Three-quarters of endowments and foundations in a recent poll said the U.S. economy was in a better place now that it was last year at this time.
NEPC, an investment consulting firm to endowments and foundations, conducted its online Q1 2014 survey in April.
More than half of respondents expected markets to show high single-digit returns.
Overall confidence in the markets notwithstanding, half the respondents said a slowdown in global growth posed the greatest single risk to investment performance, down somewhat from the 60% that gave the same answer in the fourth quarter last year.
Rising interest rates was the second biggest concern, cited by 19% of endowments and foundations, and Fed tapering was third, cited by 13%.
As for investments, 60% of organizations surveyed believed U.S. and emerging equities, followed by international equities, would be among this year's top performers.
At the same time, migration of capital from traditional equity and fixed income strategies to nontraditional assets appeared to be continuing.
