Endowments & foundations

Brown University endowment’s investments returned 19% in the past fiscal year, according to information on the school’s website. The endowment was valued at $2.5 billion as of June 30, after $69 million in new gifts and $111 million in spending, the Providence, R.I., school said in a statement on

There's been a whirlwind of activity among chief investment officers in large public, academic and non-profit plans as approximately three dozen CIO jobs have opened up or been filled within a baker's dozen of months.

Sylvia Mathews Burwell was named president of the Walmart Foundation, Bentonville, Ark., effective in January 2012, according to a foundation news release. She succeeds Margaret McKenna , who is retiring. Ms. Burwell will lead the company's charitable giving efforts and direct Walmart's Global

Columbia University’s endowment returned 23.6% on its investments for the year ended June 30, up from 17.3% a year earlier, confirmed Robert Hornsby, a spokesman for the New York-based university. The annualized return over 10 years was 9.9% for the investment portfolio managed by Columbia

Princeton University's endowment posted a 21.9% return on investments for the fiscal year ended June 30, up from a 14.7% return a year earlier, according to the university's website. The $17.1 billion endowment's average annualized 10-year return is 9.8%, the website said. Assets climbed 18.8%

Worldwide institutional assets under management rose 10% in 2010 to a record $79.27 trillion, according to estimates by TheCityUK, a U.K. financial services trade organization. The increase was driven primarily by insurance assets, which shot up $4.25 trillion, or 20.9%, to $24.63 trillion. Pension

University of Chicago’s endowment returned 18.8% in the fiscal year ended June 30, confirmed spokesman Steve Kloehn. It is the second straight year of positive returns for the $6.3 billion endowment, which returned 19% in the year ended June 30, 2010. The endowment also reported annualized returns

The California Endowment, Los Angeles, committed $10 million to venture capital fund DBL Investors II, endowment spokesman Jeff Okey. The fund invests in clean technology, information technology, health care and sustainability companies, according to a joint release. The endowment’s commitment

According to a Preqin survey released Monday, 396 foundations are actively investing in hedge funds, allocating on average about 16% of their assets to the asset class. Long/short equity is the most popular strategy employed, with 48% of respondents investing in the strategy.

Six of the nation's largest endowments have reported performance of their endowment investments for the fiscal year ended June 30. All six endowments showed strong double-digit returns, with Duke University leading the group with a 24.5% return. The accompanying table highlights their investment

A guiding principle of the Oklahoma State University Foundation could be: you can never worry too much about a bad thing.

Endowments at Yale University and Duke University both reported investment gains well over 20% for the fiscal year ended June 30. New Haven, Conn.-based Yale returned 22%, helping increase its endowment assets to $19.4 billion, from $16.7 billion a year earlier, according to an e-mail to Bloomberg