The past decade has demonstrated the benefit of the endowment model.  Between July 2015 and June 2025, the endowment has contributed an aggregate of $444 million to the university’s operating budget while also compounding the value of the portfolio from $885 million to $1.669 billion.  This growth has helped accomplish the endowment’s goal of ensuring adequate funding for current university programs while also strengthening the university for future generations of Santa Clara students. 

The Santa Clara endowment returned +10.5% for Fiscal 2025, which trailed the +12.7% return of the policy portfolio. Over the last ten years, the endowment has returned +9.3% annualized, which compares favorably to the +7.6% return of the policy portfolio.  Compared to endowments with greater than $1B in assets, Santa Clara’s endowment exceeded the Fiscal 2025 one-year median return of 10.4%, as measured by Cambridge Associates.

Frank Tessier, Santa Clara’s Chief Investment Officer noted, “We are pleased with the investment results of the SCU Endowment over the past year, with the performance just surpassing the median of our peer institutions. It is normal for the endowment to occasionally underperform its policy portfolio over shorter time horizons, as we focus on long-term returns and outperformance over a full market cycle. However, we are not satisfied; while the endowment remains strong, we are constantly striving to improve it, adding world-class managers and assets, and evolving the portfolio as the market changes.”

The Investment Office remains keenly focused on risk management to ensure that the portfolio is safe in most any economic environment. The endowment retains a healthy posture, with an appropriate mix of diversification among return-generating assets and defensive liquidity.