What We Do

Our investment strategy is designed to maximize long-term returns while providing sufficient liquidity to support the university’s current operations and satisfying risk guidelines specific to the university’s objectives.​ Each year, approximately 5 percent of the endowment’s value is distributed to the university to support its operations and mission. The remaining assets are held in investments to increase in value over time and support future generations, in perpetuity.

Investment Strategy​

To achieve its mission, the Tufts Investment Office pursues a highly diversified and equity-oriented portfolio structure that seeks to capture the required high returns of equity investments while reducing the volatility associated with such investments. In conjunction with the Investment Sub-Committee of the Board of Trustees, the Investment Office conducts an annual deep assessment of its asset allocation to identify the optimal mix in the context of the university’s forecasted needs and expected long-term market conditions. Within each asset class, the Investment Office selects outside experts to pursue security-level investment decisions within their strategies. 

Our sophisticated investment program spans asset classes and global markets and is implemented by an internal team of specialists with deep asset class, sectoral, and geographic expertise.  In total, the endowment is invested across domestic public equities, foreign public equities, marketable alternatives, private equity/venture capital, private real estate, private infrastructure, private credit, and other diversifying assets. A modest allocation is maintained to domestic sovereign bonds and cash for liquidity management. Given the perpetual time horizon of the endowment, the Investment Office accepts a prudent level of illiquidity in the portfolio to maximize long-term returns.