What is the Notre Dame Endowment?

As a gift planning officer at Notre Dame, I am often asked about the Notre Dame Endowment. You may hear talk about endowment rankings or read articles, mentioning different performance metrics, but here is how I describe the Notre Dame Endowment.

At Our Lady’s University, the endowment is a source of hope, strength, and real change. It fuels the programs and the people who are fighting poverty, searching for answers to rare and neglected diseases, and building peace and democracy in a world full of discord. Thanks to the most mission-aligned asset managers, the endowment has seen incredible growth over the years, and that growth is generating an impact that is changing lives from generation to generation. In fact, 40% of the payout last year went directly to supporting scholarships and fellowships.

What is an endowed gift?

An endowed gift is a pool of invested funds that generate income with the primary goal of supporting the institution’s operations, initiatives, and programs into perpetuity.  Those gifts collectively create the edowment that becomes our engine to power long-term sustainability and growth. The Notre Dame Endowment is a collection of over 7,000 individual endowed funds, each created with a purpose (e.g. to fund a scholarship) outlined by a donor.

The Notre Dame Investment Office invests those endowed funds with the intention of preserving the capital while generating consistent returns. A portion of those returns is then used to support the endowed fund’s purpose, while the remaining funds are reinvested, creating a self-sustaining cycle of giving.

How endowed gifts work

Donors establish, through gifts, the endowed funds with commitments paid at one time or over a period of time, using assets such as cash or appreciated securities. However, Notre Dame offers several additional ways to establish endowed funds:

1. the designation of the proceeds of a charitable remainder trust; 

2. distributions from a donor advised fund; 

3. provisions made in estate plans; or

4. beneficiary designations of retirement accounts. 

Depending on the type of gift and type of assets used, gifts to create an endowed fund may also be tax deductible and often provide immediate charitable tax benefits.

See all the benefits of the endowment through Jason’s story and know that an endowed gift is more than a financial transaction, but a profound commitment to serving a world deeply in need.