Endowed Funds

When you endow a fund, you may name it after yourself, or you may name it to honor and pay tribute to mentors or loved ones.

For certain purposes, such as providing unrestricted resources for an academic unit or for a student award, you may establish an endowed fund with a minimum $25,000 gift. For endowed scholarships, the minimum gift is $50,000. The amount varies for endowed professorships or other programs.

You may establish an endowed fund in several ways:

• Donating cash — online or otherwise;
• Donating securities;
• Creating a planned gift such as an annuity, charitable remainder trust or by making a bequest in your will;
• A combination of these options.

Generally, three types of gifts are invested as endowed funds:

Endowed funds are created when a donor instructs KU Endowment to invest a gift to generate spendable resources in perpetuity to fulfill the donor’s intent. The gift is invested within a pool of similar funds, with the objective to generate as much spendable income as possible for the university’s benefit, now and in the future.

Pending endowed funds

You can establish an endowed fund over a period of time, usually within five years, if this time is needed to achieve the intended purpose for the new endowed fund.

You can read more about endowed funds in our Endowed Funds brochure. We would be happy to answer your questions about establishing an endowed fund. Please contact the development staff member in your area of interest, or email us at [email protected] with your questions.