Harvard asks donors for $6.5 billion [View all]

[cali]

- Harvard, the richest university in the United States, announced on Saturday it will seek to raise some $6.5 billion in donations to fund new academic initiatives and bolster its financial aid program.


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Harvard already has an investment portfolio worth around $30.7 billion, roughly the size of the annual gross domestic product of the Baltic nation of Latvia.

That endowment shrank 0.05 percent in the fiscal year ended in 2012, after double-digit gains the previous year, according to the most recent figures from the university.

A Harvard spokeswoman did not immediately comment on why the university required the donation drive in order to fund the new initiatives.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/21/us-harvard-donations-idUSBRE98K0C620130921