CSNbbs

because that's incredible.

Donors.

I think it was Carnegie Money for the most part.

I'm not sure where it all came from. Carnegie may have started the endowment off well, but I believe that a 3rd of the endowment (or more) came about when Mark Nordenberg took over as Chancellor. How much of that was investment growth vs pure donations is not clear to me. But there was a prominent donor who recently passed - William Dietrich - who gave the university a $125 million gift. That would explain the most recent uptick in the endowment at least.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-22...utive.html

VT just finished a campaign raising 1.1 billion for the school's endowment.

I don't know, but Syracuse has to find out...

I don't really think this is OT, btw.

(11-16-2011 05:17 PM)OrangeCrush22 Wrote: [ -> ]I don't know, but Syracuse has to find out...

I don't really think this is OT, btw.

by OT, I basically meant non-sports related

In all seriousness, Pitt will be celebrating its 225th anniversary next year, so the institution has been around for quite some time. Also keep in mind that Pitt was a private university until ~1966.

Don't know about the level of financial support A. Carnegie provided to Pitt; his university is located next door after all. Also have to count significant donors (assuming, no direct knowledge): Mellon family, Frick family, Schenley family, Scaife family, Heinz family, Hillman family, Chevron, US Steel, Alcoa, etc. My assumption is that any major corporation or anyone who has a namesake park or other famous Pittsburgh industrialist probably played a role in building the university's endowment to what it is today.

Maybe Pitt should hire Debbie Yow as A.D. -- she'll show you how to spend that money!

Pitt has always done well raising money from alums. One just left us 125 million in the last month or so. He was a Pitt grad who made a fortune in the steel industry I think. Beano Cook once pointed out the difference between Pitt and Penn State is that Penn State alums donate to the athletic department but Pitt alums donate to the school.
He used the endowment figures to back it up. Penn State has over twice as many alumni as Pitt, but Pitt has twice the endowment of Penn State.

Maryland is hoping that Sergey Brin beings to look more fondly on his alma mater.