University Endowments Overview: Most colleges and universities, both public and public, have endowments that provide income to supplement other sources of operating revenue, such as tuition, donations, government grants and taxpayer funded assistance. Additionally, many private secondary schools, and even some elite private primary schools, also may have significant endowments.
Both educational endowments in general, and university endowments in particular, require some degree of in-house money management. For the most part, the larger the endowment, the more likely the university or other educational institution is to employ in-house money managers who actually make investment decisions down to the level of buying and selling specific securities. The smaller the endowment, the more likely it is that most investment decisions will be delegated to outside money management firms. However, even in the latter case, the educational institution will have in-house staff who select the outside money managers and monitor their performance.
Careers with University Endowments: Jobs with university endowments can range from entry-level jobs that will help launch a career in these fields to positions at the larger endowments for people experienced in these areas:
Compensation at University Endowments: Compensation can be highly lucrative for positions at university endowments. For example, the Harvard Management Corporation, a subsidiary of Harvard University that managed its endowment, was embroiled in much controversy several years ago over its multi-million dollar performance bonuses for key employees. This eventually led most of the senior staff to quit the HMC and found their own firm, where they expected to earn even more.
