Three days after Harvard publicly asked for $6.5 billion, the University announced it has earned a hefty chunk of change, as well. The endowment jumped 6.5 percent, to $32.7 billion, during the last fiscal year, with an annual rate of return of 11.3 percent on its investments.
Harvard’s gain outpaced its own internal goal, although the money raised is still lower than the $36.9 billion the endowment hit before the financial crisis struck in 2008. The endowment fell $11 billion following the crisis, but the University has since seen consecutive growth and is estimated to break its previous record in just a few years.
“Thanks to this talented team, we have made a strong recovery since the global economic downturn of 2008-2009, and our outperformance this year alone contributed about $600 million of additional value to the portfolio over and above the markets,” said Jane Mendillo, CEO of the Harvard Management Company (HMC), in her annual endowment report.
The HMC manages the school’s endowment, which is comprised of a collection of more than 12,000 funds, including a mix of bonds, commodities, private equity and donations. The newly public Harvard Campaign has already helped the University raise $2.8 billion, leaving a target of roughly $3.7 billion.
Rival Yale announced Tuesday its $20.8 billion endowment had a 12.5 percent return. Although topping Harvard’s, the local Ivy League institute still lays claim to the nation’s largest university endowment—an endowment that remains the largest source of revenue to support the University budget, according to Harvard Magazine.
Public equities saw the biggest growth over the last fiscal year, which ended on June 30 of this year, seeing a positive return of 16.3 percent.
The HMC beat its benchmark for the fourth consecutive year. University Treasurer James Rothenberg heralded the uptick, stating in a release: “The HMC team produced strong results at a time when the revenue streams that have traditionally supported institutions of higher education have been under increasing pressure.”
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