Bowdoin College Endowment Returns 15.3% in Fiscal 2025

Bowdoin College’s endowment posted an investment return of 15.3% in fiscal 2025, the college reported on Sunday. Assets of the Brunswick, Maine-based institution rose by $333 million to $2.9 billion in the year that ended June 30.

During the fiscal year, the endowment provided Bowdoin with 51% of its $243 million operating budget. Tuition and fee assistance accounted for 37% of distributions from the endowment.

The college’s one-year returns exceeded the median 11% return of higher education endowments tracked by Cambridge Associates. Over the last three, five, 10 and 20 years, the endowment posted annualized returns of 8.8%, 13.5%, 11% and 10.7%, respectively. These long-term returns put the college endowment in the top 1% of endowment returns over these periods, as tracked by Cambridge, Bowdoin reported.

“The strength of our endowment enables us to invest in our mission,” Bowdoin President Safa Zaki said in a statement. “Among other things, it sustains our commitment to access, which includes meeting the full demonstrated need of every admitted student.”

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The endowment returned 10.9% in fiscal 2024 and 0.6% in fiscal 2023, while it lost 7.1% in fiscal 2022. “These investment returns are the result of outstanding work by our investment team, led by Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer Niles Bryant, and our dedicated Investment Committee,” Zaki continued in the statement.

Bryant was named CIO in 2021, succeeding Paula Volent, who led Bowdoin’s investments for 20 years and is now vice president and CIO of the Rockefeller University.

The endowment reported that it included 1,944 individual funds, nearly half of which are restricted by donors to be used specifically for financial aid. The college reported that its “portfolio includes domestic and international equities, fixed income, private equity, venture capital, real estate, and absolute return strategies. All assets are invested through carefully selected external managers and structured for long-term growth and capital protection.”

The college reported that it invests “exclusively through third-party firms” that “have discretion in selecting underlying securities,” and it made clear that the endowment does not invest directly in any individual companies.