For all the student enthusiasm about fossil fuel divestment on university campuses, there's no sign yet of anything like a critical mass of support from university administrators, a number of whom have protested that fossil fuel divestment undercuts the primary purpose of endowments: Generating maximum return on investments in order to fund school operations.
The Yale endowment generated 20.2% in returns in fiscal 2014, far outpacing most endowments, and has gained 11% every year for the past 10 years.
Mr. Landesman, for instance, has frequently noted that each dollar spent by the arts endowment generates $8 of additional investment and $26 of economic activity in the community.
Harvard is among a very few academic institutions whose endowments have generated stunning returns.
It's true that Harvard's and Yale's endowments, in contrast to most smaller endowments, have outperformed a simpler and more conventional mix of stocks and bonds, and a Harvard spokesman noted that over the last 10 years, Harvard's endowment had generated over $12 billion more than a 60/40 model would have.
Indeed, a survey by Commonfund, which manages money for nonprofit institutions, found that university endowments over $1 billion generated an average annual return for the five years that ended June 30 , 2008 of 13.1percentt whereas the returns from private school endowments over $50 million averaged 10.4percentt for the same period.
"They love to support a glamorous exhibition and highly targeted educational programs, which means every museum is desperate to build an endowment or generate revenue to cover the unglamorous stuff," like wiring, air-conditioning and general operating expenses.
And we created an endowment that generates income for important maintenance at the monument.
Called virtual or flexible endowments, they enable donors to hold onto their fortunes during their lifetimes while providing their causes with the same annual cash that an actual endowment would generate.
