Why are college endowments so massive?

The Good Work Investigative News Team is back to track the rise of massive endowments among higher education’s elite schools and ask the question no other fake comedy reporters would dare: why?
Melissa Korn is a higher education reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Brian Galle is an academic at Georgetown Law focusing on tax policy, nonprofits, and behavioral economics. Catherine Liu is a writer and professor of film and media studies at UC Irvine who often writes about the politics of class. Abbie Darst is the executive director of marketing and communications at Berea College.
#Endowment #GoodWork
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Learn more about Berea College: www.berea.edu/
Video by Dan Toomey and Henry Stockwell
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Why are college endowments so massive?
00:00-00:45: Intro
00:45-03:06: Defining endowments
03:06-05:10: How do schools grow endowments?
05:10-07:45: Why do schools want phat endowments?
07:45-08:59: Schools want to be prestigious
08:59-09:56: Tuition is really expensive
09:56-13:36: Why can’t big endowments cover tuition?
13:36-14:11: Could elite schools teach more people?
14:11-15:06: Fund managers on boards of trustees
15:06-17:05: Ideas for using endowments differently
17:05-17:18: Shabooyah
Why are college endowments so massive?

[@laurasnow7822]

The only inaccuracy in this journalistic masterpiece is saying anyone in Hoboken is worth swinging with.

[@stephenziga2319]

Hi Dan, you forgot to mention that havard University still applied for Covid relief funds even though they gave 50billion USD in endowment. They received 10s of millions of dollars in relief funds.

[@MaxwellTornado]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that an actual, real-life place is legitimately called "Hoboken", and it's not just an intentionally stupid name someone came up with to put in the Mafia videogame.

[@theskii]

@@MaxwellTornado mf i live there and you bet your ass its a real place. not even the goofiest town name in new jersey. we have Mahwah, Ho-Ho-Kus (the hyphens are in the name), Brick, Ogdensburg, and Moonachie. there are 65,000 people living in hoboken and it rules

[@MaxwellTornado]

@@theskii Ogdensburg doesn't sound weird at all. Brick sounds cool. I wanna live in Brick.

[@grahamwilder5756]

@@MaxwellTornadobased

[@westvirginiaglutenfreepepp7006]

Is good work replacing the daily show? Some experts say yes. Others have credibility.

[@yurisich]

Having segments on the show would be interesting. Showcase some additional talent on the channel.

[@westvirginiaglutenfreepepp7006]

@@yurisich maybe but that feels like a different show altogether. then again, it's not up to us is it?

[@letsgoan]

yea yea yeah, i think so.

[@Benzinilinguine]

...wait.

[@dexterlecter7289]

Daily show is and always has be re?arded. Stewart is a total tribe POS and the new guy isn’t too much better.

[@edward1937]

“We stock pile cash in case tuition prices go up” my brother in Christ you are in charge of your own tuition pricing

[@mayam9575]

Another important fact is that non of these universities pay property taxes because they are "nonprofits". Yale owns 54% of the land in New Haven. In 2019 they had a $40 billion endowment while the New Haven Public School system was over $20 million in debt. The property taxes Yale would have owed the city would have covered this.

[@mayam9575]

Additionally this idea of a raining day fund needed for something like covid is really just bullshit. During covid Yale fired almost all of their non union and non faculty staff like kitchen workers and janitors. While obviously they would be doing less work during covid they are a $40 billion nonprofit

[@aluisious]

Disloyalty detected. Units have been dispatched to your location.

[@thomas16126]

same with U Penn

[@normalwerido]

Columbia U is the largest private property owner in NYC

[@TheAlchemist1089]

​@@normalweridoI think it's the church Columbia is second

[@antonmorozov5193]

Sooo.... students have to pay a lot for colleges while colleges get a lot of money they don't spend on education. Does this mean that colleges now are in business of collecting money instead of education?

[@1.4142]

art collages especially

[@copiouscat]

Yes. That is precisely what kind of business is going on

[@ClothyCentral]

no but colleges are

[@TheAceOfOnes]

Always have been, but they’re “non-profit” it’s a massive scam

[@vailpcs4040]

Shhh.... don't say the quiet part out loud! The wealthy don't like it when you point out systematic wealth inequality enablement.

