PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Brown University’s endowment earned a 16.1-percent return for the 2014 fiscal year. The endowment’s closing value of $3.2 billion at June 30, 2014, marks the first year that the University has fully recovered from losses suffered in the 2008 financial crisis and is at an all-time high.

During the last five fiscal years, Brown’s endowment contributed $675 million to support essential programs, including need-blind admission, student financial aid, professorships, and more than 60 academic programs. Thirty-one percent of Brown’s $104-million current-year financial aid budget is supplied by the endowment. The University relies on the endowment to fund between 16 and 17 percent of its overall operating budget.

The three-, five-, and 10-year annualized returns for the endowment as of June 30, 2014, are 9.7 percent, 11.5 percent, and 8.3 percent, respectively.

“The endowment’s full recovery from the financial crisis and its uninterrupted support for essential programs in the intervening years is evidence of the University’s strength and resilience,” said Elizabeth Huidekoper, executive vice president for finance and administration.

The mission of the endowment is to invest with a long-term time horizon in order to preserve and prudently grow the endowment and its income distribution in perpetuity, according to Joseph Dowling, chief investment officer. In an environment of continued economic uncertainty, Dowling and the Investment Committee of the Brown Corporation, the University’s governing body, are focused on increasing the quality of the endowment’s earnings by lowering the amount of risk taken while still generating competitive returns.

The endowment is managed by the professional staff of the Brown University Investment Office. The Investment Committee works with the Investment Office to provide strategic direction and oversight.