The Idaho Land Board has approved distributing $100.3 million to endowment beneficiaries in Fiscal Year 2024.
The latest distribution mirrors the amount distributed this fiscal year, which represented a new record.
According to a news release, the economy over the past year created challenges in the investment portfolio, due in part to the Federal Reserve increasing interest rates to slow inflation. The endowment fund investment portfolio lost 13% in Fiscal Year 2022 after gains of 29.7% in Fiscal Year 2021.
The Land Board was able to maintain the Fiscal Year 2024 distribution at record levels because of its strategy to hold investment reserves sufficient to weather periods of financial market volatility and because of strong earnings from timber sales on endowment land.
On the land side of the portfolio, timberland – selling sawlogs at auction to the highest bidders – generated nearly 99% of the total net income from endowment land in Fiscal Year 2022. Overall, the net income from endowment land was $56.5 million in Fiscal Year 2022 and $59.6 million in Fiscal Year 2021.
IDL manages nearly 2.5 million acres held in trust and deeded to Idaho at statehood for the financial support of endowment beneficiaries, including Idaho’s public schools, colleges and universities, and veterans’ homes, among others. More than 1.1 million acres of the trust land is managed for timber production.
