College endowments have beaten the market so consistently in recent years, it is not surprising that individuals would like to take advantage of that institutional wisdom to invest their own money. Increasingly, many are. A small but growing number of universities are trying to entice donors to invest their trusts alongside college endowments, allowing benefactors to share the same above-average returns. Some institutions are looking for other ways to leverage their investing expertise. A few college officials have their deferred compensation invested within their institution's endowment, and some hope to lure professors by giving them the option to do the same. Such policies could give those individuals de facto access to investment approaches like hedge funds and private equity, which are risky tools that can yield high returns and are usually off-limits to individual investors.