25 million and $50 million, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers-TIAA 2020 “Study of Endowments.” Meanwhile, endowments over $1 billion relied on those alternative investments for a quarter of their asset allocations.