SystemAdvancement & Endowment Stewardship

Endowment Reporting & Donor Intent

Endowment reporting that starts from the donor's own words: every charge checked against them, every report figure cited, every decision signed

Every charge checked against the donor's own words, and idle payout put to work.

See one case, screen by screen ↓
demo47fundsneed a person today, of 2,740 endowed funds, on this sample day
demo1,126chargessorted overnight against the donors' own words: 14 do not fit, 41 are questions
target100%of charges on every endowed fund checked against the donor's words
typical$33.4billionwithdrawn from college, university and education foundation endowments in FY2025
In short

What is Endowment Reporting & Donor Intent?

Endowment Reporting & Donor Intent is endowment reporting software for advancement and endowment accounting: agents read each gift agreement, typewritten scans included, check every charge on every endowed fund against the donor's own words, put idle payout to work and draft donor impact reports with every figure cited. A fund steward confirms, and the Endowment Accountant and the Director of Stewardship each approve.

AI in education: a buyer's guide to agentic AI for colleges, universities and school districts →

Updated

The problem

Why endowment reporting and donor intent still meet by hand

Endowment reporting rests on a promise: the words a donor wrote, sometimes seventy years ago, on what an endowed fund may buy. Those words sit in scanned letters, wills and amendments, many of them typewritten; the spending sits in the general ledger, and the endowment system holds a purpose code, not the clause. The two meet only when someone reads both by hand, usually when donor reports are due or an auditor asks, so a charge outside the donor's intent is found months after it posted, if at all.

Meanwhile payout sits unspent because nobody is sure what a fund allows, while eligible requests wait in purchasing, in the grants system and in financial aid. Underwater funds need their spending held to policy and the prudence factors on record, and restrictions that outlive their purpose need a release by the route the state act allows. Then every donor impact report is retyped from the ledger and the investment pool. Endowment Reporting & Donor Intent puts eight agents in front of that reading, sorting and drafting, so the stewardship office and endowment accounting spend their time deciding.

typical81%of the money given to US education in FY2025 came with a restriction
demo$38.4millionunspent across 186 funds holding more than a year and a half of payout, at the sample university
demo61fundsunderwater at the sample university, a deficiency of $3.7 million against original gift value
Where the hours on one fund's year-end review goestimated
By hand19 hours
With the solution2 hours
  • Finding and reading the gift agreement, will and amendments3 → 0.3 h
  • Checking the year's ledger charges against the purpose clause6 → 0.5 h
  • Drafting and approving the reversal for a charge that does not fit2 → 0.3 h
  • Finding eligible uses for unspent payout with the fund steward4 → 0.5 h
  • Writing the donor impact report from the ledger and the pool4 → 0.5 h

Estimated hours for one endowed fund's year-end donor-intent review and report, by hand and with the agents — our arithmetic, kept modest. People still read, decide and sign every step.

How it works

How one endowed fund is reviewed

Eight agents read the agreements, sort every charge, find idle payout and draft each report; the steward confirms and two people approve.

What comes in
What arrives5 systems · agreements, ledger, pool, purchasing, scholarship office
Agents at work
Terms agentthe donor's words, cited
Then
Spending agentfits · question · does not fit
Payout agentpolicy and underwater floor
Then
Underspend agenteligible uses for idle payout
Release agentwhen a restriction can't be met
Then
Impact agentdonor report, every figure cited
A person decides
Steward confirms, accountant and stewardship approvetwo named people, reason codes
What comes out
Reversal posted
Idle payout at work
Cited donor report
One case, step by step

Endowment reporting for one fund, from a 1958 letter to a signed donor report

Halden State University, Wednesday, October 21, 2026: the year-end donor-intent review for FY2026, ahead of report season. Here is the Margaret Ellison Library Fund, F-10417, screen by screen in the working solution, from its typewritten gift letter to the endowment report its donor's granddaughter will read.

