Colleges and university endowments enjoyed an average 19.8 percent net return for the 2011 fiscal year ended June 30, 2011.
This performance easily enabled them to meet their spending needs. On average, the group spent 4.3 percent of assets, and the two largest endowments shelled out about 5 percent each.
These are among the preliminary findings of data gathered from 284 U.S. endowments by the Commonfund Institute and the National Association of College and University Business Officers. The full report is scheduled to be released in February 2012.
The 2011 performance comes on the heels of the previous year’s 11.9 percent return, net of fees, after losing 18.7 percent, on average, for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2009.
Are these endowments finally out of the woods? Not so fast.
Endowments are still at only an average of 86 percent of their value in fiscal year 2007. And despite the strong performance for fiscal 2011, the returns for five- and ten-year periods are only 5 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively, according to the study.....