Princo seeks to earn outstanding long-term investment returns in support of Princeton University’s mission to be a world-class research and higher education institution. Supporting this mission requires spending a sizeable amount of the Endowment each year in a reasonably stable fashion, while also preserving the Endowment’s purchasing power in perpetuity. Spending out of the Endowment must be large enough to ensure that the University devotes proper resources to its human and physical capital, but not at the detriment of future generations’ ability to do the same.
The Endowment supports almost every aspect of the University, including:
- The continual expansion of Princeton’s generous financial aid program and the ongoing expansion of Princeton’s undergraduate student body, which includes more students from first-generation college, lower-income, veteran, transfer and military backgrounds. The University’s financial aid model means that most families with incomes up to $100,000 a year pay nothing toward their student’s cost of attendance, and many families living in the U.S. with incomes up to and even beyond $300,000 receive grant aid, including those at higher income levels with multiple children in college. In the Class of 2028, 71.5% of students qualify for financial aid and 21.7% of the class are lower-income students eligible for federal Pell grants.
- New research that pushes the boundaries of discovery and will have an impact on the world, including in the areas of quantum computing, artificial intelligence, climate science and insights on diseases such as Alzheimer’s and cancer.
- Capital projects that support the growth of the student body, student health and well-being, and the arts on campus.
- Service and social impact programs that allow students and faculty to collaborate with communities near campus, across New Jersey and around the world.
- New outreach programs that support the success of first-generation, lower-income, veteran, community college and transfer students, including partnerships with community college students and teachers in the state.
The earnings from the endowment provide about two-thirds of the University’s net annual operating revenues and help fund the University’s highest priority strategic initiatives, while preserving real value for future generations. This percentage has steadily increased as the endowment has grown. In 1997, only 33% of the University’s operating revenue was funded by endowment earnings.
In fiscal year 2024, distributions from the endowment totaled $1.7 billion. Over the last 20 years, the endowment has contributed $19.8 billion toward the University’s operations, equivalent to almost double the endowment’s value at the start of that timespan.
Endowment funds currently cover 70% of the undergraduate financial aid budget, which has supported the University’s efforts to increase the socioeconomic diversity of the student body.