The majority of the UBC Main Endowment Pool is comprised of over 3,700 individual formal trusts, with most established from generous donations to the university.
Individuals can create new endowments through give UBC to provide ongoing support for the university’s programs and students. An individual endowment serves as a financial vehicle to accept and hold gifts — the gift is invested and the original value remains intact, while the return on the investment provides the institution with an annual income targeted at furthering the academic mandate of the university.
What do individual and group donations support?
Following their passions, donors typically make gifts to support specific faculties, programs, awards, or scholarships, or to other projects at the university. Endowments provide a unique opportunity to build lasting philanthropic legacies for future generations. Current areas of support include:
- Student scholarships and needs-based bursaries that support students across all UBC academic disciplines and athletics;
- Faculty support and research funds for medicine, science, social sciences, and the arts;
- Funding targeted at learning and engagement, as well as student and academic programs on both UBC campuses; and
- Important capital projects.
The goal of UBC’s financial endowment is to support the university’s academic mission in perpetuity, and to ensure that current and future generations of UBC students and researchers are able to benefit from the foresight and generosity of those who establish endowments. Due to this commitment to inter-generational equity, the university takes a long-term view of its endowment investments.