Based in Connecticut, Commonfund is an American
asset management
Asset management is a systematic approach to the governance and realization of value from the things that a group or entity is responsible for, over their whole life cycles. It may apply both to tangible assets (physical objects such as buildings ...
firm founded in 1971 with a seed grant from the
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...
. As a private nonprofit organization, the firm manages customized investment programs for endowments, foundations, public pension funds, and other mission-driven institutions.
The organization has additional offices in New York City, San Francisco, London, and Beijing.
Along with
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
CIO
David F. Swensen, Commonfund helped pioneer applying the "endowment model" of investing to institutional investor portfolios. As of 2021, Commonfund had approximately US$28 billion in assets under management. Commonfund is currently the second-largest manager of outsourced endowment assets in the U.S. (surpassed only by
the Vanguard Group
The Vanguard Group, Inc. is an American registered investment advisor based in Malvern, Pennsylvania, with about $7 trillion in global assets under management, as of January 13, 2021. It is the largest provider of mutual funds and the second-lar ...
).
Commonfund also operates the Commonfund Institute, which provides the investment management field with investment research and professional development programs such as the Commonfund Benchmark Studies, the Commonfund
Higher Education Price Index
The Higher Education Price Index (HEPI) is a measure of the inflation rate applicable to United States higher education. HEPI measures the average relative level in the prices of a fixed market basket of goods and services typically purchased by ...
(HEPI), the Commonfund Forum, and the Investment Stewardship Academy. The company is active in the fields of responsible and
impact investing
Impact investing refers to investing, investments "made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate a measurable, beneficial social or environmental impact alongside a financial return". At its core, impact investing is ...
as well.
References
External links
Commonfund Institute
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1971 establishments in Connecticut
Non-profit organizations based in Connecticut
Investment management companies of the United States