<p>P43531 and anyone that cares (please say no one).:
I suspect (and have seen performance numbers for some schools) that the majority are in a well clustered group. Cambridge Associates may have the best database. As I am typing, I am looking at a scatter diagram of Risk/Return for a universe of 22 schools. This one happens to be for schools with endowments between $200-$600 million over a five year period ended 9/30 based on quarterly return numbers. All 22 have risk profiles of less than the S&P 500. However for this period, only 2 outperformed a relevant Bond Index. The Mean return was 4.1% compounded (Median 4.3%). Broadening the sphere to all 401 schools they track (including ones outside of the earlier endowment parameters) , mean compounded annual return was 4.2% and the median was unchanged at 4.3%.</p>
<p>The best performer was about 6.3%. About a quarter were below 2.5%. SPS did quite quite well, with statistically less risk, but again the clustering is pretty tight between 4.5-5.5%. I would say the manager matters. But yeah… everyone went up, then down, then up again. </p>
<p>I cannot address other schools “Nobel Initiatives”, however I do tip my hat to Andover’s need blind admissions. In the case of the new Lindsey Math/Science center at SPS, I can say it was approached quite conservatively. Ground was not broken until 100% of the fundraising was completed. In fact the total included an endowment for 100% of the operating costs and 100% of the furniture, fixtures, landscaping and all other determinable costs. But then, they had not had a capital campaign since the 1970’s and desperately needed this facility. The objective was simple. They needed it. They built it. </p>
<p>Now for the most important part 
of your posting p43451, colors. I am limited by the HTML palette. I used orange for orange. It seemed logical to me. Clearly Carrot does not work (see below). I suspect I could have used Tangerine, but then several people might have pointed out that I was confusing my oranges with tangerines. Horrors! Some computer gnome made this stuff up, but here are some of the possibilities:
** orange
Tomato
tangerine
DarkOrange
Carrot **
It’s up to you but orange worked for me, but is any of this (returns or colors) important? Decide on a school based on fit not ROI’s.</p>