Alternative investments — including private equity, hedge funds, venture capital, oil-and-gas partnerships, timber, and real estate — are all the rage among endowments' investment managers.
The Wildlife Conservation Society's John G. Hoare at the Bronx Zoo: "By being in hedge funds we didn't take a big hit" in the bear market. (Photograph by Chris Casaburi)

How nonprofit endowments have fared, and how they are invested.

• DATABASE: The full results from a Chronicle survey of 247 organizations.

Over the last 20 years, fund raising at the Curtis Institute of Music has crescendoed to impressive effect.

Finances at Dickinson College looked gloomy a decade ago. A new president brightened that forecast.

World Vision is one of America's largest charities, but for philosophical and religious reasons, it has only recently — and carefully — started an endowment.

Commentary

When endowments grow huge relative to operating budgets, institutions' purposes can become distorted, says Mark B. Schneider, a physics professor at Grinnell College. (Illustration by Tim Foley)

Investing in hedge funds carries risks, but so does ruling out the possibility, say David M. Matteson and Jeffrey Blumberg, of Gardner Carton & Douglas LLP.

Many small private colleges thrive with modest endowments, writes Richard Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges.

With standard portfolios forecast to stagnate, endowment managers eye real estate, private equities, hedge funds, and other alternative investments to beef up performance.

Commentary

Sometimes intergenerational equity is better served by spending than by investing in the market, say Henry Riggs and Timothy Warner.
(Illustration by Julie Delton)

Constant capital campaigns can leave donors, staff members, and volunteers weary and wary, warns Diana S. Newman.

Organizations are finding their investment methods, not just their returns, under increasing scrutiny, write L. Robert Guenthner, Kathleen Nilles, and Sheldon E. Steinbach.

Christine K. Galloway thinks many investment committees are in over their heads and should seek help from outside managers.

A Chronicle survey provides the first in-depth look at the performance and investment policies of 187 of the nation's wealthiest nonprofit institutions.

Information on endowments, including returns, market value, operating budgets, and grants awarded.

• MEASURING ENDOWMENTS: How the survey was conducted.
  

A growing number of critics are asking tough questions about how much nonprofit groups should save and spend.

Philanthropic foundations face intense pressures to increase the amount they give to charities.

Long-term fund-raising and spending strategies are more important than investment returns, a new study finds.

Key investment terms.

PRO & CON: Moral Considerations in Investing

• SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: Investing with a conscience has become a mainstream practice, writes Maria Markham Thompson.
• 'SIN SCREENING': Applying a moral test to investing is ineffective at best and harmful at worst, writes Kevin Hassett.

PRO & CON: Are Endowments a Good Idea?

• POOR ENDOWMENT STRATEGY: Bigger is not necessarily better, writes Henry Hansmann.
• SIZE MATTERS: Endowments are a necessity, not a luxury, writes Dennis R. Hammond.