Not sure if it was already reported here but RU’s endowment is now ranked as the 84th largest in the country at 1.22 billion. This is a huge jump over the last 10 years. In 2007, the endowment was ranked 115.
Rutgers Endowment
- Thread starter pmvon
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I hope the OP can do that. My guess is that we are still close to the bottom among B1G schools. Still, that's quite an improvement.
Not really, It’s been a pretty steady climb with a focus on donations and a little bit a school pride since 2006. Yes, at the bottom of the big ten but still a massive improvement.
I may be wrong,but I don't think UMDNJ had much of an endowment to bring to us. No doubt whatever they brought helped, but so too have the fund-raising efforts in the present and recent past.
It's worth remembering that it was Richard McCormick who, as President, launched the fund-raising effort in 2006. He gets less credit than he deserves.
pmvon and camden, thanks for the correction. I thought that even though UMDNJ was struggling mightily when we took over, they had at least 250+ million in endowment money. No matter where it came from, I'm very pleased to see that Rutgers has really upped its game.
And Camden you're right regarding McCormick. I remember 12 years ago when he started the larger fund raising efforts and that was before we were invited into the B1G.
And Camden you're right regarding McCormick. I remember 12 years ago when he started the larger fund raising efforts and that was before we were invited into the B1G.
Thanks for the kind words. Remember that UMDNJ was not that old, so it didn't have much time to pick up an endowment.
Only two major conferences in America have all members with at least $1B in endowment size and all members in the Top 100 in the nation in endowment size: The B1G and the Ivy League. I always called the B1G the Public Ivy League; this is just one more thing in common.
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So it looks like we're 13- take that Maryland! It's interesting that RU and MD lag a school like Nebraska, when RU and MD have a much higher academic profile and are located in a much wealthier region. It shows how much growth we can do. I'm just glad we're not in last and happy with this upwards move.
Well yes and no. Except for the Ivy League schools, the institutional endowment rankings are not based on individual campuses of schools that are members of athletic conferences. Particularly for public schools, the endownment rankings can be a bit misleading to make comparisons because in the case of multi-campus universities it's typically not just the flagship campus that's being counted. Sure, the majority of the endowment is likely attributable to the flagship so it could be a proxy but it's not really that easy to tell.
Always remember that Rutgers had virtually no endowment before it became the State University and expanded in the 1950s. Nebraska has a much longer history. Beside, if you were a Nebraskan, and wanted to help higher education, there would be almost no local alternative than the state's university.
And the endowment was probably still rather nominal until the Foundation was formed in 1973. Thereafter, another 30+ years of what might be characterized as junior varsity fundraising until the Foundation eventually started becoming more sophisticated and productive in their efforts.
It's not that surprising: state pride plays a big role there in contributions from non-alums.
Also member schools of these old conferences tend to be older than member schools of other conferences. In theory, older = more time to build an endowment. Doesn’t apply to us obviously.
Remember that Rutgers was a small college into the 1950s, and that one reason Rutgers became the state university was that it was financially weak. Rutgers' original religious connection was with the Dutch Reformed, and many Dutch Reformed eventually Americanized by becoming Presbyterians. So the Dutch Reformed connection didn't yield that much money.
And that my friend is the impact of athletic success which raises your school profile beyond the academic reputation . Creates alumni and state pride, therefore donations, therefore endowments which can fund scholarships, departments, professors salaries, etc. Hence the fools running Rutgers in the 80s & 90s who completely turned their nose up to spending any money into athletics should be lashed a few million times. Set the school back decades
Interesting tidbit on the decline of the Dutch Reformed Church. Served jury dury for Somerset County this week. Jury assembly room is a 120-year-old repurposed Dutch Reformed church next to the courthouse.
I see Dan Schumann, CEO of PayPal, was commencement speaker for Rutgers New Brunswick this year. His son graduated this year and brother and sister also graduated from Rutgers. Mother is a dean at the school. I hope the school is working on him for a donation in the near future.
Schulman acknowledged in his speech at the Rutgers commencement that he didn't get into Rutgers College but he wound up at Middlebury College for undergrad. MBA from NYU. So you figure both of those schools must be working him hard for donations. That said, perhaps Rutgers can appeal to his heart as a Jersey boy and maybe he has a soft spot for Rutgers given the close family connections, especially his son. Not sure how much of a philanthropist he is or whether he favors certain causes over others. Fingers crossed.
It would be great if RU could land a whale for once. Cornell, many privates and some public’s have had folks make game changing contributions in the order of hundreds of millions. Would be great for RU to get one.
Someone like David Geffen, the successful record producer, who never went to college. He gave $200 million to UCLA's medical school.
That was just the money he gave to persuade UCLA to name the medical school after him. He has since given another $100 million for medical school scholarships and another $100 million to establish a middle and high school that UCLA faculty and staff can send their kids to instead of having to worry about the LA school system. That is not his only philanthropy; I believe he has given a lot to Lincoln Center in Manhattan.
I never would've guessed he had that kind of money. I thought he had a few hundred million, but never would've guessed he is a billionaire.
Grandmother WAS a dean from the 70s through the 90s and has most likely been retired for many years now. I would guess that a tuition waiver does not apply in the case of a granchild of an employee. Also dont think it applies in the case of a former employee.
