Endowment Performance

Since Harvard Management Company established its current, highly diversified asset mix and investment strategies for the endowment in 1991...

Since Harvard Management Company established its current, highly diversified asset mix and investment strategies for the endowment in 1991, financial returns have been strong—and handsomely ahead of market results in general. The annualized rate of return for the past five years (even including the losses in fiscal years 2001 and 2002) is 11.8 percent—more than twice market benchmarks. For the past decade, the annualized rate of return has been 15.9 percent, 4 points more than market returns.  
Chart by Stephen Anderson
   

Most popular

The Trouble with Sidechat

No one feels responsible for what happens on Harvard’s anonymous social media app.

Harvard’s Productivity Trap

What happened to doing things for the sake of enjoyment?

A Cap on A’s at Harvard? Students and Faculty Raise Concerns at Town Hall

Dozens debate the grade inflation proposal that faculty will discuss next week.

Explore More From Current Issue

Illustration of a person sitting on a large cresting wave, writing, with a sunset and ocean waves in vibrant colors.

How Stories Help Us Cope with Climate Change

The growing genre of climate fiction offers a way to process reality—and our anxieties.

Firefighters battling flames at a red building, surrounded by smoke and onlookers.

Yesterday’s News

How a book on fighting the “Devill World” survived Harvard’s historic fire.

A woman in a black blazer holds a bottle of beer.

Introductions: Mallika Monteiro

A conversation with a beer industry executive