Foundations & endowments

Cambridge Associates partner Tom Mitchell describes the LP experience amid a period of slow distributions and fast-moving news.

Leader at Brown Advisory, which manages $12bn in assets for endowments and foundations, says LPs are anxious about a concentration of AI exposure in public markets and are leaning more heavily into venture this year to diversify high-growth assets.

The largest known VC fund commitment in 2025 was $225m – 38% less than the biggest known commitment of the previous year.

Several US endowments undergoing a venture program ramp-up are enjoying flexibility, access and the potential for a market turnaround.

Our LP Perspectives 2026 Study shows most LPs have no plans to cut back on commitments to venture, even though half say their VC holdings are underperforming benchmarks.

Former PE head Joanna Rupp played a key role in building out the endowment's VC portfolio, which includes funds from Sequoia Capital, Pear VC, MFV Partners, Golden Venture Partners and Red Arts Capital.

Venture Capital Journal surveyed 117 institutional investors worldwide to find out what is most – and least – important to investors in venture funds.

Colleges on average allocated 30 percent of their portfolios to private equity and venture capital, according to the 2022 NACUBO-TIAA Study of Endowments.

As the tech sector has soured, so has investors’ appetite for venture funds, according to our annual survey of limited partners.

Private and community foundations, which enjoyed massive returns from venture capital last year, anticipate increasing their allocations to private equity at higher rates than other asset classes over the next three years, according to fresh research from Commonfund Institute.