How does Carnegie Mellon decide what to spend out of the endowment each year?
Carnegie Mellon believes that proper endowment stewardship requires that annual spending is managed in a disciplined manner designed to balance the “creative tension” between two fundamental goals: 1. supporting the current needs of the Carnegie Mellon’s students, faculty and programs 2. according to the principle of “intergenerational equity,” ensuring that future students, faculty and programs will benefit from similar levels of endowment support. Carnegie Mellon’s current policy for annual spending from the endowment is to spend 5% of a rolling 36-month average of the endowment market value.
