ENDOWMENT REPORT July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026
INVESTING IN WHAT COMES NEXT With renewed pride and excitement felt across campus and throughout our community, UNCW began this academic year with strength, ambition, and opportunity.
As UNCW grows, your investment expands what we can achieve together. Through our partnership with the UNC Investment Fund and the careful stewardship of resources, the endowment achieved significant growth this year, increasing our ability to support students and strengthen our region.
That momentum starts with you.
Looking ahead, we are exploring new philanthropic opportunities that reflect the scale of our aspirations and the difference we believe we can make together.
Through your investment in UNCW’s endowment, you fuel student success, support groundbreaking research, and accelerate the university’s continued advancement. Endowed support is one of the most powerful forms of philanthropy because it changes lives today and creates opportunities for generations of Seahawks to come. During the 2025-26 academic year, donors like you demonstrated extraordinary confidence in UNCW’s future. The university received $39 million in private support, including more than $19 million in new endowed gifts and commitments. One of the year’s most visible milestones was the dedication of Sayed Hall, celebrating the transformational generosity of the Sayed family and a historic investment in education and healthcare education. This commitment reflects the confidence donors and partners have placed in our future. Philanthropy continues to accelerate initiatives that strengthen UNCW’s impact and help address critical workforce needs throughout southeastern North Carolina.
That vision is already coming to life across campus. This fall, we welcomed nearly 20,500 students, launched the WaveMakers Society to recognize a new generation of leadership donors, and celebrated the arrival of a state-of-the-art research vessel that will advance marine research and discovery. While these achievements are meaningful, your greatest impact is measured in the lives you change, the opportunities you create, and the future you help build. Thank you for believing in UNCW and investing in what comes next.
Eddie Stuart ’05M Vice Chancellor, University Advancement Executive Director, UNCW Foundation
Cover Photo: Michael Spencer/UNCW
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UNCW Endowment Report FY 26
THE UNCW ENDOWMENT The University of North Carolina Wilmington and the UNCW Foundation Inc. depend on endowment gifts to ensure students, faculty, and programs thrive in perpetuity. An endowment is a long-term investment that provides financial stability, allowing the university to plan with dependable, predictable revenue. An endowed gift also offers donors the opportunity to connect a family name or loved one to an area of UNCW in which they have a special interest. Endowment donors may give to an unrestricted endowment, which supports programs at the university’s discretion, or establish a restricted endowment for a specific purpose such as a scholarship, professorship, athletic or academic program.
ENDOWMENT AT A GLANCE
This report provides an overview of the endowment portfolio’s role for the university and serves as a financial summary of its investment and distribution activities for the past year. A separate statement detailing activity for your individual endowment(s) is also enclosed, where applicable. Visit uncw.edu/endowmentreport for additional information, including frequently asked questions and definitions of terms.
FINANCIAL SUMMARY As of June 30, 2026
2025-26
2024-25
$185,991,996
$169,315,534
Additions
15,370,731
5,769,547
Net Earnings
66,277,672
18,910,148
Distributions
(6,985,286)
(6,378,491)
Administrative Fees
(1,822,770)
(1,624,742)
Year-end Balance
$258,832,344
$185,991,996
Opening Balance
Includes the University Endowment, UNCW Foundation and Watson Foundation
Photo: Maggie Beck/UNCW
INVESTMENT PERFORMANCE
Annualized Returns As of June 30, 2026
The Endowment Fund continues to perform ahead of peer institutions and meet our primary objectives, including: Maintaining the inflation-adjusted purchasing power after costs and spending
UNC Investment Fund CPI + Spend Rate 70% Equity/30% Bond Portfolio (1)
Providing a stable source of liquidity and financial support for the university’s mission Percent
Diversifying the fund’s exposure to all asset classes by hiring external managers.
Median University & Foundation Endowment (2)
INVESTING IN THE FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE As a retired physician who cared for patients across southeastern North Carolina, Joseph W. Kittinger III knows firsthand how communities depend on access to healthcare — and how demand is growing. He and his wife, Sandra, are helping prepare the next generation of providers through the Kittinger Family Graduate Fellowship, the first endowed fellowship for students in UNCW’s Master of Physician Assistant Studies program, which will enroll its first class in summer 2028.
