
Harvard’s Endowment Takes an $8 Billion Hit, loses 22% - robg
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/business/04harvard.html?hp
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DaniFong
This will ripple down to startups. Harvard's endowment, and the similarly
invested portfolio of the Ivy League, Stanford, and a few other universities,
are some of the major limited partners of venture capital firms. Harvard has
already been pulling out of several firms that have not been performing,
writing off any possible returns. And many endowment managers have
historically followed Harvard's lead.

~~~
smanek
The harvard management company's 2007/2008 annual report ([http://vpf-
web.harvard.edu/annualfinancial/pdfs/2008fullrepo...](http://vpf-
web.harvard.edu/annualfinancial/pdfs/2008fullreport.pdf)) says that they only
have about 1.5 Billion in venture capital (and only about 1 billion of that is
domestic).

However, you are right that the ripple effect could be substantial.

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petercooper
Considering the DJIA is down 24% on the last four months, this drop sounds
about right - assuming they keep some of it in property, bonds, or whatever.

It sucks for them, but a 22% drop in a large fund over the last four months
isn't exactly news :-( (which is sad in itself)

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bootload
_"... In a sign of the economic times, Harvard has sent a letter to its deans
saying that the university’s $36.9 billion endowment fund lost 22 percent of
its value in the last four months and could decline as much as 30 percent
..."_

Porsche hacks the market better than Harvard ~
<http://www.stubbornmule.net/2008/11/volkswagen/>

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redorb
in a world where africans can't have clean water, most american college
students gather major debt while going... and colleges are raising tuition 15%
a year

\- I have a hard time feeling bad for them :?/ (probably a character flaw)

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mhartl
A university worrying about its endowment is a lot like a 30-year-old worrying
about his 401(k).

~~~
smanek
Harvard's endowment is so huge that they use it for everything.

 _"Harvard depends on its endowment for about 35 percent of its operating
budget, and some of its schools rely on endowment income to cover more than 50
percent of their expenses"_

That isn't a 401K, it's a trust fund.

~~~
patio11
Harvard isn't a trust fund. It is a _hedge fund_. One of the larger ones. The
hedge fund has reported 15-20% returns for five years running.

The hedge fund also has a PR arm with a $700 million a year operating budget,
whose main objective is continuing to convince the relevant politicians to
continue keeping the hedge fund tax-free.

I hear the PR arm runs a school or something.

