Smith College's Endowment Fund Reaches $1.7B Mark in 2014
With an increase of 13.3 percent, the endowment fund of Smith College has reached a $1.7 billion mark during the fiscal year that ended June 30, which is keeping the prestigious women's college in the top tier of the wealthiest private schools in Massachusetts.
In
its annual report, the Northampton women's college reported that its
overall assets, which includes all its properties and various funds,
jumped to $2.3 billion in the recent fiscal year, up from $2.17 billion
in the previous year and up from $1.4 billion a decade ago.
Most
of those assets are contained in Smith College's endowment fund, which
last year was the seventh largest college fund in Massachusetts at $1.5
billion, behind only Harvard, MIT, Boston College, Williams College,
Amherst College and Wellesley College. The fund's rise to $1.7 billion
in fiscal 2014 should keep Smith's ranking roughly where it was a year
ago, based on preliminary reviews of local college financial filings.
The
bulk of Smith's investments were in equities ($611 million) and
"multi-strategy" accounts ($435 million) falling under the category of
hedge funds, according to a financial audit contained in Smith's annual
report.
The
school had about $540 million invested within private equity funds,
with $9.8 million in venture capital, $5.8 million in buyout funds, and
$525 million within another "multi-strategy" account.
Source: Boston Business Journal
