Dillard University Endowment

Dillard University Endowment

Dillard University, founded in 1930 and opened in 1935, emerged from the merger of Straight College and New Orleans University to serve the city's Black community. Dr. Monique Guillory, president, governs a private liberal arts mission with an endowment composed of individual purpose-restricted funds. Its board includes Michael D. Jones, Esq. as chair, and trustees Jennifer Kopylov (Managing Director at Goldman Sachs) and Roland Merchant (Senior Managing Director at CBRE Capital Advisors), whose institutional networks intersect with the endowment's investment posture. The endowment deploys capital across asset classes including venture capital, real estate, and public equities, with a venture strategy spanning seed to growth stages. Confirmed holdings include direct ownership of the main campus at 2601 Gentilly Boulevard, residential assets through Dillard University Apartment Limited and Gentilly Gardens Apartment, and an endowed research fund from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Grant support from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, C.V. Starr Foundation, Ray Charles Foundation, and MacKenzie Scott's Yield Giving round out non-investment capital flows into the institution. Nuance on scale and team structure is limited. Recent known activity includes the university's quiet integration of a 2020 gift from Yield Giving, part of a broader $560 million grant round to HBCUs, reflecting a pattern of large, unrestricted philanthropic support rather than public endowment growth campaigns. Structurally, Dillard's endowment functions less as an allocator competing for brand-name fund access and more as a steward of relationship-dependent assets — its real estate portfolio anchors the university in New Orleans, while philanthropic inflows and UNCF membership provide capital buffers distinct from typical institutional fundraising cycles.