2021 NACUBO-TIAA Study of Endowments

Nacubo

Research

16 Pages

TIAA and NACUBO analyze how US college and university endowments invested and performed in fiscal 2021. The piece highlights how stronger markets and heavier allocations to private markets shaped results and spending, while also touching on governance and policy issues that drive outcomes across institution sizes.

Date Published: May 20, 2021

Key Takeaways

Endowment objectives: Endowments aim to fund current spending while preserving inflation adjusted purchasing power over very long horizons.
Allocation structure: Larger institutions lean heavily into private equity, venture capital and real assets, while smaller peers hold more public stocks and bonds.
Policy and governance: Spending rules, rebalancing discipline and risk oversight are central drivers of long term performance differences across institutions.
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