Venture capital helps Williams College beat return benchmark in 2011

The endowment of Williams College, Boston, had a 20.2% return for the fiscal year ended June 30, while the policy portfolio benchmark returned 18.4%. Returns were powered by global long equities, which returned 28.6% and had a policy weight of 26%. All other non-fixed-income asset classes had double-digit returns for the year. Endowment assets stood at $1.8 billion at fiscal year-end.

The endowment's venture capital investments had a phenomenal year, returning 51.2% in the year ended June 30, 2011. According to the endowment's annual report, venture capital performance in fiscal 2011 was, “driven largely by Internet companies, including social media companies.” The five-year annualized return for the portfolio is more than 15%. This compares to the 7.37% return of the Cambridge Associates LLC U.S. Venture Capital index for the five years ended June 30.

There were only minor changes to policy asset class weights for fiscal year 2012, with absolute return increasing one percentage point and non-investment-grade fixed income decreasing one percentage point.