Endowed Funds
Endowed gifts are invested in perpetuity and only the income from the invested contributions is used to support the desired activities. Endowed funds are established for a variety of reasons: to provide scholarships, to honor distinguished careers, to memorialize loved ones or simply to express appreciation to Ohio State. In most cases the donor's motivation for establishing or contributing to an endowed fund is a desire to permanently enhance the College of Engineering and its programs.
The College completed the 2003-04 fiscal year with more than 337 endowed funds benefiting people and programs within Engineering and Architecture. The combined total of original gifts and gift additions to these funds was $106 million, with a market value of $139 million. These investments provided $8.3 million for scholarships, fellowships, programs and named faculty positions.
Investment policy
The University manages its endowment portfolio on a mutual fund basis. Each named fund is assigned a number of shares in the University Endowment Fund based on the value of gifts to that fund. The value of each share is calculated monthly using the number of existing shares and the fund's market value at month's end. The University's policy is to distribute annually to each named fund income equal to a fixed percentage of the average market value per share of endowment during the past three years.
The formula based distribution model adopted in 1985 has provided a steady and predictable income distribution. In the past ten years, income distribution per share has increased 73.7 percent, while inflation in the same period has only increased 34.1 percent. In other words, the Endowment income distribution has increased more than twice as much as inflation during the past decade. The income distribution policy has strengthened the Endowment Fund and is consistent with other large teaching and research universities.
Endowment minima
The University currently requires each new endowment to have a principal
of at least $25,000. Donors may build funds to this level with gifts
made over several years. Other University minimum requirements for endowed
funds are:
$1,500,000 Named Endowed Chair
$750,000 Named Endowed Professorship
$250,000 Named and fully funded Endowed Fellowship
$100,000 Named and fully funded Endowed Scholarship