Harvard’s Endowment Fund

The $33 billion Harvard portfolio is the largest endowment fund in the world. Harvard relies on its endowment fund to cover the costs of more than a third of the university’s operating budget (source: WSJ, June 23, 2014). Despite paying some of its money managers multi-million dollar salaries, Harvard’s endowment fund returns have lagged its peers (see table below).

 

5-Year Annualized Returns of Elite School Endowment Funds

[ending June 30, 2014]

 

Columbia  6.8%	Dartmouth  4.4%	Stanford  3.3%
Pennsylvania  5.4%	Notre Dame  4.3%	Cornell  2.9%
MIT  5.3%	Princeton  4.2%	Brown  2.7%
Chicago  4.8%	Yale  3.3%	Harvard  1.7%
	Vanguard Balanced Fund  13.7%

                 Source: Charles Skorina & Co.