Yale’s endowment earned a 1.8% investment return, net of fees, for the year ending June 30, 2023, representing $759 million in investment gains. After spending distributions of $1.8 billion to the operating budget and the receipt of $292 million in gifts, the endowment value decreased from $41.4 billion on June 30, 2022 to $40.7 billion on June 30, 2023.
The endowment provides crucial support to Yale. It is managed to provide a steady stream of income to the university’s operating budget, while preserving purchasing power for future generations. To meet this goal, the endowment invests with a long time-horizon, and the university balances current spending needs with support for its long-term priorities.
Spending from the endowment provides Yale’s largest source of revenue and supports a global need-blind admissions policy, the recent expansion of the student body, an ongoing faculty excellence and diversity initiative, the university’s ambitious sustainability efforts, a significant investment in science and engineering, and many other critical expressions of Yale’s mission.
The endowment is structured to support the university in perpetuity. Yale pursues an investment strategy designed to achieve its goals through the careful consideration of risk and return across asset classes, including public equities, marketable alternatives, leveraged buyouts, venture capital, and real assets, and through the astute selection of external investment managers within those asset classes.
This investment strategy has produced excellent long-term results, university leaders say. Over the decade ending June 30, 2023, Yale’s endowment returned 10.9% per annum, exceeding the mean 10-year return for college and university endowments by an estimated 3.0% per annum. Yale’s endowment also returned 10.9% per annum over the 20 years ending June 30, 2023, exceeding the mean 20-year return for college and university endowments by an estimated 3.0% per annum, as well.
Please see here for more information about the university’s finances.