The 2026 Endowment Allocation and OCIO Numbers, Reconciled

Last reviewed: 10 September 2026 — figures included as of 12 February 2026 (2025 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments)

Across the 657 institutions in the 2025 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments (released 12 February 2026, representing $944.3 billion in assets), the average institution allocated 31.5% to public equities and 54.5% to private and alternative strategies, spent an average effective rate of 4.9% of assets, and — per two independent outlets' reporting on the same study — 46.2% of institutions used an outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO), a figure that peaked at 61.3% among institutions with $101–250 million in assets and fell to zero above $5 billion.

Educational content only — not investment, legal, tax, or compliance advice. See the full note at the end of this article.

Why does this table exist?

Several figures about endowment asset allocation and OCIO penetration circulate online without a traceable source — a percentage here, a survey size there, none of them tied to a named study, a date, or a URL a reader can check. Before publishing this page, we tried to trace every figure we could find to an actual primary source. Some traced cleanly. Some did not, and those are left out rather than repeated as fact. What follows is built entirely on two named, dated sources: the 2025 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments (NCSE), released 12 February 2026 by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and Commonfund, and Cambridge Associates' own published survey work. This page complements our description of what a capital-introduction service does and does not do for a manager targeting endowments, and will be reviewed and updated each time a new edition of either source is released.

How much of a typical endowment's portfolio sits in private and alternative strategies?

The 2025 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments surveyed 657 U.S. colleges, universities, and affiliated foundations, representing $944.3 billion in total endowment assets (median endowment: $253.6 million). The study reported a one-year return of 10.9% and a 10-year annualized return of 7.7% for fiscal year 2025.

Source: NACUBO, "U.S. Higher Education Endowments Report Stable Returns, Increase Spending to $33.4 Billion in FY25," published 12 February 2026.

What share of institutions use an OCIO, and does it vary by size?

An outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) manages an institution's portfolio on its behalf, in place of — or alongside — an internal investment office. Per the 2025 NACUBO-Commonfund study, as reported by Chief Investment Officer (22 April 2026) and corroborated by PNC Insights (6 April 2026), 46.2% of institutions used an OCIO model overall. That average obscures a sharp pattern by size:

Source: Chief Investment Officer (ai-cio.com), "Smaller Staff, Fewer Resources Continue Driving OCIO Adoption Among Smaller Endowments," 22 April 2026, and PNC Insights, "Key Takeaways from the 2025 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments," 6 April 2026 — both reporting figures from the 2025 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments.

The pattern is directly useful for targeting: institutions in the $101–250 million range are, on average, the most likely to route a manager relationship through an OCIO rather than an internal team, while institutions above $5 billion in this study reported no OCIO use at all — those relationships run through an internal investment office.

What is the average endowment actually spending, and how has that moved?

Source: NACUBO, 12 February 2026 (same release as above). Total FY25 spending across the 657 institutions was $33.4 billion, an 11.0% increase year-over-year. What a rising spending rate means for how you size and time a pitch is covered in a companion piece on endowment spending-policy and liquidity constraints.

For additional context on liquidity discipline: Cambridge Associates' analysis of its endowment and foundation client base found the median institution carries uncalled capital commitments above 16% of its total portfolio, with average unfunded commitments running to roughly 70% of average private-investments net asset value (Cambridge Associates, "Portfolio Liquidity," 18 September 2019). A separate Cambridge Associates survey of 104 endowments and foundations, published 27 October 2025, found 80% followed their stated spending policy in 2025 (81% expected in 2026), with foundations overspending policy at a materially higher rate than the group overall — more than a quarter of foundations surveyed spent beyond policy in 2025.

What this table does not include, and why

Several figures on OCIO penetration and endowment allocation circulate publicly without a traceable primary source — a specific percentage attributed to "mid-size endowments," figures implied by a tracked-account database whose methodology is not published, and survey figures cited by name but not linked to an actual publication. We looked for the primary source behind each of these before drafting this page and could not independently verify them. They are not included here, and they are not implied by omission — this page simply does not address them, one way or the other, until a traceable source exists.

When was this last updated, and when will it refresh?

The figures above are current as of the NACUBO-Commonfund study's 12 February 2026 release and Cambridge Associates' 27 October 2025 and 18 September 2019 publications, as cited. This page is reviewed each time a new NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments is released — historically in February — and at each standing quarterly content review.

Frequently Asked Questions

What percentage of endowment assets are OCIO-managed?
Per the 2025 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments, as reported by Chief Investment Officer and PNC Insights, 46.2% of institutions used an outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) model. Adoption is not uniform: it peaks at 61.3% among institutions with $101–250 million in assets and falls to zero among institutions with more than $5 billion.

What is the average asset allocation for a university endowment?
Across the 657 institutions in the 2025 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments (released 12 February 2026), the average dollar-weighted allocation was 31.5% to public equities, 54.5% to private and alternative strategies, 11% to fixed income, and 3% to other assets.

What is the average endowment spending rate, and is it rising?
The average annual effective spending rate was 4.9% in fiscal year 2025, up from 4.8% in FY24 and 4.6% in FY23, per the same NACUBO-Commonfund study. Private institutions reported a higher average rate (5.4%) than public institutions and institutionally related foundations (4.1% each).

Where do these figures come from, and how often are they updated?
Every figure on this page is drawn from the 2025 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments (published 12 February 2026) or from Cambridge Associates' own dated survey work, with the publication and URL stated in the text. This page is reviewed each time a new NACUBO-Commonfund study is released, historically in February.

Why doesn't this page include every OCIO or allocation figure that circulates online?
Several figures about OCIO penetration and endowment allocation circulate without a traceable primary source. This page includes only figures that could be independently traced to a named, dated study — figures that could not be verified this way are left out rather than repeated as fact.

Educational content only. This article explains publicly available information about how endowment and foundation investment offices evaluate and select private-fund managers, for general information, current as of the "Last reviewed" date shown above. This article was researched and drafted with AI assistance, reviewed for accuracy before publication. It is not investment, legal, tax, or compliance advice, and nothing here recommends any allocation, consultant, program, or fund. Private Capital Development is not a placement agent, broker-dealer, or investment adviser; we do not conduct due diligence on funds or managers on a manager's behalf, and we cannot influence or bypass any OCIO's or investment consultant's manager-approval process. We connect fund managers and institutional investors through relationship facilitation on a flat-fee retainer paid by the manager; there is no success fee and no percentage of any commitment.

Private Capital Development, a Benefit LLC, is a Maryland-based firm founded in 2018 that connects private capital fund managers with institutional allocators through personal, one-to-one introductions. Capital Mobilization is the name of its capital-introduction practice.

We do not get you past an OCIO's or consultant's approved list, and we do not diligence funds on a manager's behalf — we build the manager-owned relationship an allocator can act on once the fit is right. Would you like a meeting?