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JMU13 Offline
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OT - JMU Endowment
Out of boredom I have been scrolling the interwebs; came across this:

Our endowment is surprisingly low at $80 million

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Madison_University

Meanwhile, the University of Richmond has $2.3 BILLION (that's bigger than some BIG TEN schools!) Liberty also in the billions.

We need to step up our game!
04-30-2018 07:54 PM
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DoubleDogDare Offline
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RE: OT - JMU Endowment
$93.7M as of 6/30/17. 10% market returns since last summer plus ever increasing fundraising efforts and results means we should be close to $100M by end of this FY.

Certainly not breaking any records but much better than we were in 2010 ($48.5).

url=https://www.jmu.edu/foundation/market-value.shtml
(This post was last modified: 04-30-2018 09:12 PM by DoubleDogDare.)
04-30-2018 09:10 PM
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Potomac Offline
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OT - JMU Endowment
Jmu just got updated to a AA Bond rating too. Also thanks for the 3,456th thread about our endowment.
04-30-2018 09:13 PM
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jmufan2008 Offline
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RE: OT - JMU Endowment
Ummm...and?

You're comparing us to two private universities? Cool story, bro. Pretty sure we were in the 30s back when I graduated in 2008. We've grown by leaps and bounds the last several years. These things don't happen overnight.
04-30-2018 09:19 PM
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Deez Nuts Offline
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RE: OT - JMU Endowment
stroke that check JMU13!

I think we're over the 100M mark.
04-30-2018 09:24 PM
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DoubleDogDare Offline
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RE: OT - JMU Endowment
You guys (potomac and jmu'fan'2008) seem like real fun to be around. OP didn't take a jab at anyone, just said he was "surprised." Gave kudos to Richmond (which was kind of lame but I like to think it was a motivating factor) but ended the post with positivity and encouraging everyone to step up for the university we all love.

Don't act like a$$hat$ and bash him for no reason. At least he quoted facts (dated but whatever). "Endowment" has barely been mentioned in any posts since 2016 and mostly as a throwaway comment in larger discussions.

Is this an enlightening post? No, but OP didn't piss in your beer so chill the fudge out and go donate.
(This post was last modified: 04-30-2018 09:39 PM by DoubleDogDare.)
04-30-2018 09:27 PM
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JMU13 Offline
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RE: OT - JMU Endowment
Not meant to ruffle any feathers; off-season is the time for "OT" fillers... just wanted to share the information because it was surprising to find. Thanks DoubleDogDare for the backup.
04-30-2018 09:32 PM
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bcp_jmu Offline
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RE: OT - JMU Endowment
Lots of work to do here..but gotta give Alger some credit on this one
04-30-2018 10:39 PM
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Dukester Offline
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RE: OT - JMU Endowment
I think I recall reading something in the WP about 5-10 years ago that UVA was targeting a million a day in increased endowment.

Silly question - what do universities use endowment for? New facilities, decreased tuition, increased tuition, all the above? What has Rishmond, UVA, or JMU recently used Endowment funds for?
05-01-2018 12:27 AM
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BleedingPurple Offline
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RE: OT - JMU Endowment
(05-01-2018 12:27 AM)Dukester Wrote:  I think I recall reading something in the WP about 5-10 years ago that UVA was targeting a million a day in increased endowment.

Silly question - what do universities use endowment for? New facilities, decreased tuition, increased tuition, all the above? What has Rishmond, UVA, or JMU recently used Endowment funds for?

I always thought the majority went towards scholarships but I know some donors attach specific purposes the funds have been gifted towards and must remain within that scope. I'm may have assumed wrong, but sort of figured one reason JMU lacks in offering some potential deserving incoming students aid was due to our relatively modest endowment. Doing a little research, it appears many schools have a limit of 5% that can be spent.
05-01-2018 02:07 AM
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jmufan2008 Offline
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RE: OT - JMU Endowment
(04-30-2018 09:27 PM)DoubleDogDare Wrote:  You guys (potomac and jmu'fan'2008) seem like real fun to be around. OP didn't take a jab at anyone, just said he was "surprised." Gave kudos to Richmond (which was kind of lame but I like to think it was a motivating factor) but ended the post with positivity and encouraging everyone to step up for the university we all love.

