Wealth

Ranked: The World’s Top 50 Endowment Funds

Published

7 months ago

May 16, 2023

Aran Ali

Graphics/Design:

Joyce Ma

Infographic showing the World's Top 50 Largest Endowment Funds

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Ranked: The World’s Top 50 Endowment Funds

What do Harvard, the Church Commissioners for England, the NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art, and an entity on behalf of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah all have in common? They all have endowment funds.

An endowment fund is the investment arm of nonprofit institutions like universities, charities, and churches. The purpose of the fund is to invest the organization’s assets to fuel future operations and other important projects.

The world’s largest endowment funds have billions in investable assets, making them sizable players in the finance sector. Here, using data from Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, we take a closer look at the world’s largest endowment funds by total assets.

Types of Endowment Funds

Overall, there are four main types of endowment structures.

Unrestricted Endowment: A fund structure where assets are used at the full discretion of the institution
Term Endowment: A fund structure with a fixed term time period before the principal can be spent
Quasi Endowment: A donation to an endowment with a specific purpose to deploy that capital
Restricted Endowment: A fund structure where the principal value from donations is held forever and only returns generated on the principal can be used

In addition, each endowment fund has different structures in regards to withdrawals, use of funds, and their general investment philosophy.

The Largest Endowment Funds

The largest endowment funds can be compared on a grand economic scale, in terms of assets.

To put it all into perspective, the largest 50 endowment funds represent over a trillion dollars in assets. Or for a more singular example, look at Harvard’s fund, which has an endowment greater than the entire GDP of countries like Serbia, Bolivia, or Slovenia.

Here’s how the top 50 rank.

Rank	Endowment Fund	Total Assets	Region
1	Ensign Peak Advisors, Inc	$124,000,000,000	North America
2	Japan Science and Technology Agency	$80,700,000,000	Asia
3	Stanford University	$75,143,751,000	North America
4	Harvard Management Company	$72,781,329,000	North America
5	Yale University	$56,223,259,000	North America
6	Princeton University	$44,460,038,000	North America
7	MIT Investment Management Company	$42,526,492,000	North America
8	Duke University	$30,385,835,000	North America
9	New York University	$27,840,535,000	North America
10	Columbia University in the City of New York	$24,698,782,000	North America
11	University of Notre Dame	$24,599,541,000	North America
12	KAUST Investment Management Company	$23,500,000,000	Middle East
13	Emory University	$20,458,905,000	North America
14	Johns Hopkins University	$18,037,751,000	North America
15	Church Pension Fund	$17,773,649,171	North America
16	University of Chicago	$17,276,136,000	North America
17	Ohio State University	$16,006,851,000	North America
18	Northwestern University	$15,855,683,000	North America
19	Washington University in St Louis	$15,103,569,000	North America
20	Penn State University, Office of Investment Management	$15,017,272,000	North America
21	Notre Dame of Maryland University	$14,938,580,253	North America
22	Cornell University	$14,850,618,000	North America
23	University of Southern California	$14,495,427,000	North America
24	Vanderbilt University	$13,883,495,000	North America
25	University of Virginia Investment Management Compnay	$13,811,076,000	North America
26	University of Tokyo	$13,285,270,000	Asia
27	National University of Singapore	$12,626,100,000	Asia
28	UNC Management Company	$11,986,857,000	North America
29	University of Michigan Office of Investments	$11,900,000,000	North America
30	General Authority of Awqaf	$11,238,371,192	Middle East
31	Church Commissioners for England	$11,197,700,000	Europe
32	J.Paul Getty Trust	$10,778,927,000	North America
33	Trinity Wall Street Episcopal Church	$9,932,419,000	North America
34	Unitersity of Utah	$9,827,602,000	North America
35	Brown University	$9,793,108,000	North America
36	Kamehameha Schools	$9,326,013,000	North America
37	Dartmouth College	$9,078,340,000	North America
38	Hong Kong Jockey Club	$8,603,580,000	Asia
39	Rice University	$8,424,555,000	North America
40	The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust	$8,313,588,000	North America
41	University of Pittsburgh	$8,011,856,000	North America
42	Nature Conservancy	$7,870,380,000	North America
43	University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation	$7,329,730,000	North America
44	University of Rochester	$7,149,025,000	North America
45	Virginia Commonwealth University	$6,985,495,306	North America
46	Purdue University	$6,755,500,000	North America
47	University of Miami	$6,582,600,000	North America
48	University of Minnesota	$6,304,508,000	North America
49	Caltech Investment Office	$6,252,584,000	North America
50	Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City	$5,588,554,000	North America

The largest endowment fund, Ensign Peak Advisors, is based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and manages the assets for the Mormon Church (officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). The church itself has over 16 million members worldwide and is the fourth largest church in America.

The Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) is a national research and development agency that plays a core role in promoting technology, innovation, and science within society. In 1995, Japan’s government passed the Science and Technology Basic Plan and the JST came to life and now has over $80 billion in assets as well as offices in Paris, Washington, Singapore, and Beijing.

