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

All That’s Unseen charts the Harvard graduate’s uneasy journey from Appalachia to Cambridge and back.  

Singer Elisa Smith’s whiskey-soaked voice and subversive feminism is part of the genre’s urban shift.

Before a data center is built, Francesca Dominici and Le Xie aim to predict costs to the grid, the air, and the neighbors next door.

Explore More From Current Issue

Katie O’Dair in academic regalia holds a ceremonial staff outdoors at a graduation ceremony.

How Katie O’Dair makes kings, comedians, and parents feel welcome on campus.

Racing driver gives a thumbs up from inside a car, wearing a helmet and safety gear.

Harvard graduate and NASCAR racer Patrick Staropoli on pedals, attention, and fearlessness.

Massachusetts Hall at Harvard Red brick building with a large clock on top, surrounded by green trees.

With a grade inflation vote and in the courts, the University argued that it’s taking steps to change.