[@Spencer481]

A few years ago the dean of Princeton was interviewed on a podcast, and the host asked him since their endowment was so massive would he ever recommend to a donor to give the money to a smaller institution because the money would make a bigger difference there. He said no because he couldn't guarantee the money would be spent well. Princetons endowment currently sits at 34.1 billion. Mf you aren't spending that money well. These ghouls will never willingly give a thin cent to anyone but themselves.

[@allisonc.-jt4rc]

Well said.

[@aluisious]

I want to know what the dean of Princeton actually fucking does all day.

[@SirPhysics]

"well spent" means invested. Remember, they're finance ghouls. They see the purpose of an endowment as growing exponentially to be as large as possible, not to actually facilitate the running of the school.

[@filmawayvlad]

All right, all right, all right…

[@rekit7351]

At Harvard, there are 1.45 administrators for every teacher. There are 7,024 administrators, and 7,240 students.

[@DharmicSeeker]

Honest to God this is some of the best comedy-news I've seen in a while. Good work guys.

[@cinilaknedalm]

Couldn't agree more. And info is awesome. Dan is a genius

[@nabicx]

I agree, I need more of this

[@NormanCorebit]

Right. "Comedy-news".

[@godlyobject6509]

@@NormanCorebit Comedy is rooted in truth.

[@HCoreSoldierKili]

the cutss to him loking into the camera during the zoom intervies is already funnier than any netflix comedy special ever

[@Jensen-C]

College tuition has surpassed inflation by over 20% for a long time lol. The idea they need these endowments to combat inflation is insane

[@Algormortis9]

They'll argue that their costs are increasing in order to remain competitive with rival schools.. an arms race of excessive spending and exclusivity bullshit. It's insane how much good all that endowment money could be doing in the world, but no, that's the purpose it's serving. I will NEVER donate to a college, they take more than enough from their students and their families.

[@joshuathomas5626]

Yea it’s insane how the nation has just accepted the racketeering of college tuition. At this point, criticizing tuition hikes is about as effective as criticizing congress for their self pay increases. It’s disgusting

[@stephenziga2319]

Hi Dan, you forgot to mention that havard University still applied for Covid relief funds even though they gave 50billion USD in endowment. They received 10s of millions of dollars in relief funds.

[@x--.]

It wasn't a rainy enough day.

[@RSAgility]

Well Money talks, if i have a lot of it, for some reason, others want to give me more...more discounts etc..make my life easier

[@me0101001000]

I'm a scientific researcher and PhD student in the fields of electrochemistry, molecular physics, materials science, and chemical engineering. My fields aren't nearly as expensive to work in as the likes of biological and medical sciences, but I still think it's deeply sad how these endowments could go to internally funding nearly all of a university's research without the need for external grants, paying off all tuition for students, run nearly all of the necessary facilities on campus grounds, pay all of the workers a living and thriving wage, and then still have plenty left over, for decades if not centuries. Finances are a perpetual stress for everyone, and universities do nothing but hoard without purpose. It's both infuriating and disheartening.

[@alexrivera5747]

I'm imagining colleges franchising like McDonald's where you can apply to open up your own local Harvard.

[@lennartmakkink7427]

"You're not in the ripping-off-college-kids business, you're in the real estate business."

[@ilhamrj2599]

Lol, college franchising already exists, many of them are operational in China, Middle East, and Southeast Asia. So, nope it is not novelty, for quite some time now.😅

[@Sololeveler344]

Well i think pennstate has multiple campuses idk if they are franchise though

[@aluisious]

Non-profit...but we happen to be extremely rich.

[@3forte]

These days I wouldn't even consider Harvard to be just a university. I would think of it as a massive business conglomerate, with their hands in the banking, insurance, medical, and publishing fields.

[@TihetrisWeathersby]

I'm glad you are tackling this topic, Universities especially the big ones are practically corporations with how they operate

[@gregtomamichel973]

Yes, and other corporations don't just stockpile money, they find effective other ways to put that money to work.

[@Fractured_Unity]

@@gregtomamichel973Money itself “works”. So those who profit off of the management from the endowment have an incentive to find ways to maximize it’s value.

[@aluisious]

Apple had to get threatened by a large activist investor into doing something with $200 billion they were sitting on.@@gregtomamichel973

[@creepersonspeed5490]

​@@gregtomamichel973 As someone who works in a university, don't you worry, it is working. Just not toward us

[@thefullaj]

Yale is the largest private land owner in New Hampshire under a shell company, that funds their endowment through logging operations…

[@justindekock7211]

Financial Aid Administrator at a large university here - it's important to note that Berea College is a work college, which is a sector of the Federal Work-Study program. So while they do not charge their students any tuition, each student is required to work a job on campus to pay for their education

[@gibshredcamel]

Great piece. University of Pennsylvania has an endowment of 21 billion and they still nickel and dime poor people. Deplorable.