Just two funds come from the Middle East. The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) with $23.5 billion and the General Authority of Awqaf. KAUST is ranked 95th amongst universities in the world and made history in the country by being Saudi Arabia’s first mixed-gender university.

The General Authority of Awqaf has $11 billion in assets and was established as a public authority to manage endowments and enhance Saudi Arabia’s various goals for societal development. “Awqaf” in Arabic loosely translates to assets that are donated or purchased for general or specific charitable causes that are socially beneficial.

On the environmental side is the Nature Conservancy, which has $7.8 billion in assets. The charity is estimated to have protected more than 100 million acres of land.

American Universities Dominate

Universities are one leading category from the world of endowment funds, particularly those from the United States. In fact, universities make up 39 of the top 50 endowment funds, with 35 of them based in America.

Historically, Harvard has been the largest, but Stanford has edged ahead in recent years. Stanford has $75 billion in assets compared to Harvard’s $73 billion. These vast amounts of money have not gone unnoticed, and elite universities are facing mounting criticism in some circles.

“When Harvard’s total admitted freshman class is 1,400 people—and they have an endowment that is the GDP of El Salvador—they’re not a nonprofit, they’re a hedge fund educating the children of their investors.” – Professor Scott Galloway

With student debt rising to $1.6 trillion, it’s likely these universities may face greater criticism around how they use the wealth available to them in endowment funds.

Sizable Influence

The top endowment funds carry considerable influence within the world of finance. While they all have billions to invest, each has very different objectives and intentions on how to deploy their capital.

And despite being non-profit organizations, endowment funds are seeing their overall assets exceed those held by many other investment funds, such as sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds, and private equity firms.

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Wealth

Where the Ultra-Rich Spend Their Holidays

In this graphic, we visualize the destinations that saw the biggest influx of seasonal centi-millionaire residents in 2022.

Published

2 months ago

October 13, 2023

Selin Oğuz

Visualized: Where the Ultra-Rich Spend Their Holidays

There are more than 25,000 centi-millionaires around the world today, forming an elite club composed primarily of founders and heirs of family fortunes.

According to Henley & Partners, most of these individuals—who have more than $100 million in investable assets by definition—split their time between several properties each year.

To explore the destinations that are the most sought-after by the ultra-wealthy, we’ve visualized the cities that saw the biggest influx of seasonal centi-millionaire residents in 2022, using data from Henley & Partners.

Centi-Millionaire Vacation Hotspots

The top three seasonal vacation hotspots of the ultra-rich are found in the United States: Miami, the Hamptons, and Florida’s West Palm Beach.

This may not come as a shock given the concentration of centi-millionaires in the United States, with New York, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Los Angeles being home to the highest number of centi-millionaire residents in the world.

Regardless of where they live year-round, the table below reveals where these elites flock for seasonal getaways in their secondary homes.

Rank	City or Town	Year-Round Centi-Millionaire Residents, 2022	Peak Holiday Month Centi-Millionaire Residents, 2022
1	🇺🇸 Miami, Florida	160	800
2	🇺🇸 The Hamptons, New York	25	700
3	🇺🇸 West Palm Beach, Florida	64	400
4	🇫🇷 Paris, France	126	300
5	🇺🇸 Santa Barbara & Montecito, California	82	200
6	🇺🇸 San Diego, California	70	200
7	🇫🇷 Nice, France	60	200
8	🇺🇸 Napa, California	28	200
9	🇵🇹 Golden Triangle, Algarve, Portugal	20	200
10	🇺🇸 Aspen, Colorado	6	200
11	🇺🇸 Carmel-by-the-Sea, California	40	150
12	🇺🇸 Boca Raton, Florida	38	150
13	🇵🇹 Lisbon, Portugal	35	150
14	🇨🇭 Lugano, Switzerland	30	150
15	🇫🇷 Cannes, France	20	150
16	🇫🇷 Antibes, France	18	150
17	🇺🇸 Jackson Hole, Wyoming	10	150

The data above only considers centi-millionaires vacationing in their secondary residences, therefore excluding hotel stays, holiday rentals, and yachts. Peak holiday months vary for each location.

Beyond the 10 U.S. cities that constitute the top 17 centi-millionaire seasonal hotspots, we come across several French cities on the list, including Paris, Nice, Cannes, and Antibes, as well as Portugal’s Golden Triangle and Lisbon.

Global Centi-Millionaire Trends

According to Henley & Partners’ 2023 Centi-Millionaire Report, the global centi-millionaire population is expected to grow by 38% in the next decade, reaching nearly 40,000 by 2033.

Much of this growth is expected to be seen in countries such as China, India, and Saudi Arabia. China’s Hangzhou and Shenzhen, specifically, are expected to see the highest percentage growth in centi-millionaire populations through 2033, growing by 95% and 88%, respectively.

Despite the rapid growth of the wealthy in the global East, however, it’s notable that many centi-millionaires are still graduating from American universities.

More than half of the top 20 universities with the most centi-millionaire alumni are in the United States, with Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Pennsylvania making up the top three spots.