  1. 01Morning

    The day in one sentence, then the funds that need a person

    Celeste Marchetti · Director of Donor Relations and Stewardship

    47 funds need a person today. Overnight the agents sorted 1,126 new charges against the donors' own words: 14 do not fit and 41 are questions. Every row starts with the donor's words, then what the agents found. A notice says last night's ledger feed arrived at 11:40 PM, 100 minutes late, and every charge was still sorted by 2:10 AM.

    186 funds are sitting on more than a year and a half of payout, and 1,614 donor reports are due by December 15, 2026.

  2. 02One click

    The fund opens with the donor's own words

    Celeste Marchetti

    The purpose clause from Margaret Ellison's typewritten letter of April 14, 1958 sits at the top: for the purchase of books, manuscripts and maps on the history of the American West. Her 1981 bequest's addition sits beneath it. One cited line follows: $5,284,000 market value against a historic gift value of $1,150,000, not underwater; $232,600 FY2026 payout; $412,000 unspent, about 1.8 years of payout.

    One charge does not fit. A $6,400 reception was charged to this fund; the reversal is drafted.

  3. 03Read from the scan

    What the donor wrote, cited to page and paragraph

    Terms agent

    The agent read the 1958 letter as filed and the 1981 will, article IV, into nine cited terms. The overstruck word "manuscripts", read at 0.71, went to the steward and is confirmed. "Income only" is read under the state act, and "Not named: events, travel, salaries and licenses" is marked Inferred and waits for a person to confirm it before the agents rely on it.

  4. 04Overnight

    Every charge in one of three lanes: Fits, Question, Does not fit

    Spending agent

    The year's 23 charges, $96,480, are sorted against the clause: 19 fit ($84,320), 3 are questions ($5,760) and 1 does not fit. Clicking it opens the ledger line beside the donor's words: a $6,400 Department of History faculty welcome reception, posted September 18, 2025, reference AP-2026-03318. The agent reads it as Does not fit at confidence 0.96: a reception is not a book, manuscript or map, and neither letter allows events.

  5. 0510:33 AM

    A reversal that needs two named people before it posts

    Daniel Osei · Endowment Accountant

    The spending agent drafted journal entry JE-2027-10418: debit the History department's operating account 10-4410, credit the fund 20-10417, $6,400, not posted. Daniel approves with reason DI-01, outside the purpose clause. Celeste Marchetti approves second and it posts; the unspent balance goes from $412,000 to $418,400.

    Every reversal needs two different named people, accounting first, then stewardship.

  6. 06Before anyone asks

    Funds sitting on payout, with uses that fit

    Underspend agent

    186 funds hold more than a year and a half of payout, $38.4 million in all. For each, the agent looked for requests already waiting in purchasing, the grants system and financial aid that fit the donor's words. For the Ellison fund it found 14 rare-book requests, $187,350. Financial aid shares counts of eligible need, never names.

  7. 0710:43 AM

    Fourteen waiting requests confirmed, each cited, and three signatures

    Dr. Helen Varga · University Librarian

    Each request is cited to the 1958 letter or the 1981 bequest, such as an overland emigrant woman's diary of 1853 for $18,500. Two are left out with a reason: reading-room chairs and tables, because furniture is not a book, manuscript or map, and a medieval manuscript leaf, because it is not on the history of the American West. Dr. Varga confirms; the Endowment Accountant and the Director of Stewardship approve next, leaving $231,050, about one year of payout.

  8. 08Drafted the same morning

    A donor impact report where every figure is a citation

    Impact agent

    The FY2026 letter to Ruth Ellison Carver says what the fund did: 19 purchases and repairs, $84,320; a value of $5,284,000 against the $1,150,000 given in 1958 and 1981; $232,600 paid to the library. Each figure is numbered, opens its source and matches the ledger. The reception is not in the letter, and the paragraph on the 14 October acquisitions stays out until all three people approve them.

    Two approvals: the Endowment Accountant for the figures, then the Director of Stewardship, who sends it.

