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16 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | OCTOBER 28, 2024 14 Bobala Road 3rd Floor Holyoke, MA 01040 Tel: 413.536.3970 Headquarters 280 Trumbull St 24th Floor Hartford, CT 06103 Tel: 860.522.3111 One Hamden Center 2319 Whitney Ave, Suite 2A Hamden, CT 06518 Tel: 203.397.2525 Safeguard Your Organization's Future Against Cyber Attacks The most effective way to safeguard your organization from a harmful and expensive cyber attack is to identify your vulnerabilities. Schedule a call with our cyber team to assess your readiness in the event of an attack. Cybercriminals Love Your Business on digital strategies rather than traditional print appeals for broader participation." This new campaign will be the foundation's largest to date. Previously, it raised $471 million against a $330 million goal for a campaign that ran from 1998 to 2004, officials said. Growing the nest egg The fundraising campaign correlates directly with the LARGEST ENDOWMENTS HELD BY CT COLLEGES/UNIVERSITIES INSTITUTION Yale University $40,746,900 14,647 Wesleyan University $1,481,970 3,171 Trinity College $791,317 2,236 Quinnipiac University $718,984 7,982 UConn Foundation* $577,275 28,817 Connecticut College $448,853 1,926 Fairfield University $423,194 5,514 Sacred Heart University $268,374 9,356 Central CT State University $86,708 7,542 Southern CT State University Foundation $37,244 6,941 *UConn Foundation's endowment grew to $634 million at the end of fiscal 2024. Source: 2024 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments UCONN Foundation Continued from page 15 foundation's goal to build a $1 billion endowment. UConn's endowment pool achieved returns of 12.1% in fiscal 2024, increasing the school's nest egg by $57 million to $634 million. That performance was driven by strong technology stock returns and certain diversification strategies, said David Carney, the foundation's chief finan- cial officer and senior vice president for finance and administration. The return outperformed the foun- dation's target and also outpaced many of UConn's peer universities, Carney said. Over the past five years, the foundation's endowment pool has realized an annualized return of 9.3%, generating $88 million in income distribution for the university, he said. UConn's endowment is made up of over 2,000 individual funds, each of which is restricted to support a specific purpose, school or program. More than a third is allocated to scholarships, with the remaining funds directed toward academic initiatives, faculty support or programmatic needs. Endowed gifts generate 4% annually to university programs, according to the foundation. Current use gifts are all spent in the year or years given, but the endowment exists in perpetuity and grows primarily through investment strategy. Despite the gains in recent years, UConn's total endowment still lags many peer institutions. There were 41 public universities with endow- ments of more than a billion dollars at the end of 2023, according to the 2024 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments. The Texas A&M University system had the largest endowment of any public university ($19.3 billion), followed by the University of Michigan ($17.9 billion). Yancey said UConn's fundraising efforts only got started in earnest around 1993, putting it behind other major public research univer- sities. Since then, however, the endowment has grown substan- tially, from $23 million in 1990. "We've only been fundraising for the endowment since the 1990s," she said. "Comparatively, the University of Kansas began fundraising in 1891," and had an endowment of $2.4 billion at the end of 2023, she said. The Midwest university's foun- dation staff is also larger — almost 210 compared to UConn's 165, she said. UConn President Radenka Maric said Yancey has the experience and drive to reach the foundation's ambitious fundraising goals. Yancey, Maric said, "has built a sterling reputation and is known for her capacity to think strategically, drive high-performance fundraising teams, and strengthen relation- ships with alumni and donors." FY23 TOTAL ENDOWMENT MARKET VALUE (IN $1,000S) FALL 2022 FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT ENROLLMENT