The trend is your friend… until it isn’t. —Anonymous

Our latest endowment performance report features ten-year and one-year returns, along with AUM, for one-hundred-forty-six US and nine Canadian institutions, the latest available.

In our line of work, recruiting talent and creating opportunities for institutional and family office clients, we like hard data on the individuals who manage institutional and family money.  Returns may be historical, but they are useful clues to an investor’s views, process, and discipline.

Bulls and brains

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, institutional investors with public equity tilts lived their best lives ever. Chris Hohn et al at TCI, a value orientated, fundamental investor, earned an estimated $18.9 billion in 2025 according to the Wall Street Journal. CNN’s year-end headline said it all. “US stocks just posted a third straight year of stellar gains.”

(Exhibit 1, Index returns.)

*https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/commentary/article/us-equities-market-attributes-june-2025/

But it’s never really that simple, is it?  Institutional investors operate in an uncertain world and despite the last few years of bull market bliss, the tide inevitably recedes. 

As one OCIO industry stalwart writes, the challenge for endowment and foundation investment officers is, “How can we capture real endowment returns that exceed what is required while actively managing downside risk?” 

(Exhibit 2, S&P returns since 1950)

No such thing

When it comes to money, there’s no such thing as passive management.  Robert Seawright in We are all active managers contends that “most descriptions of passive investing assume a cap-weighting strategy, but that is necessarily an active choice. Most ETFs use rules-based, non-discretionary approaches, but the rules are all determined by active choice. Moreover, the active/passive performance divide is more about fees than ideology, and fees are chosen.”

Most stakeholders – pensioners, students, faculty, foundation beneficiaries, charity recipients, board members – focus more on today’s headlines and the next budget or grant cycle than what might happen fifty years down the road.

Top institutional investors take a longer view. They temper their emotions, place well researched bets, and hold fast come rain or shine.

Serious matters

Phil Zecher at Michigan State University, for example, our featured chief investment officer in last year’s endowment report, took the helm ten years ago.  At that time the endowment ranked forty-two, flat in the middle.  Last year MSU’s endowment ranked eighth in our league tables.  This year MSU sits at number four.  Big moves worth millions.  Who says CIOs don’t matter?

Final thoughts

Chief investment officers, investment staffs (and OCIOs) earn serious money for their schools and cost a relative pittance to maintain.  Many college athletic programs, on the other hand, are staggeringly expensive as Matt Hayes recounts in USA Today, and their intrinsic contribution to academic health is debatable.

And yet, when coaches meet with college boards the rooms come alive. Excitement builds, time is forgotten, and everyone wants a selfie with these masters of the arena.

But, alas, when CIOs take their turn it’s back to dreary business.  Eyelids grow heavy, attention wanders.  Like that Philips’ bulb commercial, The Magic’s Gone.  Human nature I suppose, but still, endowments pay the bills and keep the lights on.

The U.S. has the greatest university system in the world, a true competitive advantage, thanks to generous donors and visionary leaders, and our endowments are a major source of financial support.  Chief investment officers, their staffs and outside managers play a vital role in this success.  Let’s show them some love. How about a selfie?

Endowment Performance 2025

We have grouped our endowment performance data into four sections:

122 US endowments over $1bn

23 US endowments, $500mm to $1bn

3 US endowments, non-June 30 FYs

9 Canadian endowments (CAD about $0.70 US)

OCIO firms manage twelve endowments over $1 billion and seven between $500 million and $1 billion among our cohort. They are highlighted in green.

A few public market indexes are included for context.

(Exhibit 3,Various Benchmark Indexes)

Updates and edits

Try as we might, there are bound to be errors. Please let us know. We will make the changes and send out an update in a few weeks. 

To all those who helped us, thank you. We greatly appreciate it.

—Charles Skorina

(download newsletter as PDF) (download tables as PDF)