Northwestern University's long-term balanced pool of endowment assets returned a net 37% for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31.
The $14.9 billion pool's performance well exceeded its composite benchmark return of 30.2% for the period, according to the Evanston, Ill.-based university's annual financial report.
For the three, five and 10 years ended Aug. 31, the pool returned an annualized net 14.6%, 13.1% and 10.2%, respectively, above the respective benchmarks of 13.8%, 12.6% and 9.7%.
The university's pool of endowment assets had returned a net 7.1% for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2020.
For the most recent fiscal year, the financial report did not provide specific asset class return and benchmark information. However, the report noted that while the 37% net return "was heavily influenced by extremely positive results from several venture capital and growth equity managers, there were broad-based contributions across the long-term balanced pool in both absolute terms and relative to benchmarks."
As of Aug. 31, the pool's actual allocation was 35.9% private investments, 15.6% international equities, 14.7% absolute return, 12.8% real assets, 11.9% domestic equities, 5.3% fixed income and 3.8% cash.
