Why can't Harvard use more of its endowment in order to cover additional expenses or reduce tuition costs?

Returns from the endowment foster leading financial aid programs, scientific research discoveries, and hundreds of professorships.

However, there is a common misconception that endowments, including Harvard’s, can be accessed like bank accounts, used for anything at any time as long as funds are available. In reality, Harvard’s flexibility in spending from the endowment is limited by the fact that it must be maintained in perpetuity and that it is largely restricted.

Endowment gifts are intended by their donors to benefit both current and future generations of students and scholars. As a result, Harvard is obligated to preserve the purchasing power of these gifts by spending only a small fraction of their value each year. Spending significantly more than that over time, for whatever reason, would privilege the present over the future in a manner inconsistent with an endowment’s fundamental purpose of maintaining intergenerational equity.

In addition, many donors also designate a specific purpose for which their fund can be spent. Contributions may be given in support of a specific School, program, or activity, and can only be used for those purposes.

Each Annual Financial Report includes a press release about the endowment’s performance for that fiscal year.