Des Moines University

Des Moines University

Des Moines University opened in 1898 as the Dr. S.S. Still College of Osteopathy, founded by a pioneer of the discipline. It has since grown into a three-college graduate health sciences institution conferring nine degrees, including the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine. The university relocated to a new $260 million campus in West Des Moines in 2023, consolidating its academic and clinical simulation operations on 88 acres. The endowment exists to support this educational mission, not to operate as a standalone investment enterprise. Investment management follows a conservative institutional playbook. The portfolio allocates across a fund-of-funds structure, with confirmed exposure to secondaries and special situations, per public records. The university does not publicly disclose its asset managers, but its posture avoids direct startup equity. Instead, it gains healthcare, technology, and venture exposure through diversified fund commitments that pool capital with other non-profit allocators. The real estate footprint includes the flagship West Des Moines campus and the DMU32 Health and Business Complex in downtown Des Moines, though these are mission-driven operating assets rather than components of a total-return portfolio. The investment committee operates under the Board of Trustees, which includes senior executives from Morgan Stanley, U.S. Bank, and Life Care Services as of 2025. These relationships provide institutional-caliber governance for what remains a modest pool by endowment standards. The university conducts periodic grant-funded research and maintains a Regional Simulation Center for clinical training, but these activities are funded through operating revenues and philanthropy — notably the Glanton Fund and the Purple & Proud Campaign — not the endowment draw. In September 2023, the university completed its move to the new West Des Moines campus, a $260 million project that reshaped its balance sheet and long-term operating model. The endowment's structural differentiator is its embeddedness within an operating health-sciences enterprise. Unlike a standalone foundation, the investment pool serves a single institution with predictable, mission-defined capital needs. The presence of working healthcare executives on the board creates a governance layer that is operationally literate in the very sectors the endowment may invest in through fund commitments. This alignment — between what the university teaches and what its endowment indirectly owns — is rare among small endowments and shapes a perpetuity-oriented, risk-averse allocation framework.