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Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York:

Data from the recently released 2016 Council on Foundations-Commonfund Study of Investment of Endowments for Private and Community Foundations (CCSF) show that foundations returns have improved slightly. According to the report, private foundations reported an average return of 6.4 percent for the 2016 fiscal year (January 1 - December 31, 2016) while participating community foundations reported an average return of 7.3 percent for the same period.

Both returns were higher than those reported for FY2014 and FY2015. For the 2015 fiscal year, report data shows that private foundations reported an average return of 0.0 percent, while participating community foundations reported a -1.8 percent average return. Comparable returns for 2014 were 6.1 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively.

"Investment returns for 2016 are encouraging, but deliver a mixed message: It is heartening to see improved investment performance, especially given its implications for ongoing mission support. But with trailing 10-year returns averaging 4.7 percent for participating private foundations and 4.6 percent for community foundations, long-term returns are not sufficient to maintain the corpus of foundations' endowments after spending, inflation and costs," said the President and CEO of the Council on Foundations Vikki Spruill and Executive Director of Commonfund Institute William F. Jarvis in a joint statement on the results. "Private foundations' ......................

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