University endowments held more than $870 billion in assets last year, largely dominated by America’s elite institutions.
While Harvard, Yale, and Stanford have amassed tens of billions in assets, the median endowment stands at $243 million across 658 institutions.
Overall, endowment assets increased by 4% in 2024 driven by donations and investment returns.
This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld, shows the largest university endowments in America, based on data from the NACUBO via College Transitions.
Harvard Leads Nationally
As the largest university endowment worldwide, Harvard boasts a number of wealthy donors including Michael Bloomberg and hedge fund billionaire John Paulson.
After the Trump administration froze billions in grants and funding, it raised $1.1 million across more than 4,000 online donations in the first two days after stating it would push back against their demands. Overall, the fund holds $52 billion in assets, as shown in the table below:
As we can see, the University of Texas System is the only public university endowment ranking in the top five.
In fact, UT Austin is among the few universities that has invested in Bitcoin, along with Stanford and Brown. While endowments typically avoid riskier investments, they are increasingly allocating funds into cryptocurrency thanks to regulatory factors.
Overall, a number of elite institutions have the largest endowments nationally, including Stanford (#4) and Princeton (#5).
How Do University Endowments Spend Their Assets?
While university’s hold significant endowment funds, much of the assets are designated for a specific purpose, such as scholarships.
At the same time, these assets are often invested in illiquid assets such as real estate and hedge funds. As a result, it can be damaging to sell these at a loss if universities face a funding shortfall.
Below, we show how $30 billion in endowment funds were spent during fiscal year 2024:
Overall, nearly half of spending went toward student financial aid, with some of the largest endowments such as Stanford and Harvard covering 100% of students financial aid requests.
Academic research was the second-highest category, at 18%, followed by endowed faculty positions, at 11%. Specifically, these positions are funded by endowment donations over a number of years. Finally, facilities operation and management accounted for the smallest share, at 7% overall, covering renovations and building repairs.
To learn more about this topic from a global perspective, check out this graphic on the top universities outside of America.
