re: LSU's Endowment Is Very Low

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I'm a recent alum, someone explain to me how my donations work in endowment. Am I donating a principal that LSU invest and LSU spends the interest?

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Yes. You have the gist of it.

In most years, LSU returns something in the neighborhood of 6% to 15% on the endowment.

The returns made from investing the endowment fund certain chairs and professorships, scholarships, and some special programs at LSU.

SO... if LSU invests $1,000,000 and gets a 10% return, then... that's $100,000 for LSU to use to pay professors and give out scholarships.

Endowments are good because they are a perpetual source of funding for the university.

The only down side of it is that you need a good principal to get a good yearly return.

You give to the endowment for the long-term, not the short-term.