Change in endowments 2002 to 2005

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Based on IPEDS data, here are the changes in endowment funds for selected top universities and colleges from the beginning of the 2002-03 fiscal year to the end of the 2004-05 fiscal year. I was surprised by the range in performance. I think 2002 was near the bottom of the "dot.com" bust in the stock market and 2005 was the beginning of a recovery. Some schools did not report this data and were excluded. The only data available at the "guest" level was 2002-03, 2003-04, and 2004-05 (beginning and end of each fiscal year..6 data points altogether).</p>

<p>school, dollar change in endowment, percent change</p>

<p>sorted by percent change</p>

<p>Furman University 199766938 87%
American University 104000000 62%
Stanford University 4592266000 60%
College of Saint Benedict 9886355 49%
Harvard University 8335027000 48%
St. Olaf College 70797674 46%
Brandeis University 158168349 44%
Yale University 4568357000 43%
Fordham University 90084000 43%
University of Notre Dame 1085172000 42%
Northwestern University 615441000 41%
Muhlenberg College 28711000 41%
New York University 458438498 40%
George Washington University 289520000 40%
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus 327373000 39%
Haverford College 110514599 39%
Hendrix College 40104601 37%
Yeshiva University 277998267 37%
Rice University 967609796 35%
University of Denver 49681032 34%
Bowdoin College 147583000 34%
Amherst College 294380002 34%
University of Pittsburgh-Main Campus 386014851 34%
Pitzer College 15193000 34%
Davidson College 96779500 34%
College of the Holy Cross 114941532 33%
Bates College 50815902 32%
Centre College 38854733 32%
Colby College 101646000 32%
Randolph-Macon College 24302274 31%
Vanderbilt University 608535000 31%
Dartmouth College 721367014 31%
Tufts University 201543513 30%
Swarthmore College 269832000 30%
Clark University 46348523 30%
Cornell University 713931760 30%
Bucknell University 107437000 29%
Augustana College 21507416 29%
Grinnell College 315392000 29%
Marquette University 60022000 29%
University of Puget Sound 45342000 29%
University of Southern California 615074000 29%
Mount Holyoke College 103314234 29%
University of Pennsylvania 977000000 29%
Gettysburg College 48821791 29%
Tulane University of Louisiana 180974000 29%
Duke University 726850000 28%
Baylor University 161804000 28%
Pomona College 278235000 27%
Williams College 288329344 27%
Austin College 22364829 26%
Pepperdine University 99709000 26%
University of Delaware 206035115 26%
University of Rochester 289493000 26%
Wheaton College 59957966 26%
Colorado College 83120174 26%
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1352977000 25%
University of Chicago 796942635 25%
Carnegie Mellon University 167477836 25%
Scripps College 40491498 25%
Wofford College 23260127 25%
Kenyon College 31281925 25%
Lehigh University 166911000 25%
Harvey Mudd College 39335856 25%
Ohio Wesleyan University 28500334 25%
Skidmore College 38649000 24%
Bennington College 2291000 24%
Wake Forest University 174233246 24%
Brown University 353804000 24%
Syracuse University 147525804 23%
University of Miami 99134829 23%
Mills College 33273909 23%
Hanover College 26470366 23%
Barnard College 28003000 22%
Columbia University in the City of New York 952396000 22%
Georgetown University 142094000 22%
Washington and Lee University 96431000 22%
Smith College 184288767 22%
Occidental College 49771765 22%
St Lawrence University 37479226 22%
Southern Methodist University 177389000 21%
Vassar College 117155000 21%
Whitman College 54219914 21%
University of Richmond 209380000 21%
Lafayette College 109709285 21%
Washington University in St Louis 750238000 21%
Oberlin College 119022745 20%
Franklin and Marshall College 46665000 20%
Saint Johns University 18799597 20%
Hollins University 16590987 20%
DePauw University 73880607 19%
Earlham College 61641747 19%
Hope College 20693524 19%
Sarah Lawrence College 8280000 19%
Reed College 53535680 19%
Ursinus College 17129478 19%
Spelman College 39855305 18%
Goucher College 24656000 18%
Denison University 73518947 18%
Carleton College 82551322 18%
Gustavus Adolphus College 12963581 18%
Case Western Reserve University 225080893 17%
Knox College 7556851 17%
Wheaton College 22243469 17%
Wesleyan University 80590000 17%
Thomas Aquinas College 1387814 16%
Wabash College 45773350 16%
Lawrence University 25256471 16%
Sewanee: The University of the South 33464160 15%
Claremont McKenna College 42275000 14%
Drew University 25573000 14%
Allegheny College 14896306 14%
Stevens Institute of Technology 15940673 14%
Bryn Mawr College 60327000 14%
Illinois Wesleyan University 18968521 13%
Presbyterian College 9043000 13%
Trinity College 40036963 12%
Millsaps College 9423000 12%
Willamette University 23586000 12%
Rhodes College 22689815 11%
Worcester Polytechnic Institute 32747985 11%
Albion College 14693693 10%
Colgate University 46506686 10%
The College of Wooster 16721767 8%
Saint Louis University-Main Campus 55329650 8%
Union College 1030081 8%
Beloit College 7267929 7%
Emory University 256539432 6%
Juniata College 3015272 5%
MacAlester College 21658000 4%
Wells College -1112581 -2%
Southwestern University -8846793 -3%
Sweet Briar College -2968006 -3%
Birmingham Southern College -6066397 -5%
Agnes Scott College -55805545 -16%</p>

