Endowment History
- Started in the early 1920s under University president Father James Burns
- $7 million when Father Theodore Hesburgh became president in 1952
- In 1976, the Board of Trustees adopted a multiple manager structure after having had a single firm manage funds since 1945
- By 1980, the Endowment reached $150 million, invested primarily in large-cap domestic stocks and high quality short-term bonds
- First private capital investments in real estate and venture capital occurred in the early 1980s
- First investments in hedge funds date back to the early 1990s
- For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2000, the Endowment returned a record 57.9 percent, the highest return for any American university
- Notre Dame maintains one of the highest allocations to alternative investments among endowment investors.