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Gifts to the university's endowment are carefully invested to yield a steady, reliable source of income in perpetuity. Endowment income provides financial stability and allows the university to implement long-range plans. The amount to be spent, called the payout rate, is set by the Board of Trustees to secure and increase the endowment's buying power.

Student Scholarships
Faculty and Departmental Support
Named Endowment Funds
Endowment Performance
Investment Strategy


Student Scholarships
Endowed scholarships permanently funded by alumni, parents and friends provide an important source of financial aid for SLU students. SLU hopes to increase significantly the number of endowed scholarships in order to recruit and retain the best students.
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Faculty and Departmental Support
A strong endowment enables St. Lawrence to offer competitive salaries, maintain the faculty at an optimum size, and support teaching and research -- all of which are essential to attracting and sustaining an energized and productive faculty. Endowment funds enrich the academic experience for students by providing support for endowed professorships, visiting artists and lecturers, faculty development grants, and awards for innovative teaching.
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Named Endowment Funds
Often donors wish to associate their philanthropy with certain types of public recognition. The university has established minimum fund levels required to name endowed funds for a variety of purposes across the spectrum of institutional priorities. Donors may take as many as five years to reach the minimum levels for their fund within an approximate five year period.

Endowment Fund Minimums
Full Professorship	$1,500,000
Associate Professorship	$1,000,000
Assistant Professorship	$750,000
Head Coach's Position	$500,000
Lectureship	$100,000
Scholarship Fund	$75,000
Faculty Development Fund	$75,000
Departmental Fund	$50,000
Equipment Fund	$50,000
Fellowships	$50,000
Desktop Computer Fund	$30,000
Student Enrichment Fund	$25,000
Library Acquisition Fund	$10,000

Endowment Performance
We are pleased to report that annual St. Lawrence University's investment return on its endowment through June 30, 2007 was 19.8%.  The endowment's market value as of June 30, 2007 was $269 million.
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Investment Strategy
There are several reasons for these strong results. The markets began to improve during the final quarter of the last fiscal year and this momentum continued into the new year to the benefit of many investors, including St. Lawrence University. The impact of the endowment fund restructuring undertaken by the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees over the past several years also became apparent as returns realized by our investment managers generally exceeded benchmarks, in some instances by significant amounts. For example, the return earned by the University's large cap value manager was 30.16%, as compared to the S & P 500 return of 19.11% for the same period.

Volatility in the equity markets over the past several years, and likely increased volatility in traditional fixed income investments as the Federal Reserve acts to raise its benchmark interest rate have heightened the appeal of investment strategies which are less closely linked to movements in the broad stock and bond markets. In order to reduce investment return dependence upon traditional equity and bond markets, the endowment fund expanded its allocation to alternative asset investments. An Absolute Return Fund was added, and the allocation to an existing hedge fund manager was increased. Commitment to non-correlated return strategies was further increased with the placement of $15 million of endowment fund assets with three distinct alternative asset (hedge fund) managers this summer. The current target allocation to alternative asset classes, which encompass a range of non-traditional investment strategies, is 28% of the endowment. Allocations to traditional fixed income, large cap equities and micro cap equities have been reduced.
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