3 Ivy Endowments: Down, Down, Down

In statements issued today, three of the nation’s wealthiest universities — Harvard, Yale, and Brown — all reported endowment losses of more than 20 percent for the fiscal year that ended June 30. The Harvard Management Company said in a report that Harvard’s endowment fell by 27.3 percent for the year, although its annualized return on investment for the past five years was still on the plus side, at 6.2 percent. Brown, in a news release, said the investment return for its endowment had declined by 23.1 percent, but it too reported positive annualized returns for the past five years, at 5.2 percent.

Yale has not released final figures for 2008-9 yet, but in a budget update for the current fiscal year, its president and provost said that the endowment value would be about $16-billion, or $1-billion less than previous projections, and warned that further budget cuts would therefore be necessary.