A financial endowment is a transfer of money and/or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust.
Among the institutions that commonly manage an endowment are academic institutions (e.g., colleges, universities, private schools), cultural institutions (e.g., museums, libraries, theaters, hospitals), and religious establishments.
An endowment may come with stipulations regarding its usage. In some circumstances an endowment may be required to be spent in a certain way or alternatively invested, with the principal to remain intact in perpetuity or for a defined time period. This allows for the donation to have an impact over a longer period of time than if it were spent all at once.
Read more about Financial Endowment: College and University Endowments, Financial Operation, Quasi-endowments, Types of Endowment Funds, Criticisms
Famous quotes containing the words financial and/or endowment:
“A theory of the middle class: that it is not to be determined by its financial situation but rather by its relation to government. That is, one could shade down from an actual ruling or governing class to a class hopelessly out of relation to government, thinking of gov’t as beyond its control, of itself as wholly controlled by gov’t. Somewhere in between and in gradations is the group that has the sense that gov’t exists for it, and shapes its consciousness accordingly.”
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