Overall, the endowment’s value, including gifts from donors and $959 million in payouts for University operations, fell 27 percent to approximately $12.6 billion in the fiscal year ending Aug. 31. The largest previous loss in Stanford endowment was a decline of 6.2 percent in 1974… The drop in Stanford’s endowment is comparable to that of Harvard, whose endowment value declined 30 percent, and Yale, whose endowment value fell 29 percent. The similar numbers are due to all three schools’ reliance on so-called alternative assets such as commodities, real estate and private equity, which outperformed market indexes prior to 2007 but are less liquid than stocks and bonds. The investment strategy was largely pioneered by Yale’s chief investment officer, David Swensen.

Read full article [here].
by Joanna Xu, The Stanford Daily.

Posted: September 29th, 2009, by: admin. Categories: . Awaiting Comments.