"Grant makers' endowments plunged by 26 percent last year as the stock market fell to levels not seen in years, says a new report from the Commonfund Institute," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports. "That was a sharply different picture from the one in 2007, when endowments grew by 9.9 percent. But foundations' returns still compared favorably to the overall performance of the market. The report was based on a survey of 221 private foundations and 69 community foundations. The Commonfund Institute is the education and research arm of Commonfund, which manages nonprofit endowments."