  9. 09Audit-ready

    Every decision, with who, when, why and the evidence

    Grace Thibodeaux · Internal auditor

    The trail records people and agents alike: the spending agent placing the reception in Does not fit, Daniel Osei approving the reversal with reason DI-01, Celeste Marchetti approving and posting it, Dr. Varga confirming 14 acquisitions. Entries are never edited, and the evidence pack exports for the external auditor, the state attorney general or the board, with student identifiers redacted.

Who it’s for

Built for everyone who answers for endowment stewardship.

The same fund, seen by the four people who carry it: what their year looked like, and what it looks like now.

CM
Celeste MarchettiDirector of Stewardship · 2,100 donor reports a year
Director of Donor Relations and Stewardship
Before
Can't tell a family how their money was spent until she knows it was spent the way they asked, and finds out at report time.
Now
Opens each fund at the donor's words with the year's charges already sorted, and approves after accounting on every reversal, use and report.
DO
Daniel OseiEndowment Accountant · closes the endowment ledger
Endowment Accountant
Before
Hunts through the ledger for charges outside a fund's purpose, and answers the external auditor from records rebuilt each year.
Now
Sees the clause and the ledger line on one screen, checks a drafted journal entry, and signs first with a reason code.
HV
Dr. Helen VargaFund steward · University Libraries
University Librarian, steward of 64 funds
Before
Has a waiting list of purchases and a fund she didn't know she could use.
Now
Gets the waiting requests that fit each fund's clause, each cited, with the ones left out and why, and confirms what to buy.
MK
Martin KowalczykAVP Advancement Services · sets the spending and approval policy
Associate Vice President for Advancement Services
Before
Needs to prove every restricted dollar went where it was promised, and to handle restrictions that can no longer be met.
Now
Sets the policy once as a versioned setting, and signs releases and payout holds the agents have drafted with every test cited.
Built on the engine

8 agents. Each with one job, and hard limits.

Eight agents read the agreements, sort every charge, find idle payout and draft each report; the steward confirms and two people approve.

Stewardship coordinator

Runs one fund end to end, in order: terms, charges, payout, unspent balance, report. Keeps the report and approval clocks, and brings a fund to a person only when one must decide.

  • Never decides a charge, use or report
  • Stops and alerts when an agent fails
Terms agent

Reads gift agreements, wills, amendments and letters, typewritten scans included, into cited terms: purpose, restrictions, corpus, naming, reporting duties and later additions. Applies the state act where words have a legal reading.

  • Never states a term without page and paragraph
  • Marks every inference; words read below 0.85 go to the fund steward
Spending agent

Sorts every ledger charge on every endowed fund into Fits, Question or Does not fit, with one plain reason and the clause it was checked against, and drafts the reversal for a charge that does not fit.

  • Never posts
  • Below 0.80 a charge stays a Question for a person
Underspend agent

Finds funds past the unspent-payout trigger and proposes uses from waiting requisitions, grant proposals and counts of unmet aid need, citing the clause for each.

  • Never commits money
  • Never sees a student's name; counts only from financial aid
Payout agent

Computes each distribution from the 12-quarter average and the policy rate, compares it with the amount entered, flags underwater funds below the floor and records the seven prudence factors.

  • Never changes a distribution
Release agent

Works out the route the state act allows when a restriction can no longer be met (donor consent, small-fund notice or court) and drafts the notice, petition exhibits or donor consent letter with every fact cited.

  • Never sends; University Counsel does
  • Keeps the proposed use within the gift's charitable purpose
Impact agent

Drafts each donor impact report in plain, warm words, with every figure tied to the ledger, the investment pool or the terms; recipients only from the scholarship office's consented list.

  • Never reads a student record
  • Never names a student without written consent
Evidence agent

Builds the evidence pack for the external auditor, the attorney general or the board: cited terms, sorted charges, each reversal with both signatures, the releases and the underwater disclosure.

