Summary prospectus MARCH 1, 2015

TIAA-CREF Small-Cap Blend Index Fund

of the TIAA-CREF Funds

Class Ticker: Retirement TRBIX Institutional TISBX

Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund’s prospectus, which contains more information about the Fund and its risks. You can find the Fund’s prospectus and other information about the Fund online at www.tiaa-cref.org/tcfxscb. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 800 223-1200 or by sending an e-mail request to disclosure@tiaa-cref.org. The Fund’s prospectus and Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”), each dated March 1, 2015, as subsequently supplemented, and the sections of the Fund’s shareholder report dated October 31, 2014 from “Summary Portfolio of Investments” through “Notes to Financial Statements,” are incorporated into this Summary Prospectus by reference and may be obtained free of charge at the website, phone number or e-mail address noted above.

Investment objective

The Fund seeks a favorable long-term total return, mainly through capital appreciation, by investing primarily in a portfolio of equity securities in smaller domestic companies based on a market index.

Fees and expenses

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund:

SHAREHOLDER FEES (fees paid directly from your investment)

	Retirement Class	Institutional Class
Maximum Sales Charge Imposed on Purchases (percentage of offering price)	0%	0%
Maximum Deferred Sales Charge	0%	0%
Maximum Sales Charge Imposed on Reinvested Dividends and Other Distributions	0%	0%
Redemption or Exchange Fee (on shares held less than 60 days)	0%	0%
Maximum Account Fee	0%	0%

TIAA-CREF Small-Cap Blend Index Fund■Summary Prospectus     1

ANNUAL FUND OPERATING EXPENSES (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)

		Retirement Class	Institutional Class
Management Fees		0.04%	0.04%
Other Expenses		0.27%	0.02%
Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses1		0.07%	0.07%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses		0.38%	0.13%
Waivers and Expense Reimbursements2		—	—
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement		0.38%	0.13%
1	“Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses” are the Fund’s proportionate amount of the expenses of any investment companies or pools in which the Fund invests. These expenses are not paid directly by Fund shareholders. Instead, Fund shareholders bear these expenses indirectly as a result of the Fund’s investments. Because “Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses” are included in the chart above, the Fund’s operating expenses here will not correlate with the expenses included in the Financial Highlights in this Prospectus and the Fund’s annual report.
2	Under the Fund’s expense reimbursement arrangements, the Fund’s investment adviser, Teachers Advisors, Inc., has contractually agreed to reimburse the Fund for any Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses (excluding interest, taxes, brokerage commissions or other transactional expenses, Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses and extraordinary expenses) that exceed: (i) 0.34% of average daily net assets for Retirement Class shares; and (ii) 0.09% of average daily net assets for Institutional Class shares of the Fund. These expense reimbursement arrangements will continue through at least February 29, 2016, unless changed with approval of the Board of Trustees.

Example

This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all your shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses, before expense reimbursements, remain the same. The example assumes that the Fund’s expense reimbursement agreement will remain in place through February 29, 2016, but that there will be no waiver or expense reimbursement agreement in effect thereafter. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

	Retirement Class		Institutional Class
1 Year	$	39	$	13
3 Years	$	122	$	42
5 Years	$	213	$	73
10 Years	$	480	$	167

Portfolio turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may

2     Summary Prospectus■TIAA-CREF Small-Cap Blend Index Fund

indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the fiscal year ended October 31, 2014, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 24% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal investment strategies

Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its assets in equity securities included in its benchmark index (the Russell 2000^®Index). A small-cap equity security is a security within the capitalization range of the companies included in the Russell 2000^®Index at the time of purchase. The Russell 2000^®Index measures the performance of the small-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe. The Fund buys most, but not necessarily all, of the stocks in its benchmark index, and will attempt to closely match the overall investment characteristics of its benchmark index. For purposes of the 80% investment policy, the term “assets” means net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes.

The Fund is designed to track various U.S. equity markets as a whole or a segment of these markets. The Fund primarily invests its assets in equity securities its investment adviser, Teachers Advisors, Inc. (“Advisors”), has selected to track a designated stock market index. Because the return of an index is not reduced by investment and other operating expenses, the Fund’s ability to match the returns of the Russell 2000^®Index is negatively affected by the costs of buying and selling securities as well as the Fund’s fees and other expenses. The use of a particular index by the Fund is not a fundamental policy and may be changed without shareholder approval. The portfolio management team of Advisors will attempt to build a portfolio that generally matches the market weighted investment characteristics of the Fund’s benchmark index.

Principal investment risks

You could lose money over short or long periods by investing in this Fund. An investment in the Fund, due to the nature of the Fund’s portfolio holdings, typically is subject to the following principal investment risks:

·Market Risk—The risk that market prices of portfolio investments held by the Fund may fall rapidly or unpredictably due to a variety of factors, including changing economic, political or market conditions. Market risk may affect a single issuer, industry or sector of the economy, or it may affect the market as a whole.

·Index Risk—The risk that the Fund’s performance will not correspond to its benchmark index for any period of time and may underperform such index or the overall stock market. Additionally, to the extent that the Fund’s investments vary from the composition of its benchmark index, the Fund’s performance could potentially vary from the index’s performance to a greater extent than if the Fund merely attempted to replicate the index.

