Colby College's $1.1 billion endowment returned -9.2% for the fiscal year ended June 30.
The return fell below the composite benchmark return of -5% for the period, according to an endowment report on the Waterville, Maine-based college's website.
For the five and 10 years ended June 30, the endowment returned an annualized 10.6% and 9.4%, respectively, above their respective benchmark returns of 9.2% and 8%.
The endowment returned 46.5% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021.
The report did not say whether the returns were gross or net of fees.
For the most recent fiscal year, the negative return for the endowment reflected a challenging market environment for public equities and fixed income. For the year ended June 30, the Russell 3000 index and Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond index returned -13.9% and -10.3%, respectively, in sharp contrast to returns of 44.2% and 4.6% for the year ended June 30, 2021.
Colby College's return fell well below the median return of -4.2% among the 48 university and college endowments whose returns for the year ended June 30 have been tracked by Pensions & Investments as of Friday.
The endowment report did not provide returns by asset class.
As of June 30, the actual allocation was 21.3% venture capital, 17.8% each developed markets equities and hedge funds, 12.7% private equity, 10.2% cash and receivables, 6.3% emerging markets equities, 3.6% real estate, 3.1% U.S. government bonds, 2.8% natural resources, 2.6% marketable natural resources and 1.8% marketable real estate.
