While many institutions take time to review strategic policy for the endowments they oversee on an annual basis, too often that simply means reviewing the asset allocation plan while neglecting the spending policy. The only permanent link between the endowment and the institution it supports is the spending policy — a critical component of endowment management that should be revisited just as frequently as asset allocation. In this session, experts at Commonfund will review trends in spending methodologies of participants in the 2023 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments (NCSE) as well as the Commonfund Benchmarks Study of Independent Schools (CSIS) that is produced in collaboration with NBOA; implications on risk profiles and strategic asset allocation; and explain how the right spending policy can help achieve target returns.