Endowments boomed in fiscal year 2021 but returns have since fallen. Fiscal year 2023 brought minimal growth for most of the nation’s top endowments. Fiscal year 2023 marked a mixed bag for university endowment returns. While a complete picture is not yet available—not all institutions have published their latest figures—some of the nation’s richest universities saw sluggish returns, according to their financial reports. Some blamed the slide on the underperformance of private equity and venture capital investments.