TIAA-CREF Small-Cap Blend Index Fund■Summary Prospectus     3

·Issuer Risk (often called Financial Risk)—The risk that an issuer’s earnings prospects and overall financial position will deteriorate, causing a decline in the value of the issuer’s financial instruments over short or extended periods of time.

·Small-Cap Risk—The risk that the stocks of small-capitalization companies often experience greater price volatility than large- or mid-sized companies because small-cap companies are often newer or less established than larger companies and are likely to have more limited resources, products and markets. Securities of small-cap companies are often less liquid than securities of larger companies as a result of there being a smaller market for their securities.

Please see the non-summary portion of the Prospectus for more detailed information about the risks described above.

Past performance

The following chart and table help illustrate some of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing changes in the Fund’s performance from year to year. The bar chart shows the annual total returns of the Institutional Class of the Fund, before taxes, in each full calendar year for the last ten years. Because the expenses vary across share classes, the performance of the Institutional Class may vary from the other share classes. Below the bar chart are the best and worst returns of the Institutional Class for a calendar quarter during the period covered by the bar chart. The performance table following the bar chart shows the Fund’s average annual total returns for the Institutional Class and Retirement Class over the one-year, five-year, ten-year and since-inception periods (where applicable) ended December 31, 2014, and how those returns compare to those of the Fund’s benchmark index. After-tax performance is shown only for Institutional Class shares, and after-tax returns for the Retirement Class shares will vary from the after-tax returns presented for the Institutional Class shares.

The returns shown below reflect previous agreements by Advisors to waive or reimburse the Fund for certain fees and expenses. Without these waivers and reimbursements, the returns of the Fund would have been lower. Past performance of the Fund (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how it will perform in the future. The benchmark index listed below is unmanaged, and you cannot invest directly in the benchmark index. The returns for the benchmark index reflect no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes.

For current performance information of each share class, including performance to the most recent month-end, please visit www.tiaa-cref.org.

4     Summary Prospectus■TIAA-CREF Small-Cap Blend Index Fund

ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS FOR THE INSTITUTIONAL CLASS SHARES (%)

Best quarter: 20.56%, for the quarter ended June 30, 2009. Worst quarter: -26.18%, for the quarter ended December 31, 2008.

AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS

For the Periods Ended December 31, 2014

		Inception Date	One Year		Five Years		Ten Years
Institutional Class		10/1/2002
	Return Before Taxes		5.15	%	15.68	%	7.82	%
	Return After Taxes on Distributions		3.48	%	14.60	%	6.65	%
	Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of
	Fund Shares		3.70	%	12.46	%	6.10	%
Retirement Class		10/1/2002
	Return Before Taxes		4.91	%	15.39	%	7.56	%
Russell 2000® Index
(reflects no deductions for fees, expenses or taxes)			4.89	%	15.55	%	7.77	%
Current performance of the Fund’s shares may be higher or lower than that shown above.
After-tax returns are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates in effect during the periods shown and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on the investor’s tax situation and may differ from those shown. The after-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold their Fund shares through tax-deferred arrangements such as 401(a), 401(k) or 403(b) plans or Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). After-tax returns are shown for only one class, and after-tax returns for other classes will vary.

Portfolio management

Investment Adviser. The Fund’s investment adviser is Teachers Advisors, Inc.

Portfolio Managers. The following persons manage the Fund on a day-to-day basis:

Name:	Philip James (Jim) Campagna, CFA	Lei Liao, CFA
Title:	Senior Director	Director
Experience on Fund:	since 2005	since 2014

TIAA-CREF Small-Cap Blend Index Fund■Summary Prospectus     5

Purchase and sale of Fund shares

Retirement Class shares are generally available for purchase through employee benefit plans or other types of savings plans or accounts. Institutional Class shares are available for purchase directly from the Fund by certain eligible investors (which include employee benefit plans and financial intermediaries).

·There is no minimum initial or subsequent investment for Retirement Class shares. Retirement Class shares are primarily offered through employer-sponsored employee benefit plans.

·The minimum initial investment is $10 million and the minimum subsequent investment is $1,000 for Institutional Class shares, unless an investor purchases shares by or through financial intermediaries that have entered into an appropriate agreement with the Fund or its affiliates.

Redeeming or Exchanging Shares. You can redeem (sell) or exchange your shares of the Fund on any day that the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) is open for business. Exchanges may be made for shares of the same share class of other funds offered by the Trust. If your shares are held through a third party, please contact that entity for applicable redemption or exchange requirements. If your shares are held directly with the Fund, contact the Fund directly in writing or by telephone.

Tax information

The Fund intends to make distributions to shareholders that may be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains. Distributions made to tax-exempt shareholders or shareholders who hold Fund shares in a tax-deferred account are generally not subject to income tax in the current year, but redemptions made from tax-deferred accounts may be subject to income tax.

Payments to broker-dealers and other financial intermediary compensation

If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and/or its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services or for other investor services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.

6     Summary Prospectus■TIAA-CREF Small-Cap Blend Index Fund

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A11981 (3/15)