The University Endowment

The UBC Endowment provides stable and long-term financial support for students and academic research

The UBC Endowment contributes to the university’s mandate to advance teaching, learning and research. It has been established through two primary sources: external donations, which comprise a typical financial endowment for the university, and through lease and rental revenues generated from the university’s land assets.

UBC Investment Management

UBC Investment Management (UBCIM) , a wholly-owned subsidiary of the university, supports UBC with professional investment services for university-related funds. The main pools of funds managed by UBC Investment Management are the Endowment Fund, the Staff Pension Fund and the Working Capital Fund. Neither the university nor UBC Investment Management invests directly in specific companies or individual stocks and bonds. Instead, UBC Investment Management employs a pool fund structure and selects external fund managers on behalf of the university based on established criteria. 

Within these externally-managed pooled funds, the investment mix is highly diversified, and includes bonds, domestic and foreign equities, real estate, infrastructure, private equity, and absolute return funds. For each asset class, the Endowment is invested with portfolio managers selected for their performance, risk management, and alignment with the university’s objectives. 

Main Endowment Pool

The UBC Main Endowment Pool is mainly comprised of over 3,900 individual formal trusts, with most established from generous donations to the university. Most of the individual funds are dedicated to supporting student awards directly, although the majority of the total value of the funds is targeted towards faculty support. Other funds within the Main Endowment Pool are targeted at supporting learning and engagement, facilities, research, and capital projects. 

The specifics of individual endowments are captured in Endowment Trust Agreements, which are signed by the donor as well as the university President. These agreements outline the unique mission or purpose of the individual endowment, which cannot be changed except in rare circumstances. The university is grateful for these contributions and works to ensure that donors’ philanthropic intentions are met in perpetuity. Beyond this commitment to donors, UBC also has a fiduciary responsibility to the charitable purposes for which these endowments were established. 

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
• Important capital projects 

The goal of UBC’s Endowment is to support the university’s academic mission in perpetuity and to ensure that current and future generations of UBC students and researchers can benefit from the foresight and generosity of donors. Due to this commitment to intergenerational equity, the university takes a long-term view of its Endowment investments.

Additional UBC Endowment Information 

• Learn more about giving to the UBC Endowment, as well as the impact of donor support in action, on the give UBC website.
• View UBC’s Endowment Management Policy (FM5) on the University Counsel website.
• Visit the UBC Investment Management website.