Clemson University Foundation's $1.1 billion consolidated endowment fund returned a net 11.9% for the fiscal year ended June 30.
The return exceeded its policy benchmark return of 10.8% for the period, according to an endowment annual report posted on the website of the Clemson, S.C.-based foundation.
For the three and five years ended June 30, the endowment returned an annualized net 5.1% and 9.7%, respectively, above the respective benchmarks of 4.1% and 8.6%.
The endowment had returned a net 8.5% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2023.
For the most recent fiscal year, the return was well above the median return of 9.8% among the 42 college and university endowments whose returns have been tracked by Pensions & Investments as of Nov. 7.
The report did not provide further information regarding the primary drivers of outperformance, but it is likely the endowment's actual allocation of 37% to domestic equities as of June 30 was beneficial. For the year ended June 30, the Russell 3000 index returned 23.1%.
The rest of the actual allocation as of June 30 was 17% private equity, 16% hedge funds, 8% international equities, 7% fixed income, 5% commodities, 4% cash, 3% private real assets, 2% natural resources and 1% public real estate.
