Market Collapse Weighs Heavily on Endowments

By Goldie Blumenstyk

College endowments earned an average return of minus-3 percent for the 2008 fiscal year and an estimated minus-22.5 percent in the five months after that, two new reports out today show.

The declines are already having an impact. More than a quarter of all institutions said they planned to draw less money from their endowment this year than they had expected to spend.

After a half-decade of soaring returns, it was the first time endowment investments lost money