Howard University endowment first among HBCUs to surpass $1 billion

Howard University’s endowment has surpassed $1 billion in assets, making the Washington-based higher education institution the first among historically Black colleges and universities to reach the milestone.

An audited financial statement for the most recent fiscal year released Feb. 11 noted the endowment had $1.04 billion in net assets as of June 30. The endowment’s net assets grew 11.9%, from nearly $933 million at the start of the fiscal year.

Founded in 1867, Howard has graduated notable alumni — including former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, as well as author Toni Morrison. The university has also produced alumni who have pursued careers in institutional investing, including Laurence Morse, co-founder and managing partner at the $10.8 billion Fairview Capital Partners in West Hartford, Conn., as well as Eddie Brown, founder, executive chair and senior portfolio manager at the $8.1 billion Brown Capital Management in Baltimore.

Based on Howard’s financial report, Pensions & Investments estimates the endowment returned 9.5% for the 2024 fiscal year, the median of endowment returns tracked by P&I during that period. The report noted the fund posted a total investment return of more than $94 million, received nearly $40 million in contributions, and spent close to $29 million.

Transfers from other institutional accounts and other changes to the endowment added more than $5 million. The endowment’s net assets also include more than $11 million in claims for payment from the federal government as well as promised commitments from donors.

A spokesperson for Howard could not be reached for more information.

In terms of market value, Howard’s endowment rose 11.4% to $1.03 billion in 2024, and was the largest among the HBCUs that participated in the 2024 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments.

The endowment is roughly double that of its next closest peer, Spelman College. The market value for the Atlanta-based college’s endowment assets was $507 million as of June 30, up 6.7%.

Like other participants in the 2024 NACUBO-Commonfund study, HBCU endowments “benefited from positive returns as well as an uptick in gifts to endowments overall,” noted George Suttles, executive director of the Commonfund Institute. “From an asset allocation perspective, especially for smaller endowments that tend to have higher allocations to public markets, they benefited from strong performance.”

Endowments at HBCUs have smaller endowments compared with their peers in the broader higher education space, according to a 2024 joint study by PGIM and the United Negro College Fund.

Conducted during the third quarter of 2023, the study found that a majority of HBCU endowments have less than $100 million in assets.

In contrast, Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., has the largest university endowment in the U.S., with $53.2 billion as of June 30.

The PGIM-UNCF study also noted that these endowments tend to have smaller allocations to alternative asset classes vs. their non-HBCU peers. Private HBCUs had an average exposure of 14% to alternatives, vs. 41% for non-HBCUs.

In 2019, Howard launched a five-year strategic plan. One of the university’s goals was to grow its endowment to $1 billion by 2024 in order to increase support for student scholarships and infrastructural investments.

The university also sought to launch a fundraising campaign that would increase engagement among alumni and private donors. During the five-year period, the university saw a surge in donations, peaking in the 2021 fiscal year with $171.9 million contributed by alumni, according to an October 2024 update on the strategic plan.

Among the notable donations during the 2023-2024 academic year according to news releases, the university received a $12 million gift from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott for the Howard University College of Medicine in December 2023.

The same month, Howard also received a $20 million donation to support its GRACE Grant Endowed Fund for first-time undergraduate students from Carrie Walton Penner and Greg Penner, co-owners of the Denver Broncos. Greg Penner is also CEO of the NFL team, while Carrie Walton Penner is a board member and former chair of the $5.7 billion Walton Family Foundation in Bentonville, Ark.

Additionally, alumnus Levoyd Robinson donated $1.4 million in February 2024 to support the university’s business school. Robinson is a founder, CEO and chief investment officer of CFI Partners, a Chicago-based multistrategy credit investment firm that manages about $6 billion in assets.

During the fall 2023 semester, 13,416 undergraduate and graduate students were enrolled full time at Howard, according to the NACUBO-Commonfund study. The endowment value was close to $77,000 per full-time student.