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Foundation endowments continued a three-year growth spurt, with 171 private foundations boosting holdings by 14.1% during calendar 2025, up from 10.3% for 2024. Similarly, endowments at 114 community foundations surveyed grew 14.7%, up from 11% during 2024.
The three-year growth streak marks the longest stretch that private and community foundations experienced double-digit percentage growth, according to data in the annual Council on Foundations–Commonfund Study of Investment of Endowments for Private and Community Foundations. The growth marks steady improvement from 2022, when the data showed the lowest average returns on record. As the report authors noted, “[t]railing three- and five-year annualized returns rebounded sharply in 2025, largely because the poor performance of 2022 rolled off the calculation window.” Percentage return data is reported net of fees.
“Foundations are in a strong position to weather whatever volatility comes next, but the long-term picture stands out most,” said Kathleen Enright, president and CEO of the Council on Foundations and George Suttles, executive director of Commonfund Institute via a joint statement. “With two years of 15- and 20-year data now in hand, we’re seeing evidence that foundations are able to sustain their endowments over time which enables them to fund in ways that serve communities now and for decades to come.”
There are some differences in how private and community foundations allocate their assets. Private foundations held around 25% of their assets in U.S. equities during 2025, on par with 2024’s allocation. They pulled back slightly from fixed income assets, which last year made up 10.3% of assets, compared with 13% a year earlier.
Private foundations upped their position in non-U.S. equities from 14% during 2024 to 16.3% last year, while also putting a little bit more toward alternative strategies such as venture capital, energy and natural resources, distressed debt and private real estate (45% during 2024, 45.8% in 2025). They boosted short-term securities and cash holdings from 2% during 2024 to 2.7% during 2025.
Community foundations, more or less, held their allocations steady, with one notable exception. Community foundations had 38% of assets in U.S. equities during 2024. This ticked up to 38.9% last year. Fixed-income assets inched up from 16% during 2024 to 17.4% Non-U.S. equities holdings made up 20% of asset allocations during 2025, a little bit more than the 18% this category represented for 2024. Short-term securities and cash holdings, which had been at 3% during 2024, rose to 3.2% during 2025.
These increases came largely as community foundations cut back their holdings in the alternative strategies category, which dropped from 25% in 2024 to 20.5% last year.
Investment properties that scored high on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria continued to make gains as important considerations when allocating funds. The percentage of private foundations seeking to invest in opportunities that ranked ESG considerations highly was 28% last year, compared with 26% during 2024 and 20% in 2018. Among community foundations, high-ESG opportunities were prioritized by 26%, up from 25% in 2024 and 20% in 2018.
Conversely, 25% of private foundations and 10% of community foundations sought to screen out investments inconsistent with their missions, compared with 23% and 12% respectively in 2024 and 12% and 13%, respectively, during 2018.
Community foundations are public charities, and as such they accept gifts and donations and conduct fundraising. Last year (2025) marked the second consecutive year that more community foundations reported an increase in gifts (51%) than a decrease (34%). Among those reporting increases, median percentage growth in gifts was 79% over 2024, compared with a 34% drop among those reporting decreases.
A full copy of the report is available here: https://bit.ly/4c409gJ
