Doane endowment down 28 percent

Losing a quarter is not a big deal, even in these tough economic times.

Losing a quarter of your total amount of funds, however, is a big deal.

As of March 31, the Doane endowment fund was down $26.5 million from this same time last year when it was at $92 million, a difference of 28.8 percent.

Julie Schmidt, vice president for finance and administration, said while this might be a startling number, Doane is fairing the storm better than other institutions nationwide.

Schmidt said Doane’s endowment was four percent to five percent larger than 629 other institutions, both private and non-private, in the nation.

Schmidt said while other schools were cutting salaries or laying off faculty and staff Doane had opted to freeze salaries. No Doane employee will receive a pay raise for the next academic year.

“[This is] really positive compared to other schools,” Schmidt said.

She also said that if a position needed to be filled, Doane would try to fill it from within instead of hiring new faculty or staff.

Schmidt said this was not the first time the endowment has been this low. In 2002 and 2003, the figures were about the same as now.

“It’s like the [stock] market,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt said the difference this time was that it would take much longer for the fund to hit its high mark again because of the severity of the economy.

Doane president Jonathan Brand remains optimistic.

“We have the capacity as a group to collectively make good choices that will help Doane rise above this economic downturn, even difficult choices like a salary freeze,” Brand said.

In his April budgetary update, Brand said that while fundraising efforts were coming up short this year, he was still hopeful donors will be generous.

Brand also said in his update that continuing to award the same amount of financial aid each year would be a priority.

“We know that every dollar makes a difference in the lives of our students and their ability to attend Doane,” Brand said.

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