Over the past year, Elon has received $36 million in gifts from friends and alumni. The contributions are a part of the five-year Ever Elon campaign, in which Elon hopes to double its $76.5 million endowment.

The institutional advancement office considers the endowment “critically low” when compared to Elon’s competitors, such as Davidson College, Wake Forest University and the University of Richmond, who boast endowments several times that of Elon’s.

“We have about $750 from our endowment to spend per student per year,” said Nan Perkins, vice president for institutional advancement. “Furman University, for example, would have 10 times as much–$7,500 per student per year.”

Currently 77 percent of Elon’s operating budget comes from student tuition. In the past, to increase the budget, Elon has had to raise tuition and accept larger incoming classes. Perkins believes that growing the endowment will benefit current students by reducing tuition increases.

“The lower your endowment the more you have to depend on tuition, which is one of the reasons Elon needs to grow,” she said. “If we build our endowment we can lessen our dependence on growth and increased tuition.”

Perkins recalls events from history to explain why Elon is so behind on its endowment. Though many other schools received a “transformative gift” of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, the largest gift Elon has received has been $5 million.

“At Elon we also had a catastrophic event: the fire of 1923 that wiped out the main campus. When we rebuilt we had indebtedness and then the depression hit,” said Perkins. “There was a span of three decades that many of our sister institutions were growing stronger, but Elon was just trying to survive.”

Building endowment is different from simply raising money, because the money cannot be spent immediately. Instead of going toward Elon’s annual operating budget, endowment money is invested. Only an approved amount of the interest is spent each academic year.

For example, if $100 was put into the endowment at an interest rate of 5 percent, Elon would receive $5 each year for allowing that money to collect interest. Over decades, the money earned through an endowment is often enough to support a large percentage of an operating budget.

“It’s like having a savings or retirement account with money that you do not intend to touch the principal of,” said Perkins.

The Ever Elon campaign is now in its second year. Though advancement officials haven’t set a goal amount that they hope to raise, they expect to announce a target amount by fall 2008.

Recent gifts include $5 million from Furman and Susan Moseley, $1 million from Ed and Joan Doherty and $1 million in a planned gift from Bill Graham’s estate. Of the total money raised so far, $11 million is in deferred gifts which are only paid to the school after the death of the donor.

The endowment money will primarily be used for student scholarships, professorships and faculty development, study abroad, undergraduate research programs and the campus conservatory.

News Editor: Olivia Hubert-Allen - 09/12/07