Endowment Transparency

Overview

The Endowment Transparency category evaluates the extent to which schools release information about their endowment investment holdings and shareholder proxy voting records.

Access to endowment information is useful within a college community to foster dialogue about opportunities for investing in clean energy, and about using proxy votes to encourage responsible corporate practices.

Points are awarded to schools for:

• Providing proxy voting records and lists of investment holdings to the campus community or to a wider audience
• Making this information easily accessible, for example, on a website.  

Key Findings

• Approximately one in five schools makes lists of endowment holdings available to the campus community, and in many cases, the public. This information, available at 22 percent of the schools, may have been kept at the investment office, sent upon request, or posted on a website.

• Sixteen percent of the schools make proxy voting records available to the campus community, and in many cases, the public.

• The average grade for the Endowment Transparency category is C. For a summary of grade distribution for this category, please refer to the chart on the right.

                                                                            Leading by Example

Grade Breakdown