University endowments saw an average 11.2% net return for Fiscal Year 2024, according to the 2024 NACUBO-Commonfund Study. Harvard's endowment remained #1 at $52 billion.

One-year returns averaged more than 11 percent for fiscal 2024. But the future remains murky for the higher ed sector, which faces funding cuts and a potential endowment tax.

But a lousy fiscal year in 2022, when endowments were battered by stock market losses, produced an average loss of 8%. That is dragging down the three-year average gain to 3.4%. “Fiscal 2022 is going to stick with us for a while,