Columbia University has drawn from unrestricted endowment funds to support its research operations, an uncommon financial step following months of federal funding disruptions. The move was outlined in a recent statement from Anne Sullivan, Columbia’s executive vice president for finance, who called it “a rare and multi-faceted decision which we do not make lightly.”
The action follows the federal government’s cancellation of $400 million in grants and contracts earlier this year and the subsequent freeze of all National Institutes of Health funding. In July, Columbia reached a $221 million settlement with the Trump administration that restored nearly all of its federal research support. Acting University President Claire Shipman confirmed in an Oct. 3 University Senate plenary that “almost 99%” of canceled grants had since been reinstated.
In the interim, Columbia created two research stabilization funds — one focused on the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and another supporting the wider research community — financed partly through endowment withdrawals and reduced central administrative spending. The funds have distributed more than 500 bridge grants of up to $100,000 since June. Shipman said the support was “not intended to replace federal support, but to serve as a bridge—allowing researchers to bring projects to completion, explore alternative funding, or pivot to new directions.”
Columbia’s $15.9 billion endowment comprises about 6,700 individual funds, roughly two-thirds of which carry donor restrictions. The university’s trustees have authorized an additional 0.5%“limited term payout” from the endowment in fiscal year 2026, on top of Columbia’s standard 4.5% spending rule and an extra 0.55% distribution already in place.
While Columbia has previously resisted drawing from endowment principal — including during the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic — this latest decision underscores the extraordinary pressures facing even the wealthiest research institutions amid shifting federal oversight and political scrutiny.