Don't act like a$$hat$ and bash him for no reason. At least he quoted facts (dated but whatever). "Endowment" has barely been mentioned in any posts since 2016 and mostly as a throwaway comment in larger discussions.

Is this an enlightening post? No, but OP didn't piss in your beer so chill the fudge out and go donate.

Wasn't trying to be a dick, this just gets frequently beaten to death. It was also late at night and I read it as a dig at JMU because we are so low below two private schools (which is silly). Us closing in on $100 million (or surpassing it) is actually surprisingly high to me. That means we've more than doubled in the last decade and tripled in the last 13-14 years.

http://www.jmu.edu/give/donors/endowment.shtml

Just to review the reasons why it's low (or at least lower than many others):
* JMU is a public university that uses the endowment for many things that include schloarships, paying for professors and fellowships, and being able to pay things off without increasing fees. The state provides a lot of dollars to handle many of our other costs (such as capital projects, which if you look at JMU is A LOT of money). Private universities don't get money from the state for capital projects, so they are required to have a significantly larger amount of money in the bank to continue to function. This is why it's ridiculous to compare us to any private school.
* We started as a teacher's college and that is still a significant chunk of our grads
* While the normal school was started in 1908, it wasn't full-time coed until 1968
* A very large percentage of JMU grads are under 50, which means they're not ready to start making large donations
* An even larger percentage of JMU grads are not yet at the age where they're making planned gifts. As morbid as it is, this is where many older universities make a lot of their money
* We don't have any high-dollar grad programs like a law or med school

JMU is a relatively young public university that isn't in the top couple schools in the state and doesn't have a law or med school.

Having said all that, it has always been odd that the university struggles to raise dollars even though JMU is consistently rated highly in best-value, "right choice", and grads who love their alma mater. Something like 7% of grads are donors (that has hopefully increased since I heard that stat). We are on the right track, but we still need to improve. The new business school upgrades have the potential to help a lot down the road.
05-01-2018 09:41 AM
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JMU13 Offline
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Post: #12
RE: OT - JMU Endowment
(05-01-2018 09:41 AM)jmufan2008 Wrote:  
(04-30-2018 09:27 PM)DoubleDogDare Wrote:  You guys (potomac and jmu'fan'2008) seem like real fun to be around. OP didn't take a jab at anyone, just said he was "surprised." Gave kudos to Richmond (which was kind of lame but I like to think it was a motivating factor) but ended the post with positivity and encouraging everyone to step up for the university we all love.

Don't act like a$$hat$ and bash him for no reason. At least he quoted facts (dated but whatever). "Endowment" has barely been mentioned in any posts since 2016 and mostly as a throwaway comment in larger discussions.

Is this an enlightening post? No, but OP didn't piss in your beer so chill the fudge out and go donate.

Wasn't trying to be a dick, this just gets frequently beaten to death. It was also late at night and I read it as a dig at JMU because we are so low below two private schools (which is silly). Us closing in on $100 million (or surpassing it) is actually surprisingly high to me. That means we've more than doubled in the last decade and tripled in the last 13-14 years.

http://www.jmu.edu/give/donors/endowment.shtml

Just to review the reasons why it's low (or at least lower than many others):
* JMU is a public university that uses the endowment for many things that include schloarships, paying for professors and fellowships, and being able to pay things off without increasing fees. The state provides a lot of dollars to handle many of our other costs (such as capital projects, which if you look at JMU is A LOT of money). Private universities don't get money from the state for capital projects, so they are required to have a significantly larger amount of money in the bank to continue to function. This is why it's ridiculous to compare us to any private school.
* We started as a teacher's college and that is still a significant chunk of our grads
* While the normal school was started in 1908, it wasn't full-time coed until 1968
* A very large percentage of JMU grads are under 50, which means they're not ready to start making large donations
* An even larger percentage of JMU grads are not yet at the age where they're making planned gifts. As morbid as it is, this is where many older universities make a lot of their money
* We don't have any high-dollar grad programs like a law or med school

JMU is a relatively young public university that isn't in the top couple schools in the state and doesn't have a law or med school.