Annualized Rate of Return
(1) Global 70/30 Portfolio - 70% MSCI All Country World Index / 30% Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index (2) BNY Mellon Endowment & Foundation Universe - 103 portfolios are represented for the year ended June 30, 2026
The fellowship will reduce financial barriers for graduate students, with preference for those connected to southeastern North Carolina, firstgeneration students, and those with experience as emergency medical technicians, paramedics or registered nurses. By helping future physician assistants pursue their education and build careers close to home, the Kittingers are creating a legacy of care that can reach patients, families, and communities for generations. WHY THIS MATTERS NOW Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties grew more than four times the N.C. county median from 2020–25, intensifying our region’s need for healthcare professionals. The Kittinger fellowship shows how permanent philanthropic support can expand student opportunities and help UNCW prepare the healthcare workforce our region needs. Photo: Michael Spencer/UNCW
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UNCW Endowment Report FY 26
ENDOWMENT EXCELLENCE, MULTIPLIED Endowed professorships help bring outstanding educators and researchers to UNCW, creating lasting benefits for students, industries and communities. Earl Congdon Distinguished Professor Jay Jayaram is advancing research in maritime supply chains, port logistics, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity while providing students with meaningful industry connections. John B. Yowell Distinguished Professor K.D. Joshi is helping students explore emerging questions around technology and society through mentorship and hands-on consulting projects focused on IT and AI. Supported by the generosity of David ’78 and Helen Congdon, these professorships are expanding opportunities for students, strengthening partnerships with businesses, and advancing knowledge in fields that will shape the future.
Photo: Jeff Janowski/UNCW
RESEARCH WITH REACH Across UNCW, research is increasingly moving from discovery to application. In 2026, two researchers earned prestigious NSF CAREER Awards, while work in areas including AI, maritime cybersecurity, brain health, marine science, and community-based research continues to connect university expertise with challenges far beyond campus.
PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT AND ASSET POOL ALLOCATION UNCW’s Endowment Fund is governed by a nine-member, university-appointed board whose primary role is to oversee the allocation of the Endowment Fund’s portfolio among asset classes and investment vehicles and to monitor performance.
DISTRIBUTIONS TO UNCW BY SPENDING PURPOSE 2025-26
2024-25
Scholarships
$3,729,817
$3,388,551
UNCW utilizes the management services of UNC Management Company (uncmc.unc.edu) for substantially all of its assets. The fund is subject to the UNC Policy for Endowment established by the UNC Board of Governors and is subject to an annual review by State of North Carolina auditors.
Academic Support
1,280,589
1,055,410
Professorships
1,335,253
1,240,689
Facilities
356,838
353,292
Public Service
185,559
240,144
A unitized endowment pool allows multiple endowments to invest in the same pool of assets and has mechanics similar to that of a mutual fund.
General Support
81,598
85,101
$6,969,653
$6,363,187
UNCW Endowment Report FY 26
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SPENDING POLICY AND DISTRIBUTION Annually, the Endowment Board and the Investment Committee of the UNCW Foundation Board review the spending policy payout for the upcoming fiscal year (July 1 through June 30). These boards have approved a 4.5 percent annual spending rate since Fiscal Year 2013. Spending rates for individually named endowment funds are determined by calculating 4.5 percent of the pool’s average market value at June 30 for the previous three years. That value is then divided by the pool’s total units. This spending rate per unit is then applied to the ending units of each fund and serves as the next fiscal year’s distribution.
A WIDER VIEW For Maggie Beck, the endowed Wentworth Travel Fellowship turned curiosity into a journey through the Swiss Alps. With two cameras and five rolls of film, the UNCW junior traveled to Switzerland to retrace the work of pioneering aerial photographer Eduard Spelterini. At the Swiss National Library, she studied his century-old images before producing photographs of her own. Comparing past and present landscapes brought together Maggie’s interests in photography, journalism, and the environment, and gave her a new way to explore a changing world. Endowed support gives students like Maggie the freedom to follow their curiosity and discover where an opportunity might lead.
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UNCW Endowment Report FY 26
“
A photo can do more than document a landscape; it can inspire people to care for their environment.”
— Maggie Beck ‘28
From documenting the Swiss Alps to capturing Seahawk life as a university student photographer, Maggie brings that same thoughtful eye to the people, places and moments around her. See more of Maggie’s work capturing the energy, pride and connection of Seahawk life — from major campus events to the moments in between.