Annual Fund vs. Endowment

To put it simply, the Annual Fund is like your checking account, and the endowment is like your long-term investments. You can’t touch the principal of those investments when you need to go to the grocery store or get your car fixed, but you can take the money from your checking account. Similarly, we can’t touch the endowment to respond to immediate needs (more on this below). The Annual Fund, however, is flexible enough to make sure students have things like computers or suits and dress shoes for interviews. Deans and administrators can use Annual Fund dollars to bring leading scholars and artists to campus or make sure student entrepreneurs can travel to pitch competitions. And so much more.

Because it’s not designed that way. When a person endows a gift, they restrict what that gift is to be used for and how much can be taken out at any given time. By law, that money can only be spent on its original intent – scholarships, professorships, buildings, or research, to name a few.

WashU wants to continue to be the best, and to be frank, that’s an expensive process. In fact, tuition only gets us through 4/5 of the academic year. That other 20% – that home stretch from just before Spring Break to Commencement, if you will – is made possible by the Annual Fund.

The Annual Fund allows the university’s deans and administrators to be nimble and respond to student needs in real time. It funds scholarships. It means resources for the clubs, sports, and extracurricular activities that our students count on to find community and make their WashU experience truly special. If it’s part of the student experience, it’s probably supported in some way by the Annual Fund.

Actually, no. Being need-blind and no-loan isn’t just the right thing for us to do, it’s our responsibility. We made these big promises to our students knowing we could count on your support to make those promises a reality. We believe, and hope you agree, that the best way to equip our students for purposeful and successful lives after WashU is to make sure they graduate with the smallest amount of debt possible. But as you’ve seen above, the endowment can’t do it alone. So, we’re asking you to help us make it happen.

Absolutely! A gift of $10 or $100 may not seem like much on its own, even though it might be a lot to your budget. But small gifts add up. In fact, in 2023-24, gifts of $100 or less added up to over $1.5 million! That’s a lot of interdisciplinary research, seed grant funding, professional development for graduate students, internship stipends, and more.

You can call 877-215-2727 and talk to a real person who will help you make your gift and answer any questions we haven’t addressed here.