About Trinity College’s endowment

Trinity College’s endowment provides a sustainable source of long-term income in support of the College’s enduring charitable mission – “the advancement of education, learning, religion, and research.”​

Since the College was established in 1546, Trinity has used its endowment to provide financial assistance to talented students irrespective of means; attract and retain best-in-class Fellows; fund groundbreaking research; contribute to other colleges and institutions within the University of Cambridge and the city; ensure Trinity’s unique and historic buildings continue to provide an inspiring setting for the world’s brightest minds; and deliver global impact from science to the arts, politics to business.​

The endowment’s aim is to achieve long-term returns with a focus on sustainability, including a commitment to have a lasting, positive and significant impact on the environment.

To enable this, the endowment is comprised of a diversified portfolio of property and equities, managed by a dedicated team of investment professionals, committed to ensuring it can continue to sustainably serve future generations in perpetuity, as it has since the College’s foundation almost 500 years ago.

To learn more about the College’s history and the origins of the endowment, please explore the College’s historical overview here.

The endowment in action

Trinity’s endowment powers initiatives that benefit students, staff, and the broader public beyond the College and Cambridge itself.

Each year, the endowment generates an income of approximately £45–£55 million*, which is primarily used to fund and maintain Trinity College’s mission. This includes funding fellows, student bursaries, postgraduate funding awards, staff salaries, and maintaining College buildings. In total, the endowment covers around 75% of Trinity College’s annual expenditure.

Around £10 million of annual income from the endowment is donated to causes beyond the College, such as supporting wider University initiatives, contributing to other colleges, financing philanthropic programmes and making research grants to departments and programmes within the University and its constituent colleges. These include:

• Trinity-Cambridge Research Studentships (TCRS) – Supporting about 30 PhD and MPhil students each year, the TCRS offers financial support covering fees and a research allowance to students across Cambridge University.
• Isaac Newton Trust – Established in 1988 by Trinity College, the Isaac Newton Trust promotes learning, research and education to early career researchers in Cambridge.
• Trinity Maintenance Grant – Provides additional financial support each year to undergraduate students eligible for the Cambridge Bursary Scheme. This is not only available to students at Trinity, but those who applied to Trinity and pooled to other colleges.
• Trinity in Camberwell – Set up by Trinity Fellows in the nineteenth century, the College continues to support the Trinity College Centre, a local community centre offering facilities to children and adults in Camberwell.

The investment portfolio

Income from the Trinity endowment is generated by a c. £2.5 billion investment portfolio, split between global equities and UK property holdings. ​ This portfolio is actively managed by an internal investment team reporting to the College Council, and advised by the Trinity College Investment Committee.

Property holdings include the Cambridge Science Park (founded in 1970 as the first of its kind in the UK, and which still fosters collaboration between academia and the world’s most innovative companies), the Felixstowe Docks, and other assets across the country.

The endowment’s equities constitute both listed and unlisted equities, with a small share in venture capital. These are managed by external providers against a tight set of investment criteria, recognising the importance of climate and sustainability if the endowment is to continue its charitable purposes in perpetuity.

More information on the investment policies of the endowment can be found here.

Sustainability and the endowment

The College recognises that for the endowment to continue delivering income in support of the College in perpetuity, it must mitigate systemic risks in the portfolio and the real economy to ensure its long-term health and resilience. And so, the endowment has also enshrined an aim to generate lasting positive environmental impact through responsible investment and stewardship.

This includes decarbonisation projects, such as taking gas out of buildings on the Cambridge Science Park, and initiatives to enhance biodiversity, such as the transformation of Langford Lowfields from a quarry into a thriving nature reserve.

In addition to managing physical assets, the investment team actively engages with underlying companies and fund managers to advance positive environmental outcomes. This leadership has been recognised at a national level, with Trinity receiving a Green Gown Award for its work with the banking sector on climate finance.

*Numbers as of June 2024.