Steven Schroeder, MD
Distinguished Professor of Health and Health Care

Distinguished Professorships and Endowed Chairs

Creating an endowed faculty position is perhaps the single most important step a donor may take in assuring the future quality and international pre-eminence of UCSF.

The UCSF Endowment

History

UCSF's history of endowments is venerable and long-standing. The first chair, the Morris Herzstein Chair of Biology and Physiology, was established in 1933 with an investment of $750,000. Today, the value of that initial gift has grown to almost $13 million and has been split to establish three additional Chairs. The initial fund is worth almost $8.7 million and the three additional chairs have a combined market value in excess of $4.2 million. Since then, 81 Distinguished Professorships, 214 Endowed Chairs, 6 Endowed Professorships and 3 Academy Chairs have been established at UCSF. The total endowment for faculty positions at UCSF is over $415 million as of March 31^st, 2011.

Performance

The total UCSF endowment (which includes both endowed faculty positions and program funds) stands at a market value of $1.5 billion as of March 31st, 2011. It is managed by the UCSF Foundation, a non-profit, public benefit corporation established to receive, manage and administer gifts to further the excellence of UCSF and the UC Regents Treasurers office. With the guidance of an Investment Committee, and the assistance of professional investment counselors, the Foundation's Board of Directors is responsible for the Endowment's management. For the past decade, the Endowment portfolio has performed at or above the rate of other portfolios of its type.

Put in Context

Although $1.5 billion may seem to be a healthy endowment size, its significance can best be evaluated relative to other institutions. Harvard's endowment is $27.5 billion, Yale's is $16.6 billion, and Stanford's is $13.8 billion. Johns Hopkins' endowment is $2.2 billon.

Unlike these private institutions, as a public institution, UCSF has relied on state funding for much of core educational and infrastructure support. This funding is rapidly shrinking. UCSF took a $28 million cut in state funding 2010-2011, on top of a $49 million reduction the previous year. Over the last 15 years, UCSF's state funding has been reduced by more than $90 million. As less than 8 per cent of UCSF's operating budget is now from state appropriations, UCSF relies increasingly on private support in general and endowment support in particular to continue its work locally, nationally and internationally.