Study: Operating Charity Investment Returns Rise to an Average of 15.1 Percent in Fiscal Year 2013

Also as mentioned, by asset class/strategy, domestic equities returned 31.1 percent; international equities, 17.3 percent; alternative strategies, 10.5 percent; short-term securities/cash/other, 0.0 percent; and fixed income, -0.7 percent.

Within the broad alternatives category, distressed debt produced the highest return, at 15.6 percent. This was followed by marketable alternative strategies (hedge funds, absolute return, market neutral, long/short, 130/30, event-driven and derivatives), at 13.5 percent, and by private equity (leveraged buyouts, mezzanine debt, M&A funds and international private equity), at 10.3 percent. Venture capital and private equity real estate (non-campus) both generated a return of 9.9 percent, while energy and natural resources returned 5.0 percent. The only negative return among alternative strategies came from commodities and managed futures, at -7.1 percent.