The Common Fund clearly defines its mission on its web site (and in its advertisements) as:
"Fund management and investment advice for nonprofit institutions are our exclusive focus at Commonfund. We're dedicated to enhancing the financial resources of educational institutions, hospitals, foundations, and other nonprofit organizations. ..."
Moreover, someone from the Common Fund had called to tell us that they considered us to have MISCLASSIFIED them as education initially.
However, its 1999 Form 990 is at odds with this, as is its distribution of members. But since the NTEE is focused on an organization's primary purpose, arguably the organization's stated mission should take precedence.
It seems to us that a case can be made for either classification. From a purely pragmatic perspective, we would prefer NOT to rerun (almost) all of the tables again but to add a footnote or discussion in the technical appendix explaining the issue. On the other hand, as a percentage of education, its $20 b. in total assets represent 5.7% of the subsector's $346 billion, a substantial percentage. But, then again, the classifications are static from year to year, so whether the org is kept in or taken out of education should make virtually no difference in the analysis of trends.