Letter to President Barron and Office of Giving

[Art]

You money is invested in Univ. Endowment which is managed like a mutual fund. You know how many shares you have all the time. If you specify a program you wish to endow (for example scholarships in Chemistry). Moreover, you can stipulate conditions how your endowment is distributed. After you done this, the program takes ownership. The program becomes the sole guardian. You can cover all your stipulations in a Trust that Penn State Admin. must sign off. Penn State allows you to fund scholarships for students in medical, law, science, or engineering colleges. Any other college will work just as well. I like Penn State over Ivy schools, Ivy schools are well endowed while Penn State Endowment is good but not robust enough to serve the needs of large student body. Penn State has many nation's best student who should be rewarded with scholarships. You can specify all of this ……….

All of this is true--but does not change the fact that the money is at least semi-fungible.

But I would say that if you endow a specific named scholarship (not the general scholarship fund), you are probably closest to the goal. It's not a scholarship they would have been funding anyway, so that reduces the fungibility quite a bit. Creating an endowed chair? That's a bit different, as whoever gets that Chair would have to have been paid anyway--making the funds quite a bit more fungible. Thon? Much as I respect the charity--it's fungible money. The researchers don't get a "bonus" if Thon brings in more cash.

BTW, and slightly off topic, I assume the OP, Bill is the Bill I knew in the Chem department back in the day??

Do either of you know what PSU charges fro managing the money and administering the endowment/scholarship? At the schools I've seen, the costs are ridiculous.

 

[kgilbert78]

Do either of you know what PSU charges fro managing the money and administering the endowment/scholarship? At the schools I've seen, the costs are ridiculous.

No idea, but I'm not surprised. I'd expect something, in any case, as you do have to pay the office workers and accountants and pay for mailing costs of receipts etc. There is overhead. But I'm not shocked if there gouging going on either.

But stuff like that is why I qualified my comments with "closest to the goal".

 

[denniskembala]

This thread has drifted in another direction, and it's a good discussion. I just want to make one simple point about JVP.

Joe would have had to have believed that Tim, Gary and Graham had mishandled the McQueary report in order to be guilty of failing some subjective, moral standard. In other words, if Joe was of the belief that C/S/S had dealt with the matter appropriately....even if they hadn't.....it's total BS to suggest he failed to lead. There's just no evidence Paterno felt that way. More to the point, how did the BOT determine that he felt that way?

Carry on.

Because the BOT had a hard on for Joe aside from just plain being full of shit.

 

[denniskembala]

I'm just tired of your incessant cheer-leading for everything Penn State.....where shit don't stink....even the most trivial accomplishment. Maybe if you showed some critical thinking for once, I'd change my impression of you, but until then you're a dipshit.

What's wrong with incessant cheerleading?

 

[Doc-M]

Art, here are a few comments.
Upfront, I do not work for Penn State nor I can claim deep knowledge about working of Foundation. Here is what I heard from Development folks. Foundation is managed by a money management firm(s). Cost of management is lower than that of a comparable mutual fund. My guess is that it is about .25 to .5 per cent. Development folks provide all of this data together with historical performance. I was satisfied when I investigated a while back. Bottom line: If you dedicate 4% of your total contribution to scholarships per annum, your money will last long time adjusted for performance. If you want to make a large (one million or more) contribution, establish a specified program. Otherwise, contribute to general fund.

 

[stormingnorm]

Do either of you know what PSU charges fro managing the money and administering the endowment/scholarship? At the schools I've seen, the costs are ridiculous.

Of course, the fees charged to manage a portfolio decrease (as a percentage) as the size of the portfolio increases.... of course.

Except at PSU
Would it surprise you to know that;

The fees paid to “Investment Managers” by PSU has DOUBLED over the last five years? Even adjusted for the size of the portfolio?
(I pulled that info out of the IRS informational filings a couple months ago..... and I’ll maybe post them when I get some time)


Any wonder why folks from Financial Services Firms are so eager to be placed on the PSU Board and the Investment Committee?


FWIW: I have never heard a single Trustee even raise a question about that....... ever.
I doubt that more than a couple of them even know what those fees are (in fact, I’d bet the mortgage money that they don’t)