Category Archives: Endowments, Fund-raising and Philanthropy

by James A. Bacon

A University of Virginia student group, UVA Apartheid Divest, is petitioning to hold a referendum demanding that the University of Virginia Investment Management Company (UVIMCO) divest itself of investments in corporations implicated by Israel’s “apartheid” regime.

The petition brings attention to the practice of socially responsible investing adopted by UVIMCO, which manages an endowment portfolio of roughly $14 billion for the university and affiliated organizations. States the website: “UVIMCO promotes ESG [environmental, social and governance] integration across its portfolio and with its investment managers.”

UVIMCO doesn’t invest in individual securities. It puts its money in the hands of money managers… who invest in individual securities. Rather than picking stocks, UVIMCO picks money managers. As part of that process, UVIMCO evaluates a prospective manager’s ability to incorporate ESG priorities into its investment practices. Continue reading →

by James C. Sherlock

As an alumnus of the University of Virginia, I like to check in occasionally to see how my alma mater is doing financially.

Not the actual University, but the wealthy and proliferating nonprofits set up for its off-the-books support. When I say wealthy, I mean $13,568,527,649 wealthy.

OK, rich.

All of them tax exempt. Continue reading →

This graph shows how UVIMCO divvies up its $14.5 billion endowment from an investment perspective.

by James A. Bacon

The University of Virginia endowment racked up a breathtaking 49% investment return in the year ending June 30, 2021, bringing the total value of the university’s investments to $14.5 billion, reports the University of Virginia Investment Management Company (UVIMCO) in its 2020-21 annual report.

I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

On the one hand, powerful investment returns supports initiatives such as the recently announced allocation of $50 million dollars for merit-based scholarships and aid to needy undergraduate students. On the other hand, such spectacular financial performance — almost $5 billion in a single year — makes the university leadership less accountable to tuition-paying students and parents, to the Commonwealth of Virginia which funds millions in state support, and to alumni whose individual donations are paltry by comparison.

Come to think of it, I’m even agnostic on whether the $50 million in new scholarship money is a good thing or not. Continue reading →

Bright shiny object: the proposed $48 million Data Science building.

by James A. Bacon

Alumni unhappy about recent developments at the niversity of Virginia claim to have withdrawn $150 million or more in pledged financial support for the institution. Money talks in academia as elsewhere. President Jim Ryan and Rector James Murray have engaged disgruntled grads in spoken and written communications and have given them the courtesy of thoughtful (albeit inadequate) responses.

But there is little indication that anything will change. In last week’s Board of Visitors meeting, not one of the issues raised by the insurgent alumni was discussed — not the “F— UVA” sign on the Lawn, not the purging of names from buildings and grounds of once-prominent figures now deemed racist, not the increasing intolerance of non-leftist viewpoints that is strangling intellectual diversity and leaving a majority of students reluctant to speak their opinions openly.

Continue reading →