Stanford’s Merged Pool Returns 14.3% in Fiscal 2025

The merged investment pool of Stanford University, which includes the institution’s endowment and is managed by the Stanford Management Co., returned 14.3% in the 2025 fiscal year ending June 30. The strong performance came as endowments return to growth, followed by years of weaker returns due to sluggish growth in alternative investments.

The fiscal 2025 return brings Stanford’s five- and 10-year annualized returns to 11.7% and 9.4%, respectively. The merged pool returned 8.4% in fiscal 2024, 4.4% in fiscal 2023 and negative 4.2% in fiscal 2022.

The returns do not reflect the recently implemented federal excise tax on endowments, which could drive the tax rate on Stanford’s investments to 8% from 1.4%.

The value of the endowment’s assets stood at $40.8 billion at the end of August. The merged pool, which includes endowment assets and the capital reserves of Stanford’s health care system and other long-term funds, stood at $47.7 billion at the end of June.

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“We remain focused on achieving attractive long-term risk-adjusted returns that will sustain Stanford’s mission of teaching and research in the coming years and decades,” said Robert Wallace, the Stanford Management Co.’s CEO, in a statement. “The endowment’s objective of supporting students and scholars in perpetuity requires, over time, net gains from our investments that fully compensate for the impact of distributions from the endowment, inflation, and taxes.”

As of 2023, the Stanford Management Co’s. merged pool policy target included a 38% target allocation to private equity, 19% to absolute return strategies, 16% to international equity, 10% to real assets, 9% to fixed income and 8% to domestic equity.

In fiscal 2025, Stanford’s endowment provided $1.9 billion to the university’s operating budget, according to an October 7 news release. It is expected to contribute $2 billion in the 2025 fiscal year.