Wellesley Endowment Returns 7.8% in Fiscal 2024

Wellesley College reported that its endowment returned 7.8% in fiscal 2024. Assets of the endowment increased to $2.982 billion at the end of June, up from $2.889 billion at the close of the prior fiscal year.

Much of the endowment’s returns came from public equities, which produced an 18.2% return. Semi-marketable assets returned 9.8%, and cash and equivalents returned 5.6%. Long-term alternatives in the portfolio returned 1.9%, and fixed income returned negative 5.2%.

In fiscal 2023, the fund returned 4.2%, and in fiscal 2022, it declined 9.6%. The endowment provided Wellesley, a women’s college of 2,300 undergraduates based about 16 miles west of Boston in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with 43% of its operating revenue in fiscal 2024.

While the fund did not provide an up-to-date asset allocation, as of June 30, 2022, the fund allocated 25% of its assets to public equities, 48% to long-term alternatives, 18% to semi-marketable assets and 8% to fixed income and cash.

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Like many other endowments with alternative-heavy portfolios, Wellesley’s endowment has posted returns in the mid-high single digits. The endowment of Duke University returned 8% in the 2024 fiscal year, while the endowments of Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University returned 8.4%, 7.1% and 5.6%, respectively.