The Church Commissioners for England, manager of the Church of England’s endowment fund, reported an 8% return in 2025, spurred by a nearly 14% gain by its public equites portfolio, raising the endowment’s asset value to £11.6 billion ($15.6 billion).
It was the 17th consecutive year of positive returns for the endowment, which has also generated an 8.6% annualized return over the past 10 years. The endowment provides financial support for the church’s mission and ministry, and it contributes approximately 20% of the total annual running costs of the Church of England.
“Achieving an 8% return, above our long-term target, was primarily due to strong absolute performance in public markets,” Church Commissioners for England CIO Poppy Allonby said in a statement. “At the same time, we were able to successfully manage portfolio liquidity in order to fund near term-distributions.”
Well behind its public equities portfolio’s performance were its venture capital and real assets portfolios, which increased by 7.8% and 5.9%, respectively, for the year. Infrastructure investments, meanwhile, returned a meager 2.5%.
According to the endowment’s manager, the return surpassed its long-term target of annual headline inflation, plus 4%.
According to the announcement, the endowment’s venture capital portfolio benefitted from surging artificial intelligence investments, while foreign exchange headwinds weighed down its private markets portfolios, particularly due a heavy weighting of dollar-denominated investments.
Return by Asset Class
| Asset Class | Return |
| Public Equities | 13.7% |
| Venture Capital | 7.8% |
| Real Asset Portfolios | 5.9% |
| Private Markets | 5.1% |
| Private Credit | 4.3% |
| Private Equity | 4.0% |
| Infrastructure | 2.5% |
Source: Church Commissioners for England.
Allocation by Asset Class
| Asset Class | Allocation (%) |
| Public Equities | 29.5% |
| Private Equity | 10.8% |
| Cash, and Cash-Like Assets | 9.7% |
| Absolute Return | 9.5% |
| Fixed Income | 7.5% |
| Venture Capital | 5.3% |
| Rural | 5.1% |
| Defensive Equities | 5.0% |
| Residential | 4.2% |
| Timberland | 3.0% |
| Strategic Land | 2.8% |
| Private Credit | 2.7% |
| Infrastructure | 2.3% |
| Commercial | 1.9% |
| Indirect Property | 0.6% |
| Portfolio Hedges | 0.1% |
Source: Church Commissioners for England.
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