Canadian Endowment & Foundation Survey 2025 

Earlier this year, Mercer Canada and CFA Societies Canada jointly launched the Canadian Endowment & Foundation Survey to address the critical need for transparent, peer-comparable data to help not-for-profit organizations evaluate their long-term investment policies and performance.

39 organizations participated in the 2025 survey. Their combined insights provide a comprehensive analysis of strategic asset allocation and investment returns among Canadian endowments and foundations (E&F).

Download the report to gain a clearer picture of the evolving investment landscape across organizations of different sizes and sectors.

• Smaller organizations (under $100 million AUM) are increasingly investing in private markets, especially real assets like real estate.
• Larger organizations (over $500 million AUM) allocate approximately 38% of their portfolios to private markets, primarily at the expense of fixed income exposure.
• Larger organizations exhibit less home country bias in their investments.
• Education and Community foundations invest more heavily in private markets compared to Hospital foundations, which favor defensive fixed income strategies.
• The median five-year return was 7.6%, below the 9.15% needed to maintain purchasing power after inflation, disbursements, and expenses.
• Performance varies by size and asset allocation, with lower returns linked to higher fixed income and lower equity/private market exposure.