Penn endowment increases 27.4% or more than $6 billion. It’s the largest dollar jump in the university’s history.
The university’s endowment, which supports financial aid, research, teaching, patient care and other projects, increased from $24.8 billion in 2025 to $31.1 billion.
The University of Pennsylvania’s endowment jumped 27.4% or $6.3 billion in the year ending June 30, 2026, university officials said Thursday.
The university’s endowment, which supports financial aid, research, teaching, patient care, and other projects, increased from $24.8 billion in 2025 to $31.1 billion, said Mark Dingfield, Penn’s executive vice president.
“The major story here was our exceptional endowment performance,” Dingfield told members of the university budget and finance committee Thursday, “... which leads to significant growth in our total net assets.”
» READ MORE: Penn says its finances are stronger than anticipated. More budget cuts are still coming.
It’s the largest one-year dollar jump in the university’s history and compares to 12.2% or $2.5 billion in 2025. The largest percentage increase in the endowment was 50% in 1983, followed by 41.1% or $5.6 billion in 2021, a university spokesperson said.
Dingfield noted that much of the endowment is restricted for specific uses, and that some of the gains will be absorbed by an increase in the federal excise tax on Penn’s endowment earnings. The tax rate increased on July 1 from 1% to 4%.
“So even though the endowment performance is exceptional and we’re celebrating, some of that will need to be going to paying off that tax liability under the new tax policy,” he said.
The endowment’s performance capped an overall strong fiscal year for the university, Dingfield said. That follows an earlier period of fiscal uncertainty. The university in January made a another round of budget cuts in response to President Donald Trump’s administration’s actions that threatened future federal funding and revenues, and because of rising legal and insurance expenses.
» READ MORE: Penn’s endowment grows 12.2% to $24.8 billion
Penn’s schools and centers were directed to cut 4% from certain expenses and keep in place financial cutbacks instituted the prior year, including a staff hiring freeze and freezes on midyear adjustments in staff salaries.
But the financial report on Thursday was bright.
“The bottom line here is that we ended the year with really strong, both balance sheet and operating performance, which does give us some flexibility heading into FY27,” Dingfield said at the meeting.
Yet, he said, “we are very much still focused on managing the risks that exist in our current environment.”
