Two Florida universities have more than $1 billion in endowments to invest on campus (2024)

Andrew MarraPalm Beach Post

Two Florida universities have more than $1 billion in endowments to invest on campus (1)

Two Florida universities have more than $1 billion in endowments to invest on campus (2)

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How much money a university receives from donors can play a big role in how well it serves its students — making the size of a school’s endowment an important factor.

Schools use endowments for a wide range of things, from financing extra professorships and doling out scholarships to constructing new buildings or entire degree programs.

Endowments are financed by donations from many sources, but the most prominent are donations from former students looking to give back to the institutions that helped to form them.

Such donations typically include “stipulations from the donor on how the institution can access its resources," according to BestColleges, an online college-admissions publication. "These guidelines usually restrict use to certain schools or colleges within the university, or even to specific academic departments and programs."

The university with the largest endowment in the United States is Harvard University, which as of last summer was a reported $50.7 billion.

No school in Florida has an endowment anywhere close to that. But two campuses in the Sunshine State can boast endowments worth more than $1 billion each.

The distinction of the largest endowment falls to the University of Florida, which was $2.4 billion in 2021. That’s nearly double the amount of the state’s second largest – the University of Miami, with $1.4 billion.

Florida schools ranked by endowment size

Here’s a list of every Florida college or university ranked by the size of their endowment. The figures are based on federal education statistics from 2021, the most recent year available.

University of Florida — $2,375,793,000

University of Miami — $1,393,436,637

Florida State University — $897,762,598

University of South Florida — $692,741,042

Rollins College — $460,276,000

Stetson University — $387,215,324

Florida Atlantic University — $375,146,137

Florida International University — $276,410,044

Miami Dade College — $272,843,053

Nova Southeastern University — $226,994,000

University of Central Florida — $198,559,038

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach — $164,826,000

University of North Florida —$141,106,152

Florida Southern College — $111,809,685

Florida Institute of Technology — $107,867,599

Palm Beach Atlantic University —$97,750,000

Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University — $92,852,706

Saint Leo University — $92,347,642

Valencia College — $88,705,021

Florida Gulf Coast University — $88,094,149

College of Central Florida — $83,508,629

Flagler College —$83,206,439

Eckerd College — $81,121,309

The University of West Florida — $66,401,120

Ringling College of Art and Design — $63,982,310

Pasco-Hernando State College —$61,797,860

Jacksonville University — $59,216,191

The University of Tampa — $58,215,971

New College of Florida — $55,284,307

Barry University — $54,487,883

Florida SouthWestern State College — $49,513,921

State College of Florida-Manatee-Sarasota —$46,310,607

Broward College — $43,955,775

St. Thomas University — $40,042,465

Saint Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary — $39,243,815

Lynn University — $38,790,567

Gulf Coast State College — $38,517,879

Santa Fe College — $35,295,242

Bethune-Cookman University — $34,996,645

Polk State College — $34,137,822

St. Petersburg College — $32,111,406

Indian River State College — $28,526,945

Florida State College at Jacksonville —$28,459,413

Eastern Florida State College — $21,652,652

Palm Beach State College —$20,726,537

Florida College — $19,635,436

Chipola College — $19,302,441

Tallahassee Community College— $17,089,503

Daytona State College — $17,000,414

Florida Gateway College —$16,648,725

South Florida State College — $15,289,581

Seminole State College of Florida — $12,526,522

Lake-Sumter State College — $12,280,939

Pensacola State College — $11,821,324

St. John Vianney College Seminary —$10,608,544

Southeastern University —$10,050,766

AdventHealth University — $9,875,753

Ave Maria University — $8,662,372

The Baptist College of Florida — $8,450,912

Warner University — $6,907,619

Webber International University —$6,863,658

The College of the Florida Keys — $6,480,615

Florida Memorial University — $6,013,894

Hillsborough Community College — $5,231,595

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Worldwide — $4,132,000

North Florida College — $4,069,519

Florida Polytechnic University – $3,568,738

Saint Johns River State College — $3,243,258

Hodges University — $2,968,254

Hobe Sound Bible College — $2,677,030

Ave Maria School of Law — $1,834,271

Edward Waters University — $1,681,684

Johnson University Florida —$1,670,154

Trinity College of Florida —$825,648

Trinity International University-Florida — $425,000

Beacon College – $120,836

Trinity Baptist College — $113,899

Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard

Editor's note: This article was updated to remove a listing for Northwest Florida State College after its endowment information was found to be outdated in the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard database.

