Articles

The Risks and Opportunities of the Influx of Retail Capital into Private Markets

Issa Brandt — Tue, 12 May 2026 13:00:00 GMT

For decades, private markets have delivered a meaningful premium over public equities, compensating investors for illiquidity and the patience required for long-term investing.

The Case for Student-Managed Investment Funds

Commonfund Institute — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 13:30:01 GMT

Real life, real money, real rewards: Student-managed investment funds bring hands-on portfolio management to the college campus.

The Strategic Risk of Skipping a Vintage in Private Equity

Felipe Arguello — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 15:00:00 GMT

Private equity (inclusive of buyouts, growth equity, and venture capital) remains a compelling long-term asset class, but recent periods of muted distributions and below-average returns have created a dilemma for investors: how should future private equity commitments be sized?

CIO Roundtable: Meeting Complexity and Uncertainty with Clarity

cfinfo@commonfund.org (Commonfund) — Fri, 09 May 2025 13:00:00 GMT

A foundation, a university and an insurance company operate in different worlds and have different priorities—but make investment decisions in the same environment

Institutions depend on their endowments to provide the financial resources to fulfill their missions. Fiduciaries, in turn, depend on making thoughtful, well-informed decisions to deliver the needed returns. Yet investment portfolios become ever more complex and the global economic and political environment becomes increasingly uncertain. How do CIOs and others charged with investment decisions manage in this environment? The CIO Roundtable at Commonfund Forum 2025 plumbed the depths of that question. The panelists were Sonali Dalai, Vice President and CIO, University of St. Thomas, Minnesota; Susan Manske, CIO, MacArthur Foundation and a member of the Commonfund Board of Trustees; and Chris Montgomery, Vice President and CIO, Grange Insurance Company. Mark Anson, Chief Executive Officer, Commonfund, moderated the discussion. Portions of the discussion have been omitted or condensed for ease of readership.

Insights from Institutionally-Related Foundations

allison.kaspriske@commonfund.org (Allison Kaspriske) — Fri, 02 May 2025 17:06:48 GMT

Last month at Commonfund Forum 2025, we convened senior leaders of institutionally-related foundations (IRFs) to discuss trends among their institutions and peers uncovered in the FY2024 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments (NCSE). During the meeting members of the Commonfund OCIO team reviewed key findings in the data from long-term performance, asset allocation, and other metrics specific and unique to IRFs. The presentation then facilitated greater conversation around challenges and shared strategies for navigating the current investment landscape.

Portfolio Construction in the Era of the Mag 7 | Commonfund

cfinfo@commonfund.org (Commonfund) — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 14:00:00 GMT

How do you build your U.S. equities allocation when a handful of stocks account for more than half of the S&P 500’s return?

The aptly named Magnificent 7 stocks (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, NVIDIA and Tesla) represented 34 percent of the total capitalization of the S&P 500 Index in 2024—double what it was five years ago. This Commonfund Forum 2025 panel discussion dissected the challenges and potential solutions associated with such historically high concentration. The panelists were: Jeff Blumberg, CEO, Egerton Capital; John Thorndike, Co-Head of Asset Allocation, GMO; and Peter Stournaras, Co-Head, Global Equity Portfolio Management, T. Rowe Price. The panel was moderated by Mark Bennett, Managing Director, Commonfund OCIO. Portions of the discussion have been omitted or condensed for ease of readership.

Thinking Outside the Benchmark

Mark J.P. Anson — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 13:00:00 GMT

Twenty years ago, Mark authored an article published in The Journal of Portfolio Management titled "Thinking Outside the Benchmark" to describe a new way of pension fund management. He concluded the following:

Pension plans need to eliminate the restrictions associated with traditional asset allocation.
Traditional asset allocation models partition the financial markets into convenient benchmark boxes, but these boxes can inhibit alpha extraction.
Look for investment opportunities that fall between the benchmark boxes of traditional asset allocation and are driven by economic factors rather than asset class descriptions.
Pension funds should deemphasize their investment organizational structure along traditional asset class lines. Build teams of investment staff that bridge asset classes.
Consider the risk of peer group underperformance. Strict asset allocation reduces the risk of underperformance compared with standard benchmarks, but it also reduces the opportunity to outperform a peer group.
Focus of the total return of the pension portfolio rather than individual asset classes.

Top Concerns for Community Foundations: Donor-Advised Fund Regulations

Commonfund Institute — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 13:00:00 GMT

Potential regulations on donor-advised funds (DAFs) and their effect on the philanthropic sector was the most-cited concern among community foundations in this year’s Council on Foundations–Commonfund Study of Investment of Endowments for Private and Community Foundations® (CCSF; the “Study”), with 39 percent of community foundations responding that it is one of their top two current concerns.

Viewpoint | Top Concerns for Private Foundations: Financial Volatility and Target Returns

Commonfund Institute — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 13:00:00 GMT

In this year’s Council on Foundations–Commonfund Study of Investment of Endowments for Private and Community Foundations® (CCSF; the “Study”) we asked a new question: What are the top two current concerns to your institution?

Policy Areas Impacting Endowments and Foundations Today

Amanda Novello — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 13:00:00 GMT

Commonfund Institute aims to lift up and provide insight into how significant policy developments may impact nonprofit institutional investors. In the prior article, we covered implications of the Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action in higher education, a debt ceiling resolution that ended the 2020 student debt payment pause, The Charitable Act, and developments in policies related to investing with a lens toward diverse managers and environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors.