UCLA Gifts Make Endowment Biggest Gainer as Harvard Lags Behind

The University of California, Los Angeles endowment has grown the fastest among U.S. colleges since 2008 as markets recovered and gifts from philanthropists such as casino mogul Kirk Kerkorian surged.

UCLA’s endowment size increased an average 12.3 percent annually to $1.49 billion in the three years through 2011, almost double the 6.5 percent growth of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, the next best-performer, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. By contrast, the endowment at Harvard University, the world’s richest college, shrank 3.7 percent to $31.7 billion.