  • Reads only; never writes to a fund
  • Redacts student identifiers in every export
Director of Stewardship

Approves second; the accountant signs first. The agents propose; a named person decides.

Ask in plain words

Ask about any fund, charge, donor or rule

Ask in plain words, or say what to draft. Every answer cites the clause, the ledger line or the section of the act, then opens the screen where a person decides.

Why does the $6,400 reception not fit the Ellison fund?

The 1958 letter limits the fund to "the purchase of books, manuscripts and maps on the history of the American West", and the 1981 bequest adds only their binding, repair and care. The charge is a faculty welcome reception for 120 guests, entered by the History department business office on September 18, 2025. I drafted JE-2027-10418 to move it to the department's operating account.

Which funds are sitting on more than a year and a half of payout?

186 funds, $38.4 million unspent in all. The furthest past the trigger are the Keller Fund for Home Economics at 6.0 years, whose restriction can no longer be met, the Bennett Lecture at 2.6 and the Pruett Fund at 2.4. For the Ellison Library Fund I found 14 open requests that fit the clause, $187,350.

Can we release the Whitcomb typing prize restriction?

Yes, by notice. The commercial course ended in 1971; the fund is $31,800 and 77 years old. The state act lets the university release a fund under $50,000 and more than 20 years old, 60 days after notifying the attorney general. The notice is drafted and needs three signatures.

Draft the Ellison family's FY2026 report

It is drafted for Ruth Ellison Carver, with every figure tied to its source: $84,320 spent on 19 purchases and repairs, a market value of $5,284,000 and a payout of $232,600. The $6,400 reception is left out. Daniel Osei and you approve it.

Every screen

The working solution, as it ships.

13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.

One endowed fund, led by the donor's own wordsThe Margaret Ellison Library Fund opens with the purpose clause from her typewritten letter of April 14, 1958: "For the purchase of books, manuscripts and maps on the history of the American West." Beneath it, one cited line: market value $5,284,000 against a historic gift value of $1,150,000, not underwater; FY2026 payout $232,600; $412,000 unspent. The year's charges sit in three lanes checked against donor intent: Fits, Question and Does not fit.
The day in one sentence, then the funds that need a person47 funds need a person today. Overnight the agents sorted 1,126 new charges against the donors' own words: 14 do not fit and 41 are questions. 186 funds are sitting on more than a year and a half of payout, and 1,614 donor reports are due by December 15, 2026.
Any charge, checked against the clause in one lookThe reception opens beside the donor's words: $6,400, posted September 18, 2025, reference AP-2026-03318, entered by the History department business office. The spending agent reads it as Does not fit at confidence 0.96: a reception is not a book, manuscript or map, and neither letter allows events.
A reversal that needs two named people before it postsJournal entry JE-2027-10418 moves $6,400 from the fund to the History department's operating account. Daniel Osei, Endowment Accountant, has signed with reason DI-01; Celeste Marchetti, Director of Stewardship, approves and posts.
What the donor wrote, read from a typewritten scanThe 1958 letter as filed, beside nine terms read from it, each cited with a confidence: purpose, for whom, principal kept intact, "income only" read under the state act, the 1981 care provision, the annual report owed to her heirs and the fund's name. The overstruck word "manuscripts", read at 0.71, is confirmed by the steward.
Funds sitting on payout, with uses that fit186 funds hold more than a year and a half of payout, $38.4 million unspent in all. For each, the underspend agent shows requests already waiting in purchasing, the grants system and financial aid that fit the donor's words, with the amount. Financial aid shares counts of need, never names.
Fourteen waiting requests that fit, each cited, and three signaturesUnspent $412,000, plus the $6,400 reversal, less 14 requests of $187,350, leaves $231,050, about one year of payout. Each request is cited to the 1958 letter or the 1981 bequest. The University Librarian has confirmed; the Endowment Accountant and the Director of Stewardship approve next.
Underwater endowment funds held to the spending policy61 funds are underwater: a fair value of $41.2 million against an original gift value of $44.9 million, a deficiency of $3.7 million. Below the 85% floor the policy drops the distribution to 3.0%: the Lindqvist Fund for Rural Teaching was entered at $19,000, and the policy allows $12,700.
When a restriction can no longer be metThe Clara Whitcomb Prize Fund, established in 1949 for prizes in shorthand and typewriting, cannot be honored: the commercial course was discontinued in 1971. At $31,800 and 77 years old, the state act allows a release 60 days after notice to the attorney general. The release agent checked each test and drafted the notice; three people sign before counsel sends it.
Donor report season, in one line2,100 donor impact reports for FY2026 are due by December 15, 2026: 486 are sent, 214 wait for approval, 1,318 are drafted with every figure cited, and 82 wait for the scholarship office's consented recipient lists.
A donor impact report where every figure is a citationThe FY2026 letter to Ruth Ellison Carver: 19 purchases and repairs, $84,320; a value of $5,284,000 against the $1,150,000 given; $232,600 paid to the library. Each figure is numbered, opens its source and matches the ledger. Two approvals: the Endowment Accountant for the figures, then the Director of Stewardship, who sends it.
Scholarship recipients named only with their consentThe Hollis family's report says their scholarship awarded $81,000 to 3 undergraduates. Two recipients agreed through the scholarship office to share their first names and words; the third is described without a name. The solution never reads a student record.
Every decision, with who, when, why and the evidencePeople and agents alike are on the record: the reception placed in Does not fit, the reversal approved with reason DI-01 and posted, 14 acquisitions confirmed. Entries are never edited, and the evidence pack exports for the external auditor, the state attorney general or the board.
Governance

