Financial Summary

Since James B. Duke’s death in 1925, the assets of The Duke Endowment have achieved significant growth.  The corpus has increased from $107 million to $2.5 billion, a 23-fold increase.  During the same time, nearly $2.7 billion has been distributed in grants.

Investments

Assets of The Duke Endowment are managed by DUMAC, LLC, a professionally-staffed investment organization controlled by Duke University. 

During 2009, the investment return on the Endowment’s portfolio was 10.1 percent.  Investment performance benefited mainly from returns in Global Equity, Hedged Strategies, Fixed Income and Inflation Sensitive asset classes.  Impacted by investment returns, grants, expenses and mark-to-market adjustments, the Endowment’s assets increased in value from $2.2 billion to $2.5 billion from December 31, 2008 to December 31, 2009.

For the 10-year period ending December 31, 2009, the Endowment’s investment portfolio, net of all fees, averaged returns of 6.4 percent per annum, outperforming its policy benchmark by 4.2 percent and the Russell 3000 Index by 6.5 percent annually over the same period.

Total Assets (in Billions)

Investment Returns

Grants and Expenses

More than 86 percent of the Endowment’s total spending goes directly to grantmaking. This compares favorably to foundations of similar size. The figure below shows our grantmaking in the context of other spending. This grantmaking volume depends on our ability to invest assets wisely.

View additional financials in the 2009 Annual Report (pdf) or contact us to request further details.