Having said all that, it has always been odd that the university struggles to raise dollars even though JMU is consistently rated highly in best-value, "right choice", and grads who love their alma mater. Something like 7% of grads are donors (that has hopefully increased since I heard that stat). We are on the right track, but we still need to improve. The new business school upgrades have the potential to help a lot down the road.

I appreciate your use of facts and logic more-so than your nonproductive comments...I'm always up for an informed discussion and I wouldn't be on this board if I was trying to "dig" at JMU.

With that being said, I'm currently at Rutgers for medical school and can vouch that having a medical school would do nothing for fundraising. Most of us went to other schools for undergrad and so none of us feels as strong a connection to the graduate school as we do for our undergrad institution. I have to imagine other graduate schools, like an MBA program, would be the same.

It's just a matter of speaking to your college friends when you see them every so often and publicly embarrassing/shaming them if they didn't donate; at least that's my M.O.
05-01-2018 01:44 PM
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Longhorn Offline
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RE: OT - JMU Endowment
(05-01-2018 01:44 PM)JMU13 Wrote:  
(05-01-2018 09:41 AM)jmufan2008 Wrote:  
(04-30-2018 09:27 PM)DoubleDogDare Wrote:  You guys (potomac and jmu'fan'2008) seem like real fun to be around. OP didn't take a jab at anyone, just said he was "surprised." Gave kudos to Richmond (which was kind of lame but I like to think it was a motivating factor) but ended the post with positivity and encouraging everyone to step up for the university we all love.

Don't act like a$$hat$ and bash him for no reason. At least he quoted facts (dated but whatever). "Endowment" has barely been mentioned in any posts since 2016 and mostly as a throwaway comment in larger discussions.

Is this an enlightening post? No, but OP didn't piss in your beer so chill the fudge out and go donate.

Wasn't trying to be a dick, this just gets frequently beaten to death. It was also late at night and I read it as a dig at JMU because we are so low below two private schools (which is silly). Us closing in on $100 million (or surpassing it) is actually surprisingly high to me. That means we've more than doubled in the last decade and tripled in the last 13-14 years.

http://www.jmu.edu/give/donors/endowment.shtml

Just to review the reasons why it's low (or at least lower than many others):
* JMU is a public university that uses the endowment for many things that include schloarships, paying for professors and fellowships, and being able to pay things off without increasing fees. The state provides a lot of dollars to handle many of our other costs (such as capital projects, which if you look at JMU is A LOT of money). Private universities don't get money from the state for capital projects, so they are required to have a significantly larger amount of money in the bank to continue to function. This is why it's ridiculous to compare us to any private school.
* We started as a teacher's college and that is still a significant chunk of our grads
* While the normal school was started in 1908, it wasn't full-time coed until 1968
* A very large percentage of JMU grads are under 50, which means they're not ready to start making large donations
* An even larger percentage of JMU grads are not yet at the age where they're making planned gifts. As morbid as it is, this is where many older universities make a lot of their money
* We don't have any high-dollar grad programs like a law or med school

JMU is a relatively young public university that isn't in the top couple schools in the state and doesn't have a law or med school.

Having said all that, it has always been odd that the university struggles to raise dollars even though JMU is consistently rated highly in best-value, "right choice", and grads who love their alma mater. Something like 7% of grads are donors (that has hopefully increased since I heard that stat). We are on the right track, but we still need to improve. The new business school upgrades have the potential to help a lot down the road.

I appreciate your use of facts and logic more-so than your nonproductive comments...I'm always up for an informed discussion and I wouldn't be on this board if I was trying to "dig" at JMU.