Andrew Marra is a reporter at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at amarra@pbpost.com.

Two Florida universities have more than $1 billion in endowments to invest on campus (2024)

FAQs

Two Florida universities have more than $1 billion in endowments to invest on campus? ›

UF, UM have Florida's largest endowments — more than $1 billion each.

How many colleges have billion dollar endowments? ›

Of the 678 institutions that participated in the survey, 132 reported assets over $1 billion. However, more than half of survey respondents had endowments of less than $250 million.

Why do American universities have such large endowments? ›

An endowment's investment income can also significantly lower tuition costs for students. For example, if a university's endowment yields a total of $150 million and has a 5% spending limit, this would provide $7.5 million of available income.

What is the endowment of the Florida State University? ›

Established in 1960, the Foundation, a nonprofit corporation, today manages an endowment of $785.2 million and has total assets of approximately $1.03 billion (as of March 31, 2024). The FSU Foundation has partnered with EthicsPoint to provide a completely anonymous whistleblower reporting system.

What are University endowments invested in? ›

UCLA has an endowment of nearly 8 billion. Universities don't usually manage all this money directly. Instead, they have professionals investing this money in all kinds of areas, like stocks, real estate or private equity.

What is the endowment of the University of Florida? ›

No school in Florida has an endowment anywhere close to that. But two campuses in the Sunshine State can boast endowments worth more than $1 billion each. The distinction of the largest endowment falls to the University of Florida, which was $2.4 billion in 2021.

What state university has the largest endowment? ›

Public schools

The University of Texas System has the largest system-wide endowment of any American public higher education institution. For public universities, larger endowments are often associated with flagship state universities, especially those associated with a medical school.

Why do schools need endowments? ›

Endowment funds at colleges and universities are intended to ensure the financial viability and future of the institution.

What do colleges do with all the money? ›

How Do Colleges Spend Their Money? Nonprofit colleges and universities must reinvest their revenues in funding school programs, including scholarships, student aid, and athletics. For-profit colleges are not required to reinvest all of their revenues in school operations.

Why colleges don t use their endowments? ›

Universities have become profitable businesses less interested in education and more interested in accumulating wealth, power and influence. Their endowments are not used for good but as stores of wealth.

What is the hardest Florida college to get into? ›

What is the hardest college to get into in Florida? The University of Miami is the hardest college to get into in Florida. As of 2022, the school accepted only 19% of applicants, according to NCES data. First-time students had a median SAT score of 1390 and an ACT score of 32.

What is the biggest college in Florida? ›

The University of Central Florida is the biggest college in Florida, with over 68,000 students. Seven Florida colleges enrolled over 40,000 students in 2022.

Who funds the University of Florida? ›

In a sign of things to come, UF also surpassed $1 billion in new external awards for the first time in 2023, including $792 million from the federal government, nearly $77 million from state and local governments, $98 million from private foundations and $61 million from industry.

Why do universities invest money? ›

Endowments provide important financial stability to the college or university and, in turn, to the local community. Endowments also provide the financial cushion that enables the college or university to work with towns and cities to improve the quality of local schools and to revitalize neighborhoods.

Why are university endowments so big? ›

As Harvard's endowment spending suggests, these assets allow institutions of higher learning to directly support students through things like scholarships and fellowships. Schools with very large endowments often offer generous financial aid packages in an effort to maintain or improve campus diversity.

What is the purpose of an endowment? ›

The purpose of an endowment is to earn investment income by investing the donated capital. Part of the investment income is used for operations and the rest is reinvested. The FASB classifies endowments into three categories – true endowments, terms endowments, and quasi-endowments.

Why is Notre Dame's endowment so large? ›

It has risen to that point due, in large part, to the generosity of donors, the expert management of those gifts through the endowment, and the revenue the endowment has produced through a slow and steady investment strategy guided by principles grounded in Catholic social teaching.

Which College are most billionaires from? ›

Harvard University

How much is Notre Dame's endowment? ›

The Notre Dame endowment has ended the 2023 fiscal year at the same value it began — $18.9 billion.

What is considered a large endowment? ›

These amounts range from several thousands to tens of billions of dollars. In the 2024 rankings, Harvard University in Massachusetts topped the list of the largest endowment funds, with $50.9 billion. That's more than the gross domestic product of many countries, such as Sudan, a nation of more than 49 million people.

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