UI and UI Foundation investments total $1 billion for first time

IOWA CITY – The combined investments of the University of Iowa and the UI Foundation totaled more than $1 billion for the first time ever in the December investment report, UI Foundation President Lynette Marshall told faculty leaders Tuesday.

Marshall, speaking to the UI Faculty Senate, said as of June 30, of the 865 universities and colleges that reported endowment totals, 62 of them had totals of more than $1 billion. The UI joined that club in December, she said. The university was close to breaking the $1 billion mark several years ago, Marshall said, but then the recession hit.

“We are in probably a 10 percent group of university endowments that have hit $1 billion,” she said.

Of the 65 endowments in the UI's peer group of $500 million to $1 billion totals, the UI endowment had the sixth-best performance last year, Marshall said, and the UI was second in the Big Ten Conference to Nebraska in investment performance, she said.

The UI's 10-year investment performance was a 5 percent return, with five-year performance at 4.6 percent, one-year performance at 16.9 percent and year-to-date performance at 22 percent, she said.

The UI Foundation is in the quiet phase of a new capital campaign, with an initial goal of $1.5 billion. The eight-year campaign likely will go public in 2013, Marshall said.

Of the identified priorities, programmatic initiatives make up 34 percent, student support 21 percent, faculty support 20 percent, facilities 17 percent and annual funds/unrestricted is 8 percent.