Penn’s endowment grows 12.2% to $24.8 billion
Penn trustees also appointed new chair for Wharton Advisory Board, replacing Marc Rowan
The University of Pennsylvania’s endowment grew to $24.8 billion in fiscal year 2025, up 12.2% over last year.
The endowment, which supports student financial aid and other university initiatives, includes more than 8,000 funds, 90% of which are donor-restricted.
Endowment earnings in fiscal 2027 will be subject to a 4% excise tax, up from the 1.4% that Penn — which enrolls more than 24,200 full-time students — has been paying since 2022. The tax is applied to net investment income.
“That’s effectively tripling the tax rate,” Trevor Lewis, vice president for budget planning & analysis, told the board of trustees’ business and finance committee this week. “It’s an impactful change that we have to deal with.”
» READ MORE: Penn, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore warn increases in the endowment tax could harm financial aid, other programs
Lewis noted that about 18% of the university’s academic operating budget is funded by distributions from the endowment. That percentage has grown over the last decade, he said.
The finance committee meeting was one of several that trustees held over the last two days as Penn prepares to celebrate homecoming weekend.
Replacement named for Marc Rowan on Wharton board
The board also named James G. Dinan, founder of York Capital Management, to a three-year term as chair of the Wharton Board of Advisors, effective July 1. He replaces billionaire donor Marc Rowan, whose term is up in June.
Some faculty and staff at the business school had been quietly questioning why Rowan — who led campaigns to oust former Penn President Liz Magill and former Board Chair Scott L. Bok and urged alumni to halt donations — still chairs Wharton’s advisory board.
Their questions grew louder after Rowan played a key role in drafting President Donald Trump’s compact under which universities, including Penn — which rejected it last month — would adhere to a set of requirements in exchange for preferential treatment on federal funding.
Rowan, chief executive of the New York-based private equity firm Apollo Global Management, has continued to make donations to Wharton, including a $10 million gift commitment earlier this year.
Rowan had been in his final year of a three-year term as chair. There is a three-year term limit.
Dinan has served on the Wharton board since 2013 and is a member of the board of trustees.
Other board actions
The board also approved a $105 million renovation to its largest dining hall — Class of 1920s Commons Dining facility — and accepted a naming gift for its new student performing arts center from outgoing board vice chair Julie Beren Platt and her husband Marc, both 1979 Penn grads. The performing arts center, scheduled to open in 2027, is under construction at 33rd Street and Woodland Walk. The university did not disclose the amount of the gift.
Trustees also adopted changes to the board’s longstanding statutes that board chair Ramanan Raghavendran said would “strengthen the board structure” and “clarify ambiguities.” The last updates occurred more than a decade ago.