Endowment

Colleges around the country have seen double-digit drops in their endowments as the economy continues to spiral - and could see losses climb more than 30 percent by next year, financial analysts say. Endowment losses locally already are steep: Swarthmore College's $1.4 billion fund slipped about 15 percent from June to mid-October, to under $1.2 billion. Rutgers' $548 million endowment is down 20 percent, to $443 million as of Oct. 17. At Widener, the loss stands at 19 percent, with its endowment at $67.1 million as of Oct. 14. Other colleges, such as the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Villanova and Lafayette, while they declined to give specific numbers for the last six months, acknowledged losses.

Over the last decade, while the soaring stock market propelled college endowments to record highs, Temple University invested almost solely in low-interest bonds - leaving its returns next to last among major schools. Since 1989, Temple, through a small subcommittee of its board of trustees, put 93 percent of its endowment in bonds or cash, producing an annual average return of 8.7 percent, compared to the national average among universities of 12.9 percent. The difference represents tens of millions of dollars, though the endowment, through other contributions and the limited investment income, has grown from $55 million to $142 million in the 1990s.

The donor of a $3.4 million fund endowing the top surgeon's post at Allegheny Health System's Graduate Hospital would seek to move the money to the University of Pennsylvania if the hospital is sold to a for-profit company, her attorney said yesterday. Under the terms of the gift made by Emilie B. de Hellebranth in 1979, the hospital must be continuously affiliated with the medical schools of Penn, Thomas Jefferson University or Temple University, or with Allegheny's MCP-Hahnemann School of Medicine.

The Franklin Health Trust announced yesterday that it would merge its charitable funds with that of the Drexel University College of Medicine, creating a $122 million endowment that would soon end their fractious courtroom debate. Officials on both sides portrayed the merger as an amicable peace that would reduce administrative costs and better carry on the medical research envisioned by donors. "It really creates the kind of synergy and collaboration that has a multiplying effect," said Donna Gentile O'Donnell, president of the $40 million-asset Franklin Health Trust.

If the Barnes Foundation were to sell some of its real estate and artwork - pieces that are not on display in its Lower Merion gallery - it appears likely it could raise at least $50 million to replenish its endowment and perhaps eliminate the need to move to Center City. While such a sale would be frowned upon in art circles, the possibility that the Barnes could save itself from financial ruin that way was raised Thursday by Montgomery County Orphans' Court Judge Stanley Ott. The judge deferred a decision on whether to grant the Barnes' request to move its gallery downtown, saying he wanted more information on why and how moving the art to Center City would help solve the Barnes' financial problems, and whether selling some assets would allow the Barnes' gallery to stay where it is. "If it appears that adequate capital can be produced [through a sale]

Chicago financier Samuel Zell, a master of the real estate investment trust method of property ownership, has donated $10 million to the Wharton School's Real Estate Center at the University of Pennsylvania. The center, founded in 1983, will get a new name: the Samuel Zell and Robert Lurie Real Estate Center at Wharton. Robert Lurie, who died in 1990, was Zell's business partner and friend for 30 years. "We're working on letterheads and signage now," said Peter Linneman, director of the real estate center at Wharton.

While Henry Francis du Pont lived there, curtains and fabrics in his 196- room house were changed six times a year to complement the changing gardens, planted in his trademark colors of lavender and red, or lavender and yellow. Now that his private estate has turned into a public institution, Winterthur Museum can afford to make such changes only twice a year. With a $150 million endowment left by du Pont when he died in 1969, it is one of the richest museums in the country, housing the premier collection of American furniture and decorative arts.

Buoyed by the success of its expanded slate of pop acts, the Mann Center for the Performing Arts is adding a second stage. The Skyline Stage and Lawn, opening at the end of July with two concerts by ethereal Icelandic band Sigur Rós, perches on a newly annexed three or four acres of Fairmount Park leased to the Mann by the city. The patch of green, where listeners will stand, is larger than the current lawn; the stage is smaller and portable. The changes are in response to an evolving relationship between musicians and fans, says Mann president and CEO Catherine M. Cahill.

On 55 acres of historic landscape in the heart of urban Germantown, the yellow aconite is blooming, the snowdrops and purple crocuses are up, and you can sense the fragile promise of spring. That's a way of thinking about Awbury Arboretum, too, as it looks to reinvent itself - yet again. This grand old estate has new leadership and big plans: To stabilize finances, to work with the neighborhood and local schools, to tackle long-standing maintenance and organizational problems, and to reassert ownership of what Christopher R. van de Velde calls "our primary mission - the care and feeding of the landscape.

The University of Pennsylvania exceeded its recent fund-raising goal by almost $1 billion, bringing in $4.3 billion in its "Making History Campaign," officials announced Thursday. Penn surpassed the $3.5 billion target, announced in 2007, 16 months before the official end of the campaign in December. That's especially noteworthy considering that the campaign was launched just before the country plunged into recession. The university has used the money to increase financial aid, support research and interdisciplinary programming, and boost its endowment.