[@thisIsFunnyLolz]

Yep and erode more of Philadelphia's neighborhoods to buy up land and not pay property taxes on it

[@tagguh1]

Even if Harvard's Salaries were 100 million dollars a year (it isnt), it would take nearly 540 years for them to exhaust their endowment.

[@Insan1tyW0lf]

"Why would we put a small percentage of our massive endowments towards free tuition when we literally have people lining up and competing to pay us? We're a nonprofit, not a charity." - Universities, probably

[@Alwayswesome]

Having worked at an endowment, I can say these really are important questions that not enough people are asking (especially with regards to the biggest endowments)

[@1wakuralain]

A lot of people are asking them but you won't see those people working at endowment departments because... the endowment departments don't want to hire people who desire change to the infinite money machine.

[@Itslvle]

This entire subject is such an Americanism my European head is spinning.

[@allensu9363]

Find it strange that universities won’t use endowments to reduce tuition

[@PearceVaughn]

that's the hopeful, loving part of your humanity speaking. your cynical side knows that makes perfect sense, because why would those greedy, chalk-handed pigs feel a need to do anything that actually helps people?

[@aluisious]

It's only strange if you assume their reason for being is to educate people instead of provide a cushy, elitist place for a bunch of faculty and alumni to hang around.

[@dj001k]

Thank you for covering uni board of trustees and how these are increasingly being run by private equity types. A topic that deserves way more attention (uni boards set tuition and determine operating budgets).

[@melkenhoning158]

Right. I wish the university students who attend these institutions would speak up about this more considering they and their peers are in the direct line of fire.

[@YourFinanceGuide]

"For-profit" Non-Profit education.

[@GoodWorkMB]

BREAKING: We are bringing our journalistic talents to the New York Comedy Festival on November 8th for a special business conference. Tickets can are available for purchase and flexxing on your coworkers 👇

[@GoodWorkMB]

www.chelseamusichall.com/event/good-work-conference-for-innovation-and-business-greatness/

[@copiouscat]

Thank you for all you do. Your Reportering is duly and truly impeccable and what is needed these days. 🫡 GOOD WORK Stay lit 🔥 Big homie.

[@attackeyebrows3649]

shoutout to the guy in 5:29 doing peace sign to the camera. Was wondering how people react like everything is normal when our baige coat guy is out in the street.

[@treyshaffer]

It is wild to think that the US News Rankings might literally result in billions of dollars in economic activity in trying to game those rankings to universities advantages.

[@MrBrandybuck1120]

Whoever is editing these videos is doing a FANTASTIC job!!!!

[@zants_]

With that said, though, I can only imagine what these videos would be like if someone like Prezoh edited these lol

[@MissterBest]

I worked for the company that does he accounting for the Harvard and MIT endowments. They invest in EVERYTHING and run in the billions.

[@parid1gm640]

As a person that grew up around Berea College and has a Mom that currently works there, it’s great to see them represented as a college that puts their funding towards the students instead of saving it for massive projects.

[@divinediva6320]

University of Penn has 39 billion dollars in an Endowment Fund!!!!

[@charlotteathena]

i like that the channel is aware enough to have a person other than dan back up the actual facts because you have a very clear jokey-serious distinction

[@marioxzzz]

I have no trouble believing Dan goes to swinger parties

[@melkenhoning158]

Good Work always makes you feel a mix of feeling amused and incredibly pissed off at the same time. Thanks for talking about this topic which is criminally under reported

[@samgeddes-smith2310]

Also a reminder that the number of administrators in these institutions has exploded over the recent years. You have to ask 'to what end?'

[@thansri]

College tuition is getting way too expensive for middle class to afford even with financial aid program. In 1992 College Tuition = BMW 325I , Now = BMW M5 ( Cost per year )

[@BEMEiTY]

This is the journalism that we need

[@Prince_Sidon]

The sudden zoom into Dan's angry face is why I always come back for more. Btw, isn't Shibuya in Japan or something?

