Endowment Oversight within the Ivys

The eight Ivy League endowments averaged 8.3% return in fiscal 12 months 2023-24 (July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024). Comparable faculties like Stanford and MIT returned 8.4% and eight.9% respectively.  In sharp distinction, the S&P 500 gained 23.5% for a similar interval, virtually triple the Ivies.

To make issues worse, universities allocate tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} from their common revenues to their fund managers.  Take Stanford, for instance.  Its monetary property are managed by the Stanford Administration Firm.  For the present 2024/25 fiscal 12 months, the Provost allotted $56.7 million to SMC.  Through the years these allocations have amounted to lots of of hundreds of thousands.  Its head earns over $5 million a 12 months.  The workers numbers 59 individuals, employed to fulfill the College’s Variety, Fairness, and Inclusion necessities.  Its investments should additionally fulfill the College’s environmental issues.

What about long-term comparisons for common annual returns?

Time            SMC        S&P 500

5 years        9.9%         11.3%

10 years     8.6%         15.2%

20 years     9.3%         10.5%

Why the distinction?  SMC invests in non-public fairness, actual property, and bonds, with a a lot smaller share in publicly listed equities.  It should additionally take DEI and Environmental issues into consideration.  Like generals preventing the earlier conflict, fund managers make investments on the outdated mannequin.

Boards of Trustees have oversight on their endowment managers, often delegated to Committees on Finance and Funding.  Over a 3rd of Stanford Trustees are within the cash administration enterprise.  One would assume that adjustments should be made amongst endowment fund managers when their budgets of tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} lead to returns that pale in efficiency in opposition to the S&P 500 .  In any case, each college claims that it must be accountable stewards of their donors presents.

Blunting any change is the fact that serving as a Trustee of one of many nice universities on this planet conveys monumental status within the philanthropic world.  What most Trustees need is their identify on a constructing, on a number of endowed professorships, and on analysis facilities and institutes.  At Stanford, for instance, a 3rd of all professorships are named (endowed) and most buildings on campus are named.  Barring a monetary shock just like the 2008-09 Nice Recession or a serious scandal, Trustees usually depart the administration of their universities to their Presidents, Provosts, Deans, and schools.  The Ivies, Stanford, and MIT are blessed with fabulously rich alumni who’re prone to donate recent cash yearly.