Built for donor intent: cited, signed, on the record.

Eight roles, separated by dutyA stewardship officer prepares reports and approves nothing; a fund steward confirms uses for their own funds; the Endowment Accountant and the Director of Stewardship sign; the AVP for Advancement Services sets policy and signs releases and payout holds; University Counsel sends notices; the internal auditor reads and exports, changing nothing; the systems administrator runs connections and agent versions, with no fund decisions.
Two named signatures before restricted money movesEvery reversal, use of unspent payout, donor report and payout hold needs two different named people, and a release needs three, with counsel sending. Nobody signs two steps of one decision, nobody approves what they prepared, and a return always carries a reason code.
Every term, reason and figure cites its sourceEach term cites the agreement's page and paragraph, each lane reason cites the clause, and each report figure cites the pool, the ledger or the terms. A citation opens its source passage, and opening one is recorded.
Student privacy by designScholarship recipients are named only from the scholarship office's list, with the student's written consent (FERPA); the solution never reads a student record. Underspend proposals use counts of need, never names, and student identifiers are redacted in every export.
Versioned agents with thresholds and overridesEach agent has a version, a pinned model, a reviewed prompt and a confidence threshold. A reason code is required on every override, and a new version is tested on last year's 38,000 charges, compared line by line with the decisions people made, before it goes live.
A permanent audit trail, exported for each readerWho, what, when, why and which evidence, for people and agents alike, kept permanently and never edited. The evidence pack exports by reader and period for the external auditor, the state attorney general or the board, with retention and legal hold set by the administrator.
Configuration

Your spending policy, not ours

The UPMIFA spending policy, the approval rules and the retention every fund is checked against are settings, saved as a new version and on the audit trail.

SettingDefaultChoose from
Distribution rate4.5%Share of the 12-quarter average paid out each year
Averaging period12 quarters8 · 12 · 20 quarters
Underwater floor85% of historic gift valueBelow it, the rate drops to 3.0%, with the seven prudence factors recorded
Unspent payout trigger1.5 yearsYears of payout before the underspend agent proposes uses
Two approvers on every reversalOn, required by policyAccounting, then stewardship
Spending agent confidence threshold0.80Below it, a charge stays in Question for a person
Keep spending reviews7 years7 years · 10 years after the fiscal year ends
Keep donor reports10 years10 years · Permanent after they are sent
Connections

Works with the systems advancement and endowment accounting already run on

Advancement CRMdonors, heirs, contact history and report preferences
ERP general ledger and endowment accountingcharges, spendable balances and journal entries
Investment pool unitizationunits and unit values by fund
ERP purchasing and the grants systemopen requisitions and pending student research proposals
Document managementgift agreements, wills, amendments and scans, kept as filed
Financial aid system, scholarship officeconsented recipient lists and counts of unmet need
What it changes

The difference, in numbers.

Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.

target
100%
of charges on every endowed fund checked against the donor's words
Every charge
38,000 a year at Halden State
target
186funds
sitting on idle payout given cited, eligible uses
IdleProposed
estimated
Weeks
not months, for donor report season, every figure cited
By handmonths of retyping
With agentsweeks of review

Sources: 2025 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments ($944.3 billion held by 657 institutions; $33.4 billion withdrawn in FY2025) · CASE Insights on Voluntary Support of Education 2025 (81% of gifts restricted) · Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act §4 and §6 as enacted by the states · FASB ASC 958-205-50-1B (underwater disclosures) · "demo" = seen in the working solution, on its sample data · "target" = design goal, measured in the live solution · "typical" = published figures · "estimated" = our arithmetic, kept modest. Halden State University, its funds and donors, and the people named on this page are fictional: characters and sample data in the working solution.

Questions

What advancement and endowment offices ask us.

What is Endowment Reporting & Donor Intent?

Endowment Reporting & Donor Intent is endowment reporting software for advancement and endowment accounting: agents read each gift agreement, typewritten scans included, check every charge on every endowed fund against the donor's own words, put idle payout to work and draft donor impact reports with every figure cited. A fund steward confirms, and the Endowment Accountant and the Director of Stewardship each approve.

What is donor intent, and how is spending checked against it?

Donor intent is what the donor wrote about how the gift may be used: the purpose clause and restrictions in the gift agreement, will or amendment. The spending agent sorts every ledger charge into Fits, Question or Does not fit, with a one-line reason and the clause it was checked against. Below a confidence of 0.80 a charge stays a Question for a person, and a charge that does not fit gets a drafted reversal that two named people approve.

How do you write a donor impact report where every figure is right?

The impact agent drafts each donor impact report with every figure tied to its source in the general ledger, the investment pool or the gift terms, and a side list shows each figure matching the ledger. Charges still being reversed or decided are left out of the letter. The Endowment Accountant approves the figures, then the Director of Stewardship approves the words and sends it.

What happens when an endowed fund is underwater?

The payout agent checks every distribution against your UPMIFA spending policy. In the working solution, below 85% of historic gift value the rate drops from 4.5% to 3.0%, the agent records the seven prudence factors, and a payout entered above the policy is held with two signatures. The net asset classes for the statement note are shown with each figure cited.

Can a restriction that can no longer be met be released?

The release agent works out the route the state's version of UPMIFA allows: donor consent, notice to the attorney general for a small, old fund, or court. It checks each test, drafts the notice, petition exhibits or consent letter with every fact cited, and proposes a purpose as near to the original as the law allows. Three people sign, and University Counsel sends it.

Does a scholarship donor report name the students?

Only with consent. Recipients come from the scholarship office's list, where the student gave written consent to share a first name, class year and words; anyone else is described without a name. The solution never reads a student record, and student identifiers are redacted in every export.

Do people stay in control of the decisions?

Yes. The agents read, sort, cite and draft; they never post, commit money, change a distribution, send a notice or letter, or read a student record. Every reversal, use of unspent payout and donor report needs two different named people, a release needs three, and every override carries a reason code.

How long does it take to go live?

The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents (your spending policy, a sample of gift agreements and a year of ledger charges), and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own funds first.

See it on
your endowed funds.

We'll run Endowment Reporting & Donor Intent on a sample of your own gift agreements and ledger.