[@thefruitman3200]

yes it's a famous neighbourhood in tokyo

[@haplon33]

10/10 this channel has the best selection of topics

[@eazeyt1759]

Also, you don’t HAVE to go to Harvard, Yale, etc. there are plenty of great schools that don’t cause you to go into insane levels of debt. You go so that you can tell people that you went.

[@allisonc.-jt4rc]

Agreed. However, numbers 7 and 9 on the list are well-known State schools. ($17 Billion endowments)

[@x--.]

*Yes, yes, you do.* If you're rich and your kid is not the best student, has modest intelligence, or just wants to be lazy then they absolutely need the networking opportunities. No price is too high to make sure they are hobnobbing with the right (rich) people. It's a ticket to staying rich and, if you are savvy enough, the elite, upper class.

[@aluisious]

I graduated UCLA with $12k in debt. Paid it off in a year and a half.

[@aluisious]

"Elite" universities are about rubberstamping the next generation of elites. That's why they have "legacy admissions." One would have to be very foolish to believe that Harvard teaches better science or engineering than Berkeley.@@x--.

[@Praisethesunson]

​@@user-bq2ek1xf7iWhy imagine? The U.S learned that lesson. When those poors graduate the good colleges without massive debt. Then they do radical stuff like effectively enact changes in the status quo that benefit the other filthy poors. The rich decided that radical actions from educates poors cannot happeb again. Hence schools harvest vast piles of money for the sake of stability in the economic hierarchy.

[@pengu1064]

As a first year business student this is one of the funniest and most informative way to ingest business information that will ever exist

[@Franky566]

from a year 3 student, good luck as the HR courses slowly destroy your soul.

[@Maxyy40]

Dan Toomey always killing it.

[@CriterionCafe]

When will you do an episode on MBAs!!!??

[@IntelSedrino]

How did he make it through without making a joke about the size of their "endowments"

[@tylerpeterson4726]

Uhh 2:50

[@mogulmayhem]

Breaking News: Dan Toomey is "well endowed"

[@ze_ep]

This topic is fascinating, and basically still mysterious. Like Brown's fund gets 50% annual return and when people ask htf they do that, they answer is "oh well we are very smart and just invested in things that have higher returns" .... WHAT???

[@matthewholt6168]

Is Good Work hiring? Actual accountant and academic here - hell I'd even I'd donate some services. Fun, business-oriented, truly informative - Good Work is an actual force for good.

[@fireant202]

Freakonomics did a great multi-part series about elite colleges and why they don't follow the typical supply and demand rules of markets. Basically, as he said, their value partly comes from their exclusiveness so deans are hesitant to start eroding that. There was one example of a school that opened new campuses abroad but they're an outlier.

[@SirPhysics]

Behind closed doors these schools plan out how to encourage more students to apply to them knowing they won't accept any of them, just to increase how "selective" they are

[@Unknown-ig9yj]

Plz do a video on what CPAs actually do

[@SebastianTheGreat]

This is the hard-hitting journalizin’ that we desperately need right now

[@albertpampalonalisnenko8389]

I can’t get enough of these videos

[@f-empire-8]

Is it possible people are hiding their money there?

[@whyamilikethis1998]

Dan admitting he's a swinger finally makes the trench coat make sense, it's all adding up

[@joshuathomas5626]

Giggidy

[@alltheworldatmyfeet]

I understand that it would be very legally bad to spend a rich person's money on something other than what they said, but also they have the choice of taking the money or not. In my college, i used to work with the student government and lived in a house the college owned that had dips in the floor and a condemnable unclean basement. Yet we were asked to figure out where to put a million dollar statue on campus. AND only one dorm building on campus abided by ADA regulations and it was the one you had to pay extra to live in and had preference toward senior students.

[@babymonkeydebacle]

Wow, incredible work Dan! Very proud of you and what you're doing and you are NOT a disappointment compared to your physician brother AT ALL.

[@PhilipBlank]

Trying to not laugh watching this at my work desk while on lunch is no easy task.

[@TheHuntedZ]

Thank you, sir. Good work.

[@gilangignasraharjo6138]

Truly a good work you are doing right here

[@jaron95]

I love this series so much. Every second of every video is brimming with both important journalism and hilarious comedy.

[@eschaton2834]

What a fantastic presentation! Enjoyed it thoroughly.

[@frzieb]

I thought nonprofits were supposed to benefit society. Mine put me into loads of debt.

