Message from the Vice-President, Finance and Administration

Thank you to our endowment donors for your continued support and trust in SFU.

Your thoughtful support, combined with judicious oversight and sound investment decisions, has enabled SFU to provide stable spending income to further its vision, navigate market volatility, and prepare for the future. Thanks to your generosity, our strong investment performance allows us to improve lives through SFU’s academic, research, housing and athletics infrastructure and further the long-term sustainability of the university.

Over the past year, the global economy was clouded by recession fears and rising interest rates as central banks tried to control inflation. Against this backdrop, capital markets experienced high volatility with S&P/TSX Composite Index posting a negative return of 5.1% over the past year, underperforming other major stock market indices. SFU’s endowment fund investment returns were 0.9% for the year ending March 31, 2023. Over a long term, SFU’s endowment continued to outperform the endowment portfolio composite benchmark over the 5-year and 10-year periods on an annualized basis. The endowment also performed well when compared to other Canadian universities in the Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO) survey. With strong returns, SFU continues to provide stable spending income to its endowment accounts and maintained its 5% Spending Income Allocation Rate this year.

SFU is a leader among Canadian universities for taking action in responsible investment. SFU is the first university in Canada to invest in Vancity Community Investment Bank Impact GIC, which will help finance housing, green energy and social projects across Canada. Since announcing the university’s commitment to fossil fuel divestment in November 2021, SFU has made good progress, having transitioned $450 million in global equity and more than $100 million in fixed income to fossil fuel-free funds. SFU continues to progress towards achieving the target of full divestment in all of its endowed and non-endowed funds by 2025. As institutional investors, SFU is committed to a 45% carbon footprint reduction of the public equity portion of its investment portfolio by 2025. The 2023 measurement results have indicated a 69% reduction over the 2016 baseline and the portfolio carbon footprint is well within the 2025 target. In December 2022, SFU published its inaugural Investment Portfolio Carbon Footprint Document which details SFU’s decarbonation journey.

We look forward to updating you on our overall investment performance in the coming months.

Thank you for your investment in SFU. The support of leading donors like you strengthens the university and the communities we serve.

Martin Pochurko
Vice-President, Finance & Administration

VIEW THE ENDOWMENT HIGHLIGHTS (PDF)