North Park University (NPU)

North Park University (NPU)

North Park University, founded in 1891 by the Evangelical Covenant Church, remains its denominational university to this day. President Mary K. Surridge leads the institution's stewardship of a compact balance sheet where the board, chaired by David Otfinoski and vice-chaired by retired BP executive Jay Carstenbrock, ties fiduciary decisions directly to the university's Christian, city-centered mission. The endowment sits at the core of a financial structure designed to subsidize operations for a student body of roughly 2,600. The investment portfolio is managed under the guidance of CFO Scott Stenmark and benefits from the counsel of Timothy E. Johnson — an alumnus, finance professor, and founder of Johnson Investment Counsel, which manages university assets. While the university does not publish a formal asset-allocation breakdown, it maintains confirmed exposure to mission-related investing and direct real estate across its North Side campus, including the Nancy and G. Timothy Johnson Center for Science and Community Life, residential units on Christiana and Kedzie Avenues, and mixed-use facilities like Old Main and the Helwig Recreation Center. The pool, estimated at roughly $102 million, operates without the layers of satellite offices or dedicated private-equity co-investment programs seen at research universities. Instead, its scale matches its community — a member of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, an NCAA Division III athletic conference, and a federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institution. Philanthropic activity runs through the Axelson Center for Nonprofit Management and the North Park Fund, with governance connected to the broader Covenant Ministries of Benevolence network. What distinguishes the model is its embeddedness in the broader Evangelical Covenant Church ecosystem rather than a standalone outsourced OCIO arrangement. The university shares a co-ownership stake in Covenant Trust Company with the ECC and Covenant Ministries of Benevolence, layering internal fiduciary capacity and trust services directly onto the denominational balance sheet — a structural tether most endowments of this size never develop.