# Whitworth University

Whitworth University is an Endowment / Foundation based in Spokane, United States.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Endowment / Foundation
- **Headquarters:** Spokane, United States
- **Region:** North America
- **Address:** Spokane, WA, United States
- **Founded:** 1890
- **Assets under management:** $200M–$250M (Altss estimate)
- **Website:** www.whitworth.edu

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

Founded in 1890, Whitworth University operates its endowment from its main campus in Spokane, Washington. President Scott A. McQuilkin oversees an asset base funded by donor-restricted gifts and board-designated reserves. The endowment supports a private Christian liberal arts mission with roughly 2,500 students, and its investment activity flows through a trustee-driven governance structure rather than a dedicated internal chief investment officer. The endowment allocates across a wide strategy set, including buyout, growth equity, venture capital, distressed debt, mezzanine, and fund-of-funds vehicles. The trustee roster supplies a distinct sourcing advantage: Josh Hug co-founded publicly traded Remitly, Mason Stubblefield holds a senior leadership role at NVIDIA, and Kenneth M. Roberts serves as chief investment strategist at Palouse Capital Management, a Spokane-based RIA. Physical assets on the university's books include the PACCAR Engineering Building, the Dana and David Dornsife Health Sciences Building, and a Costa Rica campus, reflecting a real estate footprint alongside the financial portfolio. Total endowment assets are estimated at $200M–$250M, placing Whitworth in the small-endowment cohort by NACUBO comparator standards. The university participates in NACUBO's annual study, which provides the most consistent benchmarking data for this segment. September 2023: Scott McQuilkin inaugurated as Whitworth's 19th president, succeeding interim leadership and affirming continuity for both academic and endowment governance (per the university, September 2023). The Whitworth Foundation serves as a separate philanthropic vehicle, while the Robblee-Roberts Student Investment Fund, supported by trustee Ken Roberts, gives undergraduates hands-on portfolio management experience. The endowment's structural differentiator is its concentrated trustee expertise in operating-company leadership at firms such as Remitly and NVIDIA — an unusual board composition for an NCAA Division III institution. This creates potential for deal-flow access and due-diligence depth that peer endowments of similar size typically lack. The governance model blends traditional fiduciary oversight with practitioner-informed investment decision-making, without the overhead of a dedicated OCIO or internal investment office.

## Sectors

- Venture Capital
- Private Equity
- Real Estate
- Fund of Funds

## Offices

- San José, Costa Rica

## People

- Scott A. McQuilkin — President

## Questions

### Who runs investment decisions at Whitworth University?

Investment oversight resides with the Board of Trustees, which includes a mix of finance practitioners and operating-company executives. Key trustees with investment influence include Kenneth M. Roberts, chief investment strategist at Palouse Capital Management; Josh Hug, co-founder of Remitly; and Mason Stubblefield, a vice president at NVIDIA. The university does not employ a dedicated chief investment officer, so the trustee Investment Committee serves as the primary decision-making body.

### How does Whitworth source its private-market fund commitments?

The endowment does not source deals directly. Instead, it accesses private markets through external fund commitments — buyout, growth equity, venture capital, distressed debt, and mezzanine funds. The network and practitioner knowledge embedded in its trustee board provide due-diligence capacity beyond what most similarly sized endowments possess, but execution itself flows through third-party managers.

### What is the roughly estimated size of the Whitworth University endowment?

The endowment is estimated at $200M–$250M, placing it in the small-endowment cohort by NACUBO standards. The university participates in the annual NACUBO-TIAA study of endowments, but exact AUM is not publicly disclosed year-by-year outside of audited financials.

### What is the relationship between Washington State University and Whitworth University's endowment?

There is no operational relationship between the two endowments. Washington State University manages a separate, far larger public-university endowment through its own foundation. Whitworth operates independently as a private Christian liberal arts college with its own board and investment governance.

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Last updated: 2026-08-11T02:43:31.692Z

Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/whitworth-university

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