Study: Operating Charity Investment Returns Rise to an Average of 15.1 Percent in Fiscal Year 2013

Spending

Among participating operating charities, spending as a percentage of assets-the effective spending rate-was 4.7 percent, unchanged year over year and down modestly from 4.8 percent in FY2011. (Since most nonprofits use a multi-period smoothing rule to calculate annual endowment spending, operating charities' effective spending rate-their spending as a percentage of assets-often moves inversely with the direction of annual investment returns.)