Harvard’s Massive Endowment Loses $2.3 Billion in Value
“the first negative year for the school since 2016”
Of course, this is just a drop in the bucket. Harvard will be fine.
The Week reports:
Harvard’s record endowment shrinks for 1st time since 2016
Harvard University’s endowment, the largest of any university, lost $2.3 billion this year, making it the first negative year for the school since 2016. This 1.8 percent loss on endowment investments comes just after a record high year in 2021 when Harvard saw 33.6 percent returns, Forbes reports.
The endowment comes from over 14,000 individual funds that are invested as a single entity and managed by an investment firm called the Harvard Management Company (HMC), which is owned by the university, CNN Business explains. The loss is attributed to the “poor performance of global equity markets” as well as Harvard’s commitments to climate goals, according to HMC CEO N.P. “Narv” Narvekar. The university’s climate goals impacted the endowment because many of the investors were invested in the “conventional” energy sectors like fossil fuels, CNN Business continues.
Harvard’s endowment almost fully funds the university’s work including research funding, financial aid, and general preservation. Despite the loss, Harvard still called its endowment of $50.9 billion a “very good result” given the current economic backdrop, Reuters reports. However, university officials acknowledge that last year’s gain “has been muted by this year’s market reversals.”
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Comments
Aww.
From that demonstration of skill, I, find myself coveting a degree in finance from these people — not.
Or maybe they’re selling something else.
I’m sure it doesn’t help when you surrender entirely to the demands of a handful of student activists who demand that you divest entirely from evil, capitalist investments that actually make money or defend freedom, and pour the whole kaboodle back into earth-friendly unicorn farms and solar theme parks.
Hey, Harvard…
Here’s One Weird Trick to revitalize your massive endowment…
Ha ha ha. Nice.
Harvard sends me the standard alumni begging letter every year, and I toss it in the trash. Any university with $50 Billion shouldn’t need to ask for more.
If the return envelope is postage paid… do better.
Wow, I am so unconcerned…..
The statement is bizarre. The conventional energy sector has possibly been the best performing one for the period covered, so investment in that could not have contributed to an overall decline. IMO constraining investment management with political chains is a breach of fiduciary duty.
Harvard and Yale should not be given exemptions from the laws on these endowments.
Harvard and Yale are not given exemptions from the laws on these endowments. The Trump administrati0n enacted a special tax on colleges whose endowments exceed $500,000 per full time student. Guess what, both Harvard and Yale are subject to the tax, while less well endowed schools, such as Cornell, do not meet that threshold. (Cornell has the lowest endowment per student in the Ivy League.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League#Prestige