Data gathered from 809 U.S. colleges and universities for the 2017 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments® (NCSE) show that participating institutions’ endowments returned an average of 12.2 percent (net of fees) for the 2017 fiscal year (July 1, 2016 – June 30, 2017) compared with –1.9 percent for the 2016 fiscal year and 2.4 percent for fiscal 2015. Despite this year’s improved return, the mission-critical 10-year average annual return fell to 4.6 percent from last year’s 5.0 percent, as FY2007’s strong 17.2 percent return dropped out of the trailing 10-year average.
Private equity real estate (non-campus) and energy and natural resources both returned 7.3 percent as part of the allocations to alternative strategies.
Asset allocation among participating endowments changed very little over the course of the fiscal year. Allocation toward alternative strategies during 2017 was 52 percent, while it was 53 percent in 2016.
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