Brown endowment hits $3.5B

BROWN UNVERSITY'S ENDOWMENT grew 13.4 percent during fiscal 2017 to $3.5 billion. /PHOTO COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY
BROWN UNIVERSITY'S ENDOWMENT grew 13.4 percent in fiscal 2017 to $3.5 billion. /PHOTO COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY

PROVIDENCE – Brown University’s endowment rose to $3.5 billion by the end of the 2017 fiscal year – a 13.4 percent increase year over year according to the university Tuesday.

During that period, the Ivy League university – which operates on a July 1 to June 30 fiscal year schedule – spent $179 million of the endowment to fund its operating budget, support student financial aid and professorships as well as pay for academic programs, teaching and research.

According to the university, the endowment’s 13.4 percent bump exceeded both the benchmark portfolio expectation (11.1 percent) as well as Cambridge Associates’ preliminary mean and median returns for colleges and universities (12.9 percent).

Annualized returns for the university’s endowment for three, five, 10 and 20 years are 5.8, 9.1, 5.2 and 8.6 percent, respectively.

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More than $1.3 billion in investment returns have been produced by the endowment’s performance since 2012 – $800 million of which has supported the university’s operating budget. During the five-year period the fund has grown from $2.6 billion to $3.5 billion.

“From providing scholarships to low- and moderate-income undergraduates to funding cutting-edge research by world-class faculty and graduate students, contributions from the endowment are vital in advancing Brown’s strategic priorities,” said Barbara Chernow, executive vice president for finance and administration, in prepared remarks.

She explained 35 percent of the university’s financial aid budget was paid for with endowment funds in fiscal year 2017 and 43 percent of incoming students in the Class of 2021 received need-based scholarships averaging $44,224 per award.

According to a 2017 U.S. News and World Report ranking, the largest college or university endowment in the U.S. is held by Harvard University – $35.7 billion.

Emily Gowdey-Backus is a staff writer for PBN. You can follow her on Twitter @FlashGowdey or contact her via email, gowdey-backus@pbn.com.

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