where do endowments get their money 
the endowment of a university or other nonprofit institution may be made up of many individual donations each called an endowment harvard s total endowment is more than 50 billion that fund is made up of many individual gifts each of which comes with its own rules for example an individual donor may contribute a sum of money to be used strictly to fund research by the graduate department of anthropology in most cases the administrators of endowments spend only the investment income on an endowment not the principal of the gift that is a common stipulation of many endowments who manages endowments an institution that has an endowment may have an internal financial manager or hire an outside firm to manage the money in either case the board of trustees of the institution sets in place the rules for investing and spending the money 34who is eligible for an endowment an endowment is by definition a gift to a non profit institution any educational charitable religious or scientific institution can be the recipient of an endowment generally creators of endowments are high net worth individuals or groups who want to contribute to a particular cause the endowment allows them to be highly specific about how they want their money to be used the bottom linesome of the most prestigious universities in the u s have endowments of fabulous size that may well annoy some of their students who are paying hefty tuition fees to study there but for better or worse endowments can t be used to reduce everyone s tuition or even to keep the lights on endowments are made up of many specific gifts from individuals and groups that specify their uses they may underwrite certain research create a scholarship or fund a chair endowments are meant to last in perpetuity only the investment returns not the underlying assets are spent from year to year 