Two Florida universities have more than $1 billion in endowments to invest on campus
How much money a university receives from donors can play a big role in how well it serves its students — making the size of a school’s endowment an important factor.
Schools use endowments for a wide range of things, from financing extra professorships and doling out scholarships to constructing new buildings or entire degree programs.
Endowments are financed by donations from many sources, but the most prominent are donations from former students looking to give back to the institutions that helped to form them.
Such donations typically include “stipulations from the donor on how the institution can access its resources," according to BestColleges, an online college-admissions publication. "These guidelines usually restrict use to certain schools or colleges within the university, or even to specific academic departments and programs."
The university with the largest endowment in the United States is Harvard University, which as of last summer was a reported $50.7 billion.
No school in Florida has an endowment anywhere close to that. But two campuses in the Sunshine State can boast endowments worth more than $1 billion each.
The distinction of the largest endowment falls to the University of Florida, which was $2.4 billion in 2021. That’s nearly double the amount of the state’s second largest – the University of Miami, with $1.4 billion.
Florida schools ranked by endowment size
Here’s a list of every Florida college or university ranked by the size of their endowment. The figures are based on federal education statistics from 2021, the most recent year available.
University of Florida — $2,375,793,000
University of Miami — $1,393,436,637
Florida State University — $897,762,598
University of South Florida — $692,741,042
Rollins College — $460,276,000
Stetson University — $387,215,324
Florida Atlantic University — $375,146,137
Florida International University — $276,410,044
Miami Dade College — $272,843,053
Nova Southeastern University — $226,994,000
University of Central Florida — $198,559,038
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach — $164,826,000
University of North Florida — $141,106,152
Florida Southern College — $111,809,685
Florida Institute of Technology — $107,867,599
Palm Beach Atlantic University — $97,750,000
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University — $92,852,706
Saint Leo University — $92,347,642
Valencia College — $88,705,021
Florida Gulf Coast University — $88,094,149
College of Central Florida — $83,508,629
Flagler College — $83,206,439
Eckerd College — $81,121,309
The University of West Florida — $66,401,120
Ringling College of Art and Design — $63,982,310
Pasco-Hernando State College — $61,797,860
Jacksonville University — $59,216,191
The University of Tampa — $58,215,971
New College of Florida — $55,284,307
Barry University — $54,487,883
Florida SouthWestern State College — $49,513,921
State College of Florida-Manatee-Sarasota — $46,310,607
Broward College — $43,955,775
St. Thomas University — $40,042,465
Saint Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary — $39,243,815
Lynn University — $38,790,567
Gulf Coast State College — $38,517,879
Santa Fe College — $35,295,242
Bethune-Cookman University — $34,996,645
Polk State College — $34,137,822
St. Petersburg College — $32,111,406
Indian River State College — $28,526,945
Florida State College at Jacksonville — $28,459,413
Eastern Florida State College — $21,652,652
Palm Beach State College — $20,726,537
Florida College — $19,635,436
Chipola College — $19,302,441
Tallahassee Community College— $17,089,503
Daytona State College — $17,000,414
Florida Gateway College — $16,648,725
South Florida State College — $15,289,581
Seminole State College of Florida — $12,526,522
Lake-Sumter State College — $12,280,939
Pensacola State College — $11,821,324
St. John Vianney College Seminary — $10,608,544
Southeastern University — $10,050,766
AdventHealth University — $9,875,753
Ave Maria University — $8,662,372
The Baptist College of Florida — $8,450,912
Warner University — $6,907,619
Webber International University — $6,863,658
The College of the Florida Keys — $6,480,615
Florida Memorial University — $6,013,894
Hillsborough Community College — $5,231,595
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Worldwide — $4,132,000
North Florida College — $4,069,519
Florida Polytechnic University – $3,568,738
Saint Johns River State College — $3,243,258
Hodges University — $2,968,254
Hobe Sound Bible College — $2,677,030
Ave Maria School of Law — $1,834,271
Edward Waters University — $1,681,684
Johnson University Florida — $1,670,154
Trinity College of Florida — $825,648
Trinity International University-Florida — $425,000
Beacon College – $120,836
Trinity Baptist College — $113,899
Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard
Editor's note: This article was updated to remove a listing for Northwest Florida State College after its endowment information was found to be outdated in the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard database.
Andrew Marra is a reporter at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at amarra@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: UF, UM have Florida's largest endowments — more than $1 billion each
