The endowment for George Washington University was down by $200 million during the second quarter of this year, with Chief Financial Officer Bruno Fernandes blaming the decline on the value of the District of Columbia’s real estate market.
The GW Hatchet reported Fernandes claimed the endowment drop was “entirely due” to the District’s troubled real estate market coupled with increases in interest rates by the Federal Reserve between March 2022 and July 2023. The university’s board of trustees said the university’s endowment shrank from $2.8 billion to $2.6 billion in the second quarter – the first decline since February 2023.
“Inflation, market value and the ebb and flow of financial markets are all key factors that contribute to endowment fluctuations,” Fernandes said in an email. “The reduction in Q2 endowment value is entirely due to a downward valuation of the real estate market in the District of Columbia and previous increases in interest rates.”
Fernandes added the university’s endowment was invested in a “diverse portfolio” of funds that are regularly adjusted and his office tracks and monitors the endowment to ensure it maintains an “enduring financial foundation.” The university’s real estate endowment investment holdings were valued at $1.125 billion in 2023, a $491 million growth since 2014.
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