With that being said, I'm currently at Rutgers for medical school and can vouch that having a medical school would do nothing for fundraising. Most of us went to other schools for undergrad and so none of us feels as strong a connection to the graduate school as we do for our undergrad institution. I have to imagine other graduate schools, like an MBA program, would be the same.

It's just a matter of speaking to your college friends when you see them every so often and publicly embarrassing/shaming them if they didn't donate; at least that's my M.O.

A couple thoughts...

The giving % has been improving. Historically its been around 7%...still below 10%

Reasons for the low/slow giving rate are many, and most have already been addressed, however there is still an attitude JMU doesn’t need support from its alums because people look at the level of new construction/renovation and the well-maintained beauty of the campus and conclude JMU doesn’t need the extra $$

An endowment is ultimately subject to fairly conservative investment strategies, and the corpus is never touched. JMU typically disburses the return on investments over a rolling 3 year average.

The JMU Foundation controls/manages the endowment. It is legally a separate entity from the University itself. It can purchase properly, make investments, etc. that state regulations or law would prohibit JMU from participating in. Funding for the Madison Hotel Conference Center is an example.

The primary purpose of endowments are to fund scholarships, of which JMU is still woefully poor. The best schools are always looking to attract and enroll the best applicants, and generous scholarships is how you get them.

The rise of the Stock Market has had the biggest impact on the current size of JMU’s endowment. Giving is up, but the Market value of the corpus is what has driven the rise. The endowment should be at or slightly above $100m next time its reported, but JMU needs to be in the $500m to $1B range if it’s to take its rightful place amongst the best of the best in American Higher Ed.
(This post was last modified: 05-01-2018 04:12 PM by Longhorn.)
05-01-2018 04:10 PM
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Potomac Offline
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RE: OT - JMU Endowment
With JMU's history as a teacher's college for all but the last 50 years, with a good majority of our alumni still going on to become teachers, look at the national news for an example of why it's hard to raise funds from a group of alumni who have to protest and strike just to get a modest raise.
(This post was last modified: 05-01-2018 04:37 PM by Potomac.)
05-01-2018 04:36 PM
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Deez Nuts Offline
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RE: OT - JMU Endowment
(05-01-2018 01:44 PM)JMU13 Wrote:  It's just a matter of speaking to your college friends when you see them every so often and publicly embarrassing/shaming them if they didn't donate; at least that's my M.O.


Also, 2 cents, rather than shaming friends to donate, spin it the other way; help them get excited about donating and WHY JMU needs their support. It's not for building parking decks and planting flowers. Don't embarrass, but educate!
05-02-2018 07:17 AM
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JMUTrippster Offline
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RE: OT - JMU Endowment
(05-02-2018 07:17 AM)Deez Nuts Wrote:  
(05-01-2018 01:44 PM)JMU13 Wrote:  It's just a matter of speaking to your college friends when you see them every so often and publicly embarrassing/shaming them if they didn't donate; at least that's my M.O.


Also, 2 cents, rather than shaming friends to donate, spin it the other way; help them get excited about donating and WHY JMU needs their support. It's not for building parking decks and planting flowers. Don't embarrass, but educate!

Agreed! Seems there is a common misconception that donations go to things people view as unnecessary or superfluous. I always stress that any bit helps and that it can be put towards almost anything you want. My favorite pitch is saying that by not buying one coffee a month and donating it instead you can make a difference.
05-02-2018 08:20 AM
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RE: OT - JMU Endowment
(05-02-2018 08:20 AM)JMUTrippster Wrote:  
(05-02-2018 07:17 AM)Deez Nuts Wrote:  
(05-01-2018 01:44 PM)JMU13 Wrote:  It's just a matter of speaking to your college friends when you see them every so often and publicly embarrassing/shaming them if they didn't donate; at least that's my M.O.


Also, 2 cents, rather than shaming friends to donate, spin it the other way; help them get excited about donating and WHY JMU needs their support. It's not for building parking decks and planting flowers. Don't embarrass, but educate!

