Harvard and Yale universities tower over Ball State University with more than $20 billion in endowments, but Ball State beat out 525 schools in a recent endowment ranking.
Thomas Heck, vice president for operations and treasurer of the Ball State University Foundation, said the university had about $198 million in endowments, which provide permanent financial support.
The amount of endowments has increased 16.7 percent since 2006, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers report.
Abby Cohen, communication manager for the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America-College Retirement Equities Fund, said the association partnered with the NACUBO and collected endowment data as of June 30 from 785 universities in the United States and Canada.
Ball State ranks at 260 of the 785 schools studied, Cohen said.
The NACUBO study is the largest and longest running annual endowments study in the United States, she said.
Universities volunteer their endowment information, and TIAA-CREF and NACUBO analyze how they've been managing their funds, she said.
The top five schools with the most endowments include Harvard, Yale, Stanford University, Princeton University and the University of Texas system, whose endowments range from $15 billion to $34 billion, she said.
Heck said Ball State was the fourth largest university in the Mid-American Conference, according to endowment size. Miami University of Ohio, Ohio University and the University of Buffalo are among the top three with $200 million to $300 million, he said.
"We were very close to the top schools in the MAC," Heck said. "We only trailed them by a few million."
Endowments consist of donations from private contributors and not from tax dollars or student tuition, he said.
The contributors can designate what programs, scholarships or grants they would like to fund with their donation, he said.
Heck said Ball State had more than 650 different endowment funds. The endowments fund academic and extracurricular programs on campus such as the Museum of Art, opera groups and concert bands, Heck said.
"Sometimes having the support of an endowment can mean keeping a program alive," he said. "And sometimes it can mean making major improvements to a program, even making it nationally acclaimed."
Public universities, however, tend to have fewer endowments than private universities, he said.
"Schools like Ball State have the state funding from tax dollars that private schools don't," Heck said. "That means more contributors step up because more funds are needed. The more you can attract, the more financially secure the institution will be."
Improving donor relations and fundraising efforts are key to increasing university endowments, he said.
"We need to present a compelling case of need for the donations," he said. "It needs to be clear how the money will benefit the university, the state and the students."
About four to five percent of all endowments are spent each year, Heck said.
"We want to make sure we keep a balance between spending too much and not enough each year," he said. "We want to make sure we have enough value to provide for at least the next five generations."
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