The Yale Endowment’s 2018 Annual Report

The Yale Endowment is the second biggest university endowment in the world valued at $29.4 billion as of June 30, 2018. It is often considered the best-performing endowment in the US higher education. Its CIO is David Swensen, an investor, and philanthropist. The Yale Endowment consists of thousands of funds, with around three-quarters being true endowment and one-quarter being the money for investing. Recently, the endowment published its 2018 Annual Report, a copy of which you can download below. We bring you one part of it:

“Yale’s Endowment generated a 12.3% return, net of fees, in fiscal 2018. Over the past ten years, the Endowment grew from $22.9 billion to $29.4 billion. With annual returns of 7.4% during the ten-year period, the Endowment’s performance exceeded its benchmark and outpaced institutional fund indices. For six of the past ten years, Yale’s ten-year record ranked first in the Cambridge Associates universe.

Spending from the Endowment grew during the last decade from $850 million to $1.3 billion, an annual growth rate of 4.2%. Next year, spending will amount to $1.4 billion, or 34% of projected revenues. Yale’s spending and investment policies provide substantial levels of cash flow to the operating budget for current scholars, while preserving Endowment purchasing power for future generations.”

You can download a copy of The Yale Endowment’s 2018 Annual Report on this link:

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55db7b87e4b0dca22fba2438/t/5c8b09008165f55d4bec1a36/1552615684090/2018+Yale+Endowment.pdf

You can also see the list of our 2019 Q1 investor letters and download them on this page.