{"id":70833,"date":"2022-04-29T11:06:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T15:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/?p=70833"},"modified":"2022-04-29T16:35:55","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T20:35:55","slug":"the-20-largest-college-endowments-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/the-20-largest-college-endowments-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"The 20 Largest College Endowments, Revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

College endowments are big business, but did you know how much they have grown since the 90s? Endowments are the investments and donations by companies and individuals towards a college intended to help them grow and fund future investments. These are often ring-fenced for certain purposes by those who have made the donations, who can insist that the money is used to fund scholarships or to attract high-quality lecturers, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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According to University Business<\/a>, over the last 30 years, the value of the 20 largest college endowments grew at an average annual rate of 8.5%, which is higher than the 6.6% rate of the Fortune 500<\/a>. The total market value in 2018 was $624.3 billion across 810 colleges, but there\u2019s inequality at play with the top 20 colleges sharing 48.3% of that amount and the other 790 having to spread the rest between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This chart by DegreeQuery<\/a> shows that the 1990s were when this rapid growth in endowments really began, with a remarkable average annual growth of 12.5%. The leading college for endowment value was Harvard with $8.05bn putting it well ahead of UT System in second place at $4.96bn. The gulf between the haves and have-nots was already clear, even within the top 20 colleges, with Duke and UVA both at less than $1bn, and that gap has only grown since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of the 00s, UVA\u2019s endowment value had risen slightly to $2.91bn, which would have been enough for a sixth-place finish in the 90s, but keeps them in 20th a decade later. At the other end of the scale, Harvard\u2019s endowments had risen to $24.67bn, a huge financial advantage over its competitors, with second-placed Yale only getting $15.01bn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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However, Yale\u2019s endowment value was significantly hit in the late 00s by the economic downturn after the 2008 financial crisis<\/a>. While the total value of the 20 largest endowments went down by 3.4%, Yale lost 28.6% of its market value, while Harvard, Duke, and Stanford also lost because of the recession. As a result of these losses, the average annual growth for this decade was just 3.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 10s, the economy began to recover, and this was reflected by the average annual growth rate for the top 20 college endowments going up to 7.6%, which may still have been way behind the rate from the 90s, but still represents an impressive level of growth. At Harvard, the value of its endowments had risen to $33.70bn, which clearly wasn\u2019t seen as enough as 50% of its endowment management staff were laid off in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Of course, even relative failure for Harvard means that it remains clear at the top of the list, with the rest of the top colleges still playing catch-up. College endowments have changed a lot over the last 30 years and play a huge role in how our young adults receive their all-important education. What changes and growth will this new decade see for these top 20 college endowments?<\/p>\n\n\n\n