Cornell’s Financial Health Revealed in 2024 Tax Return

Cornell’s tax returns for the year ending June 30, 2024 have been released to the public. Cornell’s Form 990 includes its endowment size, salaries for its highest-paid employees, and amount received from federal grants. 

Cornell is required to disclose its Form 990 returns to the public every year to maintain its non-profit status and ensure accountability to donors. Through comparisons of Cornell to peer institutions, the Review explored how Cornell spends its substantial budget. 

As Cornell faces an unprecedented cut in federal funding and donor backlash from its handling of campus unrest due to the Israel-Palestine conflict, this tax return provides insight into Cornell’s ability to weather any funding uncertainties.

Income Sources, Spending, and Financial Aid 

Cornell’s endowment was $9,894,868,187, an increase in $226,336,495 (around 6.4%) from FY2023. This puts Cornell’s endowment per student at around $376,000. 

Cornell has total assets of $18,612,463,436 and total liabilities of $4,827,497,881 This puts the University’s total net worth at $13,784,965,555. 

Revenue Sources:

The University received around $621,585,553 in contributions, gifts, and grants. $27,923,810 of this amount included government contributions. Government contributions are typically grants from local, state, or federal government sources. 

As mentioned above, Cornell received around $1,199,887,288 in research grants. A significant portion of this was likely from the federal government. 

RELATED: Research Continues to Build Cornell’s Stature

These grants make up around 23.1% of Cornell’s revenue. This number sheds light into the financial reliance of the University on these grants as the Trump Aadministration threatened to freeze $1 billion in funding for Cornell University. While President Kotlikoff has not corroborated this number, he has stated that over 100 research projects have been disrupted by the federal freeze. 

Financial Aid: 

The Form 990 details financial aid from Cornell’s own resources:

Highest Compensated Employees: 

Each Form 990 must disclose  the compensation of all officers, directors, and highest paid employees. The top earners are medical professors at Weill Cornell Medical School in New York City. 

Zen Rosenwaks specializes in reproductive medicine at Weill Cornell and earns significantly more than the highest earners at peer universities. The highest paid employee at Columbia University, a professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, makes $5,488,624. At Dartmouth, the Chief Executive Officer earned around $4,905,670. 

Presidential Salaries: 

Martha Pollack was not the highest paid president and made less than the president at Yale. However, she was paid more than the presidents of Harvard, Princeton, and Dartmouth. Pollack retired at the end of the period covered by the return. 

Provost Salaries: 

Provost Kotlikoff had the highest compensation among Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Dartmouth. 

Chief Investment Officer Salaries:

Public attention focuses each year on the compensation for the leader of university investment teams. The salaries are very high by university standards because universities compete with Wall Street for investment talent.

Total executive compensation at Cornell was around $17,388,119. 

The income and capital gains of nonprofit organizations are tax-exempt. Because Cornell’s endowment totals less than $500,000 per student, it was not subject to the 1.4% excise tax on large college endowments in 2024. 

When reporting billions of dollars, it is natural to ask how accurate and credible these numbers are. To assure accuracy, Cornell has an internal auditing staff with their work verified by an independent external audit conducted by Ernst and Young. The return is then shared with the entire Board of Trustees for questions and comments. The final tax return is signed by Christopher Cowen, Cornell Executive Vice President, who would be held criminally responsible for any misreporting.

There are hundreds of other items in the University’s Form 990 and many Cornell-related entities that file separate Form 990 tax returns. Each deserves public scrutiny for the public to fully understand how Cornell deploys its expenditures.