Endowment Performance
As of June 30, 2023, the value of the endowment was $1.469 billion, stated in accordance with guidelines established by the National Association of College and Universities Business Officers (NACUBO). Like all colleges and universities with endowments, Middlebury experiences fluctuations in its endowment return on an annual basis. Yet over the past 10 years, the endowment has averaged an 8.9 percent return annually.
2013–2023 Endowment Rate of Return (%)
Comparative Endowment Performance Average
Endowment Peer Comparison
Middlebury’s endowment is significantly larger than the majority of college and university endowments and exceeds the size of many of our peers in the group of 21 schools with which we compare ourselves. However, nine peers have endowments that are far larger than ours to fund operations for fewer students.
One of the best ways to appreciate the importance of the endowment is to look at its size per student. When you compare endowment per undergraduate student, Middlebury comes in 10th of the 21 schools. This calculation does not include graduate students, as most peers do not have graduate programs. For decades, Middlebury has achieved at a higher level than could be expected given its relative endowment. That’s why a major focus of institutional fundraising is increasing endowment.