About the University Endowment

Endowment Value: $1,555,250,000

as of June 30, 2024

Santa Clara Endowment Ranking

National Association of College and University Business Officers NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments® (NCSE)

The endowments of 688 participating U.S. colleges and universities and affiliated foundations returned 7.7 percent, net of fees, for FY23 (July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023), a sharp reversal of the -8.0 percent return reported for FY22. In total, participating institutions withdrew $28.4 billion from their endowments during the fiscal year, an 8.4 percent year-over-year increase.

Endowment Overview

  • The Role of the Endowment

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    As stewards of the University’s endowment, the Santa Clara Investment Office manages a diversified investment portfolio that provides recurring financial support for key university operations. The goal is to generate sufficient investment returns so that the portfolio can serve both the needs of current and future generations of university stakeholders. We refer to this as “intergenerational equity.”

    Underlying the endowment are over 1,000 donor designated pools, each contributing in a unique way to help Santa Clara deliver a world-class Jesuit education. The largest designations include merit and need-based scholarships, funding for a variety of university programs and endowed chairs to attract prominent faculty. Every year, the university liquidates approximately 4.5% of the portfolio and contributes the proceeds to fund current operations. In fiscal 2024, this has equated to $55 million or 9% of the university’s operating budget.  

  • Use of the Endowment

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    The past decade has demonstrated the benefit of the endowment model.  Between July 2014 and June 2024, the endowment has contributed an aggregate of $409 million to the university’s operating budget while also compounding the value of the portfolio from $823 million to $1.555 billion.  This growth has helped accomplish the endowment’s goal of ensuring adequate funding for current university programs while also strengthening the university for future generations of Santa Clara students.

  • Fiscal 2024 Endowment Performance (July 2023 – June 2024)

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    The Santa Clara endowment returned +8.8% for Fiscal 2024, which trailed the +14.1% return of the policy portfolio.  Over the last five years, the endowment has returned +11.2% annualized, which compares favorably to the +8.1% return of the policy portfolio.

    It is not uncommon for the endowment to underperform for short periods of time while outperforming over longer periods.  The main driver of this pattern is the endowment’s meaningful allocation to the equity of companies that are privately owned (so-called “private equity” and “venture capital”).  When public stock markets soar over a short period such as in 2023, these private investments tend to lag initially but outperform over longer time periods.

    Like many of the elite endowments across the country, the Santa Clara endowment remains principally invested in private assets, and the Investment Office remains confident that this will generate the best long-term returns.

    John Kerrigan, Santa Clara’s Chief Investment Officer noted, “We are pleased with the investment results of the SCU Endowment over the past year, but not satisfied. After a decade of the Endowment performing in the top quartile of US endowments, the one-year results ended up at the mean. As noted above, this is largely due to the lag between our private equity and venture capital holdings versus the ‘Magnificent Seven’-heavy S&P 500 and NASDAQ. That said, we are very comfortable with the managers and assets in our portfolio, and, as always, are focused on outperforming over a market cycle.”

    The Investment Office remains keenly focused on risk management to ensure that the portfolio is safe in most any economic environment.  The endowment retains a healthy posture, with an appropriate mix of diversification among return-generating assets and defensive liquidity. 

The charts below compare the levels of return and risk (volatility) of the University’s endowment, its Policy Portfolio, a blended portfolio of 60% global stocks / 40% bonds and the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI).  Risk here is defined as volatility, or standard deviation. In general, higher volatility means higher risk because volatility directly measures the historical range of outcomes and is a good predictor for the range of future potential outcomes.

Risk & Return Summary (as of June 30, 2024)

500 El Camino Real • Santa Clara, CA 95053 
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