The Brown University Endowment
When a donor makes a gift to our endowment, the University agrees to manage and maintain that gift in perpetuity. The University’s endowment is primarily a collection of donations given over the last 240 years by alumni, parents, students and friends of Brown. To ensure that Brown will thrive 240 years from now, the principal of these gifts cannot be spent, but the earnings can.
As the endowment has grown, the benefits of these enduring contributions have been felt across the campus. Today, the endowment supports more than 18 percent of the University’s annual operating budget. Indeed, every dollar of endowment income in the budget helps finance vital activities, including undergraduate student scholarships, professorships, graduate student fellowships, library acquisitions, the division of biology and medicine, more than 70 academic programs, every varsity sport, and building maintenance.
To learn more about Brown’s endowment, and the ways in which we guard and enhance this trust, please see our pamphlet Investing in Brown’s Future.