2

<p>
[quote]
I was surprised by the range in performance.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Are you sure the numbers only reflect investment performance? Some of these institutions were in the midst of major campaigns, and/or had secured major gifts during this time.</p>

3

<p>I think the chnges reflect more than investment performance, but investment performance is part of it. I am not sure which schools were in the midst of capital campaigns. Does capital campaign money go into the endowment fund?</p>

<p>I honestly don't know that much about higher ed finance.</p>

<p>But, Harvard, Yale and Stanford have huge endowments that increased 40-60%. How did they do that?</p>

<p>Furman-87%?</p>

<p>And what's with the endowments that lost money? Or, percent increased less than my savings account. It must be difficult to do that BADLY with endowment money.</p>

<p>Anyway, I thought it was interesting and was hoping some of the more knowledgeable posters could shed some light.</p>

4

<p>They probably just overspent and had some poor investments.</p>

5

<p>collegehelp,
While the information is interesting, I would suggest that this is not a measurement of performance as that term connotes investment return. As hoedown points out, capital campaigns can have a significant impact on the changes in dollar values on a year to year basis and this has nothing to do with "performance." As for some of the changes that you mention, the top performing endowments that you mention likely had large investments in private equity where there have some been some terrific returns over that time period. On the low end, a school like Emory has a large portion of its funds in Coca Cola stock which performed very poorly in this period. Having good financial resources and the ability to manage them effectively is an increasingly important part of a college's strategic plan and impacts a wide variety of currrent and future university projects.</p>

6

<p><a href="http://www.nacubo.org/documents/research/FY02%20Institutional%20Listing.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nacubo.org/documents/research/FY02%20Institutional%20Listing.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_US_colleges_and_universities_by_endowment%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_US_colleges_and_universities_by_endowment&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

7

<p>Schools endowment returns have little to do with investment performance. They poor in donations from alumni and other funds they have raised into the endowment, therefore making return % huge.</p>

8

<p>The year 2006 was another outstanding year for the University of Wisconsin Foundation. Contributions totaled more than $193.01 million. There also was an increase in the number of gifts received. More than 126,000 gifts were made in 2006, compared to nearly 123,000 in 2005.</p>

<p>Additionally, the performance of investments in 2006 was important in the overall increase in assets under management. Total assets under management have grown from $1.29 billion as of December 31, 2001, to approximately $2.47 billion as of December 31, 2006.</p>

9

<p>From the Nacubo link that Alexandre posted, it looks like 2001-02 was a bad year for endowments. I would attribute that to the drop in the stock market.</p>

<p>Both helpful links...</p>

10

<p>
[quote]
Does capital campaign money go into the endowment fund?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Yep, generally capital campaign money is meant for long-term investments like the corpus of the endowment, or for a building. The funds given for the endowment may be designated, such as for scholarships or an endowed charimanship, but it's all totalled up as part of the reported value of the endowment.</p>

<p>What's not clear to some people, I think, is that many institutions also solicit donations for their "annual fund" in which all the money goes right into the operating budget for the year (or the next year), not into the endowment.</p>