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Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York:

It's no secret that investors had a hard time with investment performance in 2015 and data for foundations was no better. According to data from the 2015 Council on Foundations–Commonfund Study of Investment of Endowments for Private and Community Foundations participating private foundations reported an average return of 0.0 percent for the 2015 fiscal year (January 1 – December 31, 2015), down from the 6.1 percent return reported for FY2014, while participating community foundations reported an average annual return of -1.8 percent compared with 4.8 percent for FY2014.

Despite the abrupt slide in returns, the effective spending rates that foundations have for their missions has remained unchanged at 5.1 percent.

This is the second consecutive year that foundation returns have been down. Private foundations had reported an average return of 15.6 percent for FY2013, while community foundations had reported an average return of 15.2 percent for the same period.

"If you are looking for a return significant enough to maintain your foundation, the actual return for the past few years has been well below what you need to do to achieve that," said Bill Jarvis, CEO of the Commonfund Institute during a presentation of the results for the media.

228 foundations participated in the study representing combined assets of $100.6 billion. This is the fourth year Commonfund and the Council on Foundations have done the study.

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