David Monterroso
The University of Minnesota Foundation (UMF) has seen its share of the University’s total endowment double to more than $4 billion in the last decade, giving the University the fourth-largest endowment of all Big Ten schools.
During its 10-year Driven campaign, the Foundation’s endowment grew by almost $2 billion, with almost half of the increase coming from 2021 alone. UMF Vice President of Marketing and Communications Sarah Youngerman said 2021 was a “really amazing year” for all endowments.
The Driven campaign began in 2011 and raised $4.4 billion, surpassing its $4 billion goal. One quarter of the money went to students and another quarter went to faculty research, Youngerman said. At the time, it was the fifth-largest campaign from a public research university.
The growth is not due to donor gifts alone — the Foundation endowment grew by around 40% in 2021 from the previous year, a symptom of market success, Youngerman said.
Americans donated over $58 billion to higher education institutions in 2023, according to a survey from the Council for Support and Advancement of Education. The survey also found gifts from organizations rose while donations from individuals and gifts supporting infrastructure declined.
Almost 40% of gifts to endowments go to financial aid, and nearly one-third of gifts to universities’ current operations go to research, according to the survey.
“The private sector is really heavily invested in the University of Minnesota in a way that really, I think, moves the needle and I don’t think we talk about that in this kind of holistic way,” Youngerman said.
The role of foundations
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