Category: Investments and funds. Country: United States (USA).
The founding of Commonfund is one of the exciting stories of innovation in financial institutions. To understand why, return to the late 1960s. In this era, investment returns from college endowments persistently lagged the rate of growth in operating budgets. There was increasing concern throughout higher education regarding the future vitality of private institutions. And, many institutions faced problems of faculty compensation and deferred maintenance. A final challenge was that traditional endowment management hampered trustees’ ability to address these issues. But change was in the air. Thought leaders of the day were looking at the then-new concept of total return and thinking about relaxing the old personal trust discipline and allowing a college to set its own spending rate. One study, Managing Educational Endowment, concluded that poor results were due to placing a primary emphasis on avoiding losses and maximizing current income. The Ford Foundation sponsored a landmark study, The Law and the Lore of Endowment Funds, published in 1969, that served as a further catalyst for action. Out of this came a Ford Foundation grant of $2.8 million for the founding of The Common Fund for Nonprofit Organizations (Commonfund). Two years later, in 1971. The Common Fund was officially founded. Of the $2.8 million, $500,000 was earmarked for research and publications - a tradition that continues today. By July 1, 1971, the first day of operations, a total of 63 endowments had invested $72 million. We also launched our first investment fund, the Multi-Strategy Equity Fund.
Address: 101 East Redlands Boulevard Suite 252 Redlands, California CA, Phone: 92373 4725
