Southwestern College

Southwestern College

Southwestern College was chartered in 1885 by the Southwest Kansas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and maintains a covenant relationship with the United Methodist Church's Great Plains Conference. The Winfield, Kansas campus enrolls roughly 2,000 students across undergraduate, graduate, and professional studies programs, including an online division. Its endowment — estimated at approximately $13M by Altss — supports institutional financial aid, faculty development, and facility maintenance through a traditional spending policy. The endowment's investment posture mirrors that of a small-liberal-arts perpetual fund: a board-level Investment Committee, chaired by Board Chair Kim Moore, oversees a pool likely allocated across public equities, fixed income, and modest alternatives via commingled vehicles. Altss identifies the Jewell Family Foundation as a significant donor to restricted endowed funds at the college. No recent direct co-investments, venture exposure, or material exposure to illiquid private-market strategies is evident; the strategic focus remains capital preservation and predictable annual distributions to the operating budget. The college participates in the Kansas Independent College Association (KICA) and fields NAIA athletics teams in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC). These affiliations provide peer benchmarking for endowment management practices. The Southwestern College Foundation exists as a separate but closely linked philanthropic vehicle; its board and operations are intertwined with college leadership. In fiscal 2023, the college's total assets were reported at approximately $45M across endowment, physical plant, and operating reserves. The structural posture of Southwestern College's endowment is a small-scale perpetual pool governed by a board-level committee without a dedicated in-house investment team. This model — shared by hundreds of small private colleges — means that external OCIO services or pooled endowment fund participation are the likely mechanisms for portfolio implementation. The covenant relationship with the United Methodist Church provides both a donor network and a governance backstop, but ultimate investment authority rests with the lay-trustee board chaired by Kim Moore.