Increased UofL Foundation budget includes more money for UofL than state gives

The Foundation’s spending plan supports undergraduate education, research, academic programming, community service and fundraising activities at UofL.

For the first time since the university became public in 1970, it will receive more money from the Foundation than it does from state government. The state appropriation is $141.1 million.

“We’ve seen the privatization of public higher education in Kentucky over the past 10 years” said UofL President James Ramsey. In 2002, the Foundation provided $35 million to UofL programs, one quarter of the amount it has allocated in its 2012-13 budget.

One down side to the Foundation’s budget is the status of some of its endowments. Largely due to downturns in the economy and investment market, 242 (18 percent) of the Foundation’s endowments were “underwater” as of Dec. 31, 2011. The number is nearly triple the number from a year earlier.

The Foundation board has approved limited spending policies for a portion of the endowments that are “underwater” and not worth as much as their original market value. It also has a policy of spending 5.5 percent of the value of its endowments each year.

The University of Louisville Foundation is a 501 (c)3 corporation that is a separate fundraising and economic development arm of UofL.