Yale Bulletin and Calendar

October 11-18, 1999

Volume 28, Number 8

The Yale Endowment reaches $7.2 billion

Yale's endowment totaled $7.2 billion at the end of the University's last fiscal year, up from the previous year-end total of $6.6 billion, Yale's Investments Office reports.

For the fiscal year that ended June 30, 1999, Yale earned a 12.2 percent return on its endowment investments, above the 10.6 percent average return for universities and foundations, according to preliminary estimates by Cambridge Associates, an independent consulting firm.

For the last 10 years, Yale's annual return on its endowment investments has averaged 15 percent. For the same period, the average annual gain by the universities and foundations tracked by Cambridge Associates has totaled 13 percent. During that period, Yale's endowment has grown from $2.3 billion to the current $7.2 billion.

"Yale continues to earn impressive returns on its investments, providing indispensable contributions to the University's academic mission," says President Richard C. Levin. "The endowment, which would not exist without the generous support of alumni and friends, now provides nearly the same revenues as the University receives from tuition and room and board."

Spending from the endowment provides 22 percent of the revenues in the University's current operating budget. Endowment funds as a percentage of Yale's operating revenues have been increasing, and they now make up about double the relative share of the operating budget that they did a decade ago.

Yale's endowment spending is determined by a formula that features a long-term spending rate of 5 percent of the endowment's value -- combined with a "smoothing rule" that moderates the extent of change, either up or down, in the endowment's contribution to Yale's budget from year to year.

Along with Yale's return on its investments, the endowment received $64 million in contributions in the past year.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

The Yale Endowment reaches $7.2 billion

'Yale Nursing Matters' magazine debuts at YSN

Yale's Year 2000 Project is preparing campus for the new millennium

As population grows to 6 billion, Yale expert warns of future scarcity

Alumnus actor says of his craft, 'You have to be a sponge'

Yale completes self-study as part of reaccreditation process

Award-winning journalist Roger Simon to visit as Poynter Fellow

Scholar will offer 'personal response to philosophy' in Terry Lectures

Scientists unraveling building blocks of memory

Exhibit features 'treasures' from the Lewis Walpole Library

Symposium pays tribute to noted Brazilian writer Haroldo de Campos

Sneak previews now part of the cinematic fare at Yale Film Society

Seminars examine genocides by Nazis and Cambodians

Yale Concert Band's first show of the season features film scores

Historian is next speaker in book review series

. . . In the News . . .