Playing by the rules: Restricted endowment assets in colleges and universities

Endowments serve as financial buffers and safety nets for post‐secondary institutions in uncertain financial times. Donor‐restricted gifts and bequests often complicate the management and deployment of endowment assets. Public policy concerns, the Uniform Management of Institutional Funds Acts, and related case law are changing approaches used by states to alter the donors' “dead hand” when time and circumstances make carrying out conditions of restricted bequests unworkable.