STONY BROOK FOUNDATION INC

Established in 1965, the Stony Brook Foundation is a private 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. It exists to advance the goals and strategic plan of Stony Brook University by raising and managing private funds on the University’s behalf. Since its inception, the Foundation has raised nearly $1 billion in gifts and employs best practices and procedures to ensure all gifts to the University are wisely invested and distributed consistent with each donor’s expressed intent.

Philanthropy that supports Stony Brook University’s programs and builds its endowment has never been more important given the well-documented decline in state funding for public higher education. Although New York State is more generous to its state university system than those of other states, it funds less than 18 percent of Stony Brook’s annual operating budget.

Ensuring access to a world-class public university education for highly qualified students from families with limited means is central to our mission. At Stony Brook, approximately 32.4 percent of students are Pell eligible, meaning they come from families earning less than $30,000 a year. And among fellow members of the prestigious Association of American Universities, Stony Brook University stands out with the second highest proportion of Pell eligible students.

To meet this need, the Foundation raises private dollars for merit- and need-based student scholarship and fellowship support. During the Campaign for Stony Brook, which concluded in 2018, $52.6 million was raised for financial aid. Privately raised funds help ensure that Stony Brook is not about privilege but about potential.

Additional funds raised by the Stony Brook Foundation for endowed faculty, innovative technology, and basic and translational research have enabled the University to achieve a critical margin of excellence and a U.S. News & World Report ranking of 32 among public universities in the country.

The Foundation demonstrates careful fiduciary stewardship of all private funds, pursuing a conservative investment strategy to safeguard the endowment’s principal in order to provide steady funding for the initiatives to which donors have designated their support. Even with this relatively conservative investment strategy when compared with the 774 higher education endowments and foundations surveyed by NACUBO, in fiscal year 2019 the Stony Brook Foundation’s endowment yielded returns of 7.5 percent.

The Stony Brook Foundation values philanthropic support for students and faculty above all: no fees are assessed on gifts intended for student scholarships, fellowships or prizes, or for faculty awards. Where assessed, Stony Brook Foundation’s management fees are in line with peer institutions. All endowed accounts are charged 1 percent annually. Current use gifts are subject to a 10 percent management fee at the time of the gift. These gift fees fund the Foundation’s exceptionally lean operating budget: salary, benefits, and expenses of Stony Brook University and Stony Brook Medicine’s highly-productive development team, as well as banking costs, required insurance, annual audits and the Foundation’s business office operations.

The Foundation is directed by a volunteer Board of Trustees and is independently audited, ensuring it complies with the standards and criteria established by the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the IRS. The Foundation prepares a fiscal year annual report that, along with its by-laws, is shared with donors and the public on its web site ( stonybrook.edu/foundation). The Foundation’s IRS Form 990 is also openly accessible on GuideStar.