Fundfire Highlights University Endowments with the Best and Worst Returns in FY24

Recently Fundfire published an article, which compares the highest and lowest returns among the biggest university endowments with more than $1 billion in assets for the year ending in June 2024. 

Princeton University's $34.1 billion endowment reported the lowest one-year returns of the large endowments at 3.9%. Other large institutions, like Yale University and Stanford University, also fell near the bottom of the rankings.  

Robert Raben, executive director and founder of the Diverse Asset Managers Initiative (DAMI) -- an effort to bolster racial and gender representation in the asset managers industry -- issued the following statement in response: 

“While correlation is not causation, we at DAMI are intrigued that the worst performers on diversity—Princeton, Stanford and Yale—had the worst returns. The stark difference in returns between the highest and lowest performers might signal to the worst performers that working with women and people of color might serve their fiduciary duty better."