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We are made in Wyoming, and Wyoming has made us—something that so many of you have recognized through your generosity to Wyoming’s university. Your support has blown past all previous records, making 2025 a landmark year. This bucks the national trend of declining support for higher education—so many of you have stepped forward to help future generations make their way in the world!
In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, the University of Wyoming raised $69.5 million in private support from 30,271 individuals, corporations, and foundations. This year marks the first time UW has raised more than $60 million in three consecutive years—a testament to the generosity of donors like you. The fundraising average over the past five years is more
than $58 million, and the overall UW endowment now exceeds $900 million.
The UW Foundation continues to proactively and prudently manage UW’s private assets while connecting donors to the programs they are passionate about.
Our success is your success, and on behalf of the entire university community, thank you. You’ve made an important investment in the students of the University of Wyoming and the faculty, staff, and programs that support them.
If you would like to see the impact of your support, visit our website at giveuwyo.org. If you have questions or comments, contact us at (307) 766-6300 or email to foundation@uwyo.edu.
UW is Wyoming’s university. Our state is unique in that UW is our one and only public four-year institution of higher learning. We have the three-fold mission of education, research, and service to the state. That makes UW the most student-centered land-grant university in the nation.
The future of higher education belongs to those who create meaning, community, and purpose. UW students embody the values of hands-on experience and pragmatism, grit and resilience, integrity and hard work, and accountability to something bigger than themselves.
Across the nation and globe, our alums bring exceptional educational preparation coupled with hands-on real-world experience and little-to-no student debt. Some
call that an unfair advantage.
At UW, we build something that goes beyond academics—we build a sense of belonging and purpose rooted in who we are. To become a Cowboy or Cowgirl is to stand for something greater than yourself, honoring the legacy of this great state, and showing up for your family, community, and the world.
UW is a place where students, faculty, and alumni feel proud not just of what they learn but of who they become.
A UW education is an experience that people remember for the rest of their lives, proudly sharing their time here and staying connected to give back. That made 2025 the most successful fundraising year in UW’s history, with $69.5 million raised from 30,271 donors. The university’s endowment exceeds $900 million, and our five-year fundraising average is more than $58 million.
The state strongly supports UW’s vision—especially its commitment to student success, faculty support, and research excellence. Since 2001, more than $237 million in state matching funds have amplified donor generosity by matching endowment gifts of $50,000 or more and facility gifts of $25,000 or more. More recently, the UW Board of Trustees and the UW Foundation Board of Directors have contributed resources to further advance these key university priorities.
This year’s fundraising efforts established more than 90 new endowments overall, including 42 dedicated to student success and 13 new endowed faculty positions matched by the state. Among these is the university’s fourth named deanship, created within the College of Agriculture, Life Sciences, and Natural Resources.
These results reflect strengthened academic programs, increased student access, and elevated national reputation. Today, UW is more financially resilient, academically competitive, and mission-focused than ever—all thanks to our enthusiastic and loyal supporters.
Investment markets in fiscal year 2025 continued to revolve around technological deployment. Coined on Twitter 12 years ago, the term “hyperscaler” is now part of the public lexicon. The term originally described the highly scalable cloud infrastructures deployed by Amazon Web Services and Google Search. A financial writer we follow published an interesting note two years ago describing how peopletend to overestimate what is possible in the near term and underestimate what can be done over the long term. Th e biggest tech companies—Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta—were valued at a modest $1.1 trillion when the term was first introduced. Over the ensuing decade, these same firms would generate more than $1.3 trillion in aggregate free cash flow—a generational investment opportunity. As in past cycles, a growing contingent of analysts and consultants has begun invoking the word “bubble” in their communications with clients and the world at large. The world keeps turning, however, and although the build out of AI-driven cloud computing infrastructure remains relentless, the true bottleneck liesin power generation, an area we have made additional investments.
In 2025, we made significant strides in reshaping our portfolio to align with our investment objectives. Our public equity allocation reached its policy target through organic growth and additional investments, with managers collectively achieving a 19% return—surpassing the benchmark by 290 basis points. Public fixed income also out performed, delivering a 9.6% return. On a lagged basis, private debt returned 11.1%, exceeding its benchmark by 200 basis points.
Private equity performance was impacted primarily by a markdown in the Custodia Bank investment. The original thesis was that Custodia would gain a Federal Reserve master account and pioneer tokenized bank deposits and stablecoin technology under Wyoming’s Special Purpose Depository Institution framework. This has not materialized due to regulatory obstruction rather than business failure. The State of Wyoming had spent the prior two years crafting Special Purpose Depository Institution legislation with input from the Kansas City Federal Reserve. Despite that collaboration, after the State of Wyoming applied for a master account in October 2020, the
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City deemed the application complete in early 2021 but withheld action, prompting Custodia to file suit in mid–2022 for unreasonable delay. Formal denials by both the Federal Reserve Board and the Kansas City Fed Bank followed in early 2023, citing concerns over Custodia’s crypto exposure and lack of FDIC insurance. Subsequent rulings in 2024 affirmed the Fed’s discretion under the Monetary Control Act, leading Custodia to appeal to the Tenth Circuit, where the case remains active as of today, which rendered a four-year competitive head start effectively lost.
Along the way, Custodia was targeted by federal bank regulators and endured five “debankings,” significant legal costs, and layoffs while operating through correspondent banking partners. This prolonged process ultimately forced Custodia to downsize to conserve capital and led to our decision to write down the investment. Politics clearly drove much MADE in WYOMING of the outcome, yet the tide appears to be turning. Despite headwinds, we remain optimistic about Custodia’s tokenized payment technology and anticipate improved results through its joint venture with Texas-based Vantage Bank and the network of community banks it continues to build. Real estate continued to outperform its benchmark, providing stable returns despite interest rates rising significantly from COVID-era lows. Exposure remains concentrated in multi-family and industrial assets, with minimal office exposure limited to legacy managers.
Taking a step back and viewing the portfolio as a whole, our top-performing position was Bitcoin, an investment initiated in 2021 and incrementally increased during price dips. Bitcoin has grown four fold in value and now requires periodic rebalancing, yet it continues to significantly boost portfolio returns. When evaluating private market investments, we focus on Distributions-to-Paid-In-Capital (DPI) as the primary metric, as it reflects actual cash returned to investors. In 2025, distributions were $49 million, exceeding capital calls—a strong outcome given suppressed IPO55 and M&A activity. Additionally, one of our venture managers just announced the sale of a portfolio company to a global pharmaceutical company that will return over half of our fund investment in the coming months. We expect further liquidity events in our buyout and venture funds in 2026.
The portfolio achieved an 8.6% lagged return in fiscal year 2025, falling just short of our 9% cost of capital target. The Custodia write-down detracted from performance, but we remain confident in the portfolio including venture positions to drive forward returns. We are committed to a pragmatic investment approach within our allocation framework—prioritizing reduced complexity and fees while targeting areas of capital retreat and technological growth. Our goal is to exceed our 9% cost of capital while delivering sustainable value to support the University of Wyoming’s students.
–UW Foundation Investment Team
