To reduce the University's reliance on federal funding . The payout from these restricted funds will provide annual support for a minimum of 300 graduate students in the sciences and engineering when the program is fully implemented. While Stanford's overall revenue from government grants and contracts has grown over the past decade, individual grant renewal periods are often out of sync with University research programs or an individual student's doctoral pursuits. The endowment support we are seeking would equal roughly half our current federal funding for research assistantships, allowing the University to become much more self-reliant in this area. To ensure that Stanford's contributions to the great stream of blessings that has flowed to society from research-intensive universities will continue.
Universities promote the public welfare through the increase of knowledge.
This understanding was inherent in Jane and Leland Stanford's founding gift, which established the endowment on which the University depends today and to which so many others have given over the years. If we are to increase Stanford's endowment so that the search can continue, we have the responsibility and the challenge to explain in the clearest manner possible what role endowment plays in the complex financial life of the University. Stanford's endowment is an accumulation of primarily gift funds set aside and invested to support the University's teaching and research missions in perpetuity. The original endowment was created in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford. Over the last 115 years, thousands of other donors who have wanted to provide enduring support for the University have added their own gifts.