Steward's Endowment Growth

The Steward50 priorities are supporting endowment (70%), capital expenses (20%), and annual fund (10%). We are focused on:

Providing additional scholarships and funding for Variable Tuition
Growing the diversity of faculty and staff
Building financial stability
Improving buildings and grounds
Enhancing excellence in academics, arts, and athletics

We are prioritizing endowment in the Steward50 campaign because these gifts will continue to support the school for years to come. Steward has partnered with Spider Management for the past nine years (and plans to continue to do so) to manage our current endowment, with the goal of preserving our endowment into perpetuity while generating investment returns for current spending needs.

Spider Management, owned by the University of Richmond, is the only university-owned investment firm that offers its services exclusively to non-affiliated endowments and foundations. Through this partnership with Spider Management and additional philanthropic gifts from our community over the last nine years, the school’s current endowment has grown by 60% to $14.5 million at Dec. 31, 2018. For the calendar year ending Dec. 31, 2018, the return on the portfolio since initial investment was 7%. In the chart below, we have estimated the future value of an endowment gift based on our historical results.

Endowment Gift Today	Value in 50 Years
$10,000	$131,735
$25,000	$329,335
$50,000	$658,670
$100,000	$1,317,335
$150,000	$1,976,005
$250,000	$3,293,340
$500,000	$6,586,685
$1,000,000	$13,173,365

The Steward School’s endowment supports the annual operations of the school through an annual contribution of 4% from the unrestricted portion of the endowment. This amounts to over $400,000 annually to support such school operations including faculty professional development, Variable Tuition, and student programs. In addition to this contribution, the restricted portion of the endowment supports a number of scholarships including merit grants, the Debbie Robson Merit Scholarship, and health and wellness programs.