Establishing Our Future: An Endowment Sets the Stage

Northwestern Health Sciences University currently has more than $12 million in cash reserves, which, while appearing to be a healthy “savings account,” is in fact barely sufficient for a university with an annual budget of more than $20 million. From 2001-2004, the University suffered shortfalls because of declining student enrollment. If we once again encounter declining enrollment because of unavoidable demographic shifts, the University must be prepared to face another potential decline in student tuition dollars. To prepare for this possibility, Northwestern has aggressively sought to enhance other revenue streams, and has had success in the last several years in reducing the dependency on student tuition.

While the University is actively seeking to reduce its tuition dependency, Northwestern must also build a sustainable funding source through donor involvement. Namely, an endowment. No great university in the United States has achieved a leadership position in its higher education arena without a sizeable endowment, and we are dedicated to building the largest endowment in natural health care education.

We hope that at the conclusion of the capital campaign that we will have built the endowment to an initial level of $15 million, with an eventual goal in the tens of millions. Even at $15 million, the University would be able to add between $400,000 and $1 million to its annual operating budget, depending on investment returns. In addition, new projects would have access to funding outside of our current operational resources, and programs would have access to start-up dollars to help them carry out strategic initiatives. In both cases, the dollars generated by a permanent endowment would provide Northwestern with the extra “edge” needed to keep it at the forefront of higher education.

Office of Alumni, Development and Career Services
Phone: (800/952) 888-4777, ext. 412 or ext. 237
Email: giving@nwhealth.edu