Brown University, Providence, R.I., on Thursday reported a net 12.1% return for its $4.7 billion endowment for the fiscal year ended June 30.
The return surpassed its benchmark portfolio's preliminary 3.1% return. Annualized returns for the endowment for three, five, 10 and 20 years are 12.6%, 9.8%, 10.2% and 8.1%, respectively.
The endowment returned a net 12.4% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2019.
Brown University vice president and chief investment officer Jane Dietze credited partnerships with investment managers and an emphasis on risk management as the key to outperforming in an extraordinarily volatile year related to COVID-19.
"This has been a year filled with unique challenges for Brown and for communities across higher education," Ms. Dietze said in a statement. "We're grateful to an outstanding group of external investment managers who collectively have exercised measured judgment in the face of historic volatility in the financial markets, and to our investment committee for the steady guidance it provides year after year."
Brown University officials are anticipating fiscal year 2021 financial losses of $100 to $165 million related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and have increased the endowment's contribution to the operating budget for the coming fiscal year.
