For years St. Olaf has relied on the funding provided by the endowment. The sum of money has helped fund financial aid and faculty with the interest earned on invested gifts. At the end of July, the college had $156 million in the endowment, an amount that the college divides between stocks, bonds, and other assets to carefully utilize the generous gifts given by donors.

"Most of the gifts have common restriction," Alan Norton, treasurer at St. Olaf explained. The donors generally put constraints onto the gifts, deciding what the interest will be spent on. Donations are made to support different departments within the college are known as "endowed chairs", which provides funding to the respected areas of interest. Half of the endowment provides students with financial aid.

"The principal of good investing is to diversify," Norton pointed out. And so, different experts are hired to manage the different areas the money is invested in. One manager will deal with the large cap stocks; another with the smaller cap stocks, and another will invest a portion of the money in international stocks. Percentage-wise, nearly 70 percent is put into stocks, 25 percent is put into bonds, and five percent is invested in other assets such as real estate.

A formula is used to determine how much money is available to spend on the college. The Board of Regents takes the average market value over the past three years and takes five percent of that to use towards the school. Over time, using only the five-percent will help smooth out the bumps that are expected in the stock market.

For the time being, the endowment allots $6 million to operate with. While students pay the tuition sticker price, the difference between the actual tuition and the price students pay is also taken care of by the endowment. But the question is always asked, "How much is enough?" "It would be nice to pay all the bills, but that would take an awfully large endowment," Norton admitted.

In the past five years, OlafŐs endowment has increased 110 percent, while other liberal arts schools have been increasing by 100 percent. Nonetheless, Norton knows that the school "has to keep it growing." Looking at the average, the trend has been increasing. So with the stock market strong, and the generous gifts continuing to be given to the college, St. Olaf has the funds to continue to improve the college.