Endowment Radar Study 2025: A Widening Divide
The 2025 Endowment Radar Study reveals a widening divide: well-endowed institutions have more capacity to deliver their mission, while those with smaller endowments face growing financial vulnerability.
Endowment and Foundation Series
Higher Endowment Spending Needed for Some in Challenging Environment
A recent Cambridge Associates survey of 104 endowments and foundations reveals that most institutions are adhering to their endowment spending policies, with 80% following policy in 2025 and 81% expected to do so in 2026.
New Taxes on Endowments and Foundations? Four Steps to Take Now
New tax provisions in legislation recently passed by the US House of Representatives would impose millions of dollars of new costs on many colleges, universities, and private foundations, if enacted. We recommend four steps nonprofit organizations can consider right now to ensure they are well-prepared and responsive should the proposals become law
Endowment Radar Study 2024: Why Colleges and Universities Have Endowments
Endowment spending is a dependable source of revenue that pays for teaching and research and reduces reliance on student fees and annual fundraising appeals. In 2025, this sustainable business model faces intense headwinds that threaten to destabilize the financial equation.
Endowments Quarterly: Fourth Quarter 2024
Our quarterly report summarizes asset allocation and total investment performance for 391 of Cambridge Associates’ US endowment and foundation clients.
The Divestment Question: Focus on Governance
This paper offers considerations for how to manage calls for divestment and raises questions that need to be answered to respond clearly and effectively to divestment requests. To navigate tumultuous times and passionate entreaties, we believe institutions need to lean into good governance.
Endowment Radar Study 2023: Endowment Dependence Grows with Higher Costs
Higher costs and higher rates of endowment spending are the major story lines of the 2023 Endowment Radar Study. Over the past year, the endowment provided a stable source of funding to for the growing costs of private college and university business model.
The Transformative Public University Endowment
In today’s dynamic funding and operating environment, a lot is at stake for public colleges and universities and their endowments. The endowment is more than a static funding source; it plays a strategic and expanding role in the public university business model, and with strong stewardship, a growing endowment can transform a university’s financial equation.
Endowment Spending Amid Record Inflation
Inflation is having a moment—driving up the costs of delivering the nonprofit mission and making it more challenging to maintain endowment purchasing power. This environment highlights the importance of endowment spending policies and their role in balancing near-term spending needs and intergenerational equity.
Endowment Radar Study 2022: A Dynamic Role
Our 2022 Endowment Radar Study reflects the important role of the endowment in the dynamic private college and university business model. The endowment played a relatively smaller role in supporting growing operating budgets and financial aid commitments compared to 2021.