[@AsianFoodNerd]

🌟Anyone catch the EASTER EGG: flying coffee cup 1:34 🌟

[@JustinY.]

That awkward moment when Harvard's endowment makes so much money it would make Scrooge McDuck jealous

[@MustraOrdo]

Hey, it's the ninja man

[@StuffandThings_]

Damn its been ages since I last saw you in a comments section

[@elijahcanete6992]

THE LEGEND IS BACK

[@justanerd414]

Bro went to get milk and only now found way back

[@StuffandThings_]

@@justanerd414 Nah I think he just ran out of shurikens and had to get more

[@julesperchet6704]

My kind of news. Thanks 👍🏻

[@arnanbassin416]

Thanks for a refreshing take on news and being entertaining

[@YavorBrick3D]

Really nailing the Balenciaga head tilt/eye squint during the interview segments. Good work!

[@sonicchitch1662]

Among these top-tier institutions, students from the top 1% in income distribution make up a larger share of enrollment than all of the bottom 50% combined. These endowments aren’t necessarily going towards bringing in more kids from modest means.

[@skip5971]

As usual, good work 👍

[@BaoLe-rt9jf]

This really was some good work

[@saibadam]

I need more of this

[@nickalan8586]

Thank you

[@theberserker_of_falconia]

Human greed knows no bound

[@vietimports]

colleges have basically become banks and investment funds. and administrative costs are so high because people join the board or some random titled position at the school and get a big payday for being friends with people in high places.

[@StuffandThings_]

Another fun college endowment fact: the Harvard endowment bought a lot of questionably legal forest in Romania some decades ago, and is now selling it off to Ikea who logs the pristine old growth

[@cjclark1208]

Corruption, it’s corruption.

[@creepersonspeed5490]

​@@cjclark1208+ greed

[@exoZelia]

Now I'm even more aggressive about not going back to college

[@RealHiretonFilms]

Thank you Rick Astley, very informative!

[@jonathanhuhn4364]

I keep hearing that the Ivies should just expand, but I don’t think that’s the solution. If the US population keeps growing while Harvard classes stay the same size, the prestige/signaling value of a Harvard degree only increases. Everybody involved (Harvard, the alumni, the students who made the cut) wants that. The Ivies don’t exist to educate the masses, they exist to pedigree the elite. We’re not going to change that.

[@AmandaabnamA]

Okay, then use the money for good instead of hoarding and multiplying it for themselves and PE

[@namenlos9760]

As a person from luxemburg, I feel severely attacked 🥲

[@wandaespana2577]

Seton Hall, go Pirates! 🤣

[@hakim6158]

I'm also well endowed but no one made an investigative report about it 😒

[@alexv5493]

Great job on keeping the video engaging

[@180_S]

glad i found this channel. it's good.

[@evdm7482]

Good job work

[@patrickwillingham8153]

Love the transitions, editor person 🙏

[@mitrin1796]

Nice, really needed my fix

[@LordDecapo]

Love this stuff...

[@aj_who]

Dan you are one of the funniest people in the fin-space. I'm glad to be here - good work

[@PokhrajRoy.]

So excited to see the new video! I think we call it ‘donation’ in India. It can sometimes start from school.

[@EmperorShang]

Number must go up!

[@sonnykim6755]

good work!

[@DesmondMiles333]

This is Good work.

[@papa_pt]

I've wondered this for a long time. I cannot believe or fathom a reason for why they've grown so large.

[@Spo8]

These videos should be enough for you to walk onto the writing staff of any of the major comedy news shows, but selfishly I hope you keep doing these.

[@koffeinekyle]

Dan Toomey mentioning Connecticut in any fashion has made my year. Thank you, and Good Work 🎉

[@AmandaabnamA]

The Orignal $ state

[@sarahli6425]

i love how informative and sarcastic your videos are

[@cyanide1931]

It feels surreal as hell to listen to this from Europe

[@dakotagifford8461]

Amazing as always! Also worth noting that many colleges legally cannot call students, students. They are called customers.

[@Franky566]

every regionaly acredited institution refers to students as students.

[@austinherbert4140]

Im obsessed with the channel, best thing I’ve seen on KZbin in a long time. Keep this up! If there was a patreon for more content like this I’d totally subscribe

[@kendalson7100]

My what a large... endowment you have!

[@JM-hb2xf]

Why was his iced coffee lifting off from the ground ? 😂😂😂