Canadian Endowment & Foundation Survey 2026
In Spring 2026, CFA Societies Canada and Marsh Canada conducted their second annual Canadian endowment and foundation (E&F) 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. In addition to performance and asset mix data, this year’s survey also gathered information on added value over the last five years and the use of an impact lens in investments.
59 organizations participated in the 2026 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.
About the respondents
Key findings
- Small and medium funds (less than $500M in assets) allocate a larger portion of their portfolio to public equities. Canadian equities represent about 25% of their public equity portfolio, whereas they represent less than 20% for larger funds (greater than $500M in assets).
- Limited differentiation in the absolute 5-year returns by AUM, with smaller funds (less than $100M) achieving returns similar to that of larger funds (greater than $500M). Organizations with an AUM in between lagged by about 0.7% per annum.
- Over the last three years, positive added value has been challenging to achieve, with a negative first quartile in 2023, 2024 and 2025. When looking at longer periods (five and 10 years), the median alpha is around -0.5%.
- Approximately 25% of respondents declared using some form of sustainable investing. Exclusions and alignment with UN Sustainable Development Goals being the most frequent approaches.