Agreed! Seems there is a common misconception that donations go to things people view as unnecessary or superfluous. I always stress that any bit helps and that it can be put towards almost anything you want. My favorite pitch is saying that by not buying one coffee a month and donating it instead you can make a difference.

This is a topic near and dear to my heart. I’m glad this thread was constructively started (again). A lot of good contributions to the discussion. As far as giving percentage goes, unfortunately we’re still at, basically, 7% despite the fact that the number of givers has risen in the last few years (largely due to Giving Day). This is due to the fact that the increase in number of grads has also grown in relation to number of donors.

JMU is more focused than ever on creating a culture of giving. For years there was an “aversion” (for lack of a better word) towards asking for donations at JMU. We still have a difficult time towards establishing higher giving recognition levels (i.e. Max recognition level is $10,000 for Liberty Circle within President’s Circle). There is hesitancy towards establishing $50k and $100k annual levels, etc.

The key is trying to establish that culture at the undergrad and recent grad levels to help change the culture long term. However, for those of us on this board that do give (and I know there are many of you here that do and even more of you that care or you wouldn’t be reading here) it is important that we share the importance of giving with our friends that haven’t given or don’t consistently give. As with any persuasive “sales” message, I have found it best to share with friends the “WHY” behind why I choose to give both my money and time back to JMU.

The more I get involved the more I find intrinsic in value in investing my time and resources in JMU. All of us received some sort of break or opportunity that was afforded to us by someone else- not to say that we didn’t earn the chance, and certainly it was up to us to take advantage of that opportunity- but I receive genuine joy in knowing that hopefully I am providing opportunities for fellow Dukes and am hopeful that those students will remember and pay it forward one day.

I’ve been to many universities throughout the US- JMU is special-we all know that. We have amazing faculty, like Longhorn, that are passionate about our students and our “product”. There are so many incredible alums that have SO much to offer- and even though this is about our endowment I don’t just mean money. Anything that one can give back is vitally important to the health, well being and future of JMU. I would be happy to share in more detail my “testimony” with anyone and everyone who is interested. I promise you this, every little bit helps. Please don’t think that you can’t do enough to make a difference- it all matters and has an impact.

Food for thought- there are over 15,000 people on JMU Nation. People passionate about JMU. There’s are approximately 3500 Duke Club members. If everyone else on Nation gave just $100 that would be over $1M more per year to support our student athletes and coaches.

Go Dukes!
(This post was last modified: 05-02-2018 09:53 AM by TXGiant.)
05-02-2018 09:09 AM
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RE: OT - JMU Endowment
One other thing about endowment growth versus general donations - JMU has a younger alum base which means lower annual donation amounts. JMU pushes these alums making low dollar donations to give to the Vision & Forever fund rather than the Endowment (which makes sense). I think as some of us young bucks turn into old farts like some of you out there (04-cheers), you will see increased endowment growth.

I couldn't find any info out there but it would be interesting to see the growth rate of donations to the annual funds compared to the fundraising growth rate of the endowment.
05-02-2018 09:31 AM
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RE: OT - JMU Endowment
What I don't understand is how a young school like Christopher Newport, began offering four year degree in 1971 and became a university in 1992, is where we were only 10 years ago with regards to endowment size. They have 5K students with little room or desire to expand any further. They have way fewer alumni and it's a liberal arts school without the advantages a research college offers for fund raising efforts. Lot's of similarities to JMU but on a smaller scale. Does this say more about them or more about us? Granted, their endowment size is small, but seems inline with who they are. Our's is small but not inline with who we are. Are their graduates finishing up with a greater since of giving back and continuing their march towards relativity than JMU grads? If so why, and what is being done to change our lack of philanthropy?
05-02-2018 10:31 AM
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RE: OT - JMU Endowment
Madison magazine says endowment hit $100m this past Jan and is the second fastest growing endowment in VA.
05-12-2018 10:50 AM
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