When many people think of nonprofit institutions with large endowments, they think of well-financed pillars of higher education such as Harvard University.
But financier John Paulson’s $100 million donation last October to the Central Park Conservancy was a powerful reminder that academia does not have a monopoly on multimillion-dollar donations. In the U.S., museums, orchestras and other cultural institutions also depend on generous patrons for financial stability.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, for example, boasts one of the finest collections in the world, and the museum’s $2.7 billion endowment is the largest among cultural institutions in the U.S., according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
This generous nest egg, as measured by its 2011 value, grew 14 percent from 2010. Last year, the museum also received millions of dollars in donations from David H. Koch, of Koch Industries, and the estate of socialite Brooke Astor.
While the museum’s wealth dwarfs that of other arts organizations, the total value of the 10 institutions with the largest endowments was $8 billion in 2011, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
The numbers, while substantial, hardly compare to top-ranked American universities. Harvard University’s $32 billion endowment in the 2011 fiscal year was the highest of any American university, according to U.S. News & World Report, but more than 60 universities in the U.S. have endowments worth more than $1 billion.
Still, only three of the 10 best-endowed cultural institutions saw the value of their endowments slip from 2010 to 2011, while others registered double-digit gains. The growth has been impressive during a time of market uncertainty.
Here are the 10 largest endowments held by cultural institutions, as reported by The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Metropolitan Museum of Art: New York, NY
Endowment: $2,696,750,000
Notable donations: David H. Koch gave the Metropolitan Museum of Art $65 million in 2012 to renovate the institution’s plaza and fountains.
The museum also received a $20 million gift in 2012 from the estate of Brooke Astor to support curatorial programs and art acquisitions.
Museum of Fine Arts: Houston, Texas
Endowment: $1,011,086,744
Notable donation: Caroline Wiess Law, daughter of the founder of the gas and oil company now known as ExxonMobil, bequeathed an estimated $400 million to the museum when she died in 2003.
Smithsonian Institution: Washington, D.C.
Endowment: $971,200,000
Notable donation: In addition to Koch’s commitment to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2012, he also donated $35 million to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History for the construction of a new dinosaur exhibition hall.
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