Endowments at the University of Alaska are managed and invested by the UA Foundation. There are two kinds of endowments. A True Endowment, which is a gift that has been restricted by the donor and the initial gift is held in perpetuity. It is established with a minimum gift amount (currently $25,000). Or a Quasi-Endowment, which functions in the same manner as a true endowment except that a quasi-endowment is created by the Foundation rather than the external donor.

1. True Endowment: A true endowment is a gift that has been restricted by the donor and the initial gift is held in perpetuity. It is established with a minimum gift amount (currently $25K). An endowment fund works like a permanent savings account. The amount the donor gives (the "principal") is never spent. Only the earnings are spent for the purposes specified by the donor. The principal is invested as part of the Foundation Consolidated Fund (CF). Each individual endowment fund is always accounted for separately within the CF, which is currently about $213 million. As the principal grows through investment, a portion of these earnings are transferred into a separate "spending" account for the fund and used as specified by the donor to benefit the University.
2. Quasi-Endowment: The University of Alaska Foundation, in consultation with University departments and personnel, may make internal decisions to allocate or designate funds that were originally created as non-endowed funds to quasi-endowments, in order to achieve the institution’s initiatives and to serve the needs of its students. A quasi-endowment functions in the same manner as a true endowment except that a quasi-endowment is created by the Foundation rather than the external donor.

• Definition of a Chair: A chair provides support for a faculty member's salary and related expenses, including research, course development and professional conferences. Chairs may be awarded for the entire length of a professor's tenure. However, most professorships and chairs have term limits, usually five years, as determined by the chancellor. The gift minimum for an Endowed Chair is $2.5 million.
• Definition of a Professorship: Professorships provide support for outstanding faculty members for travel, training, equipment, and other support. Can also provide income for a visiting professor to come to a campus of the University of Alaska or for a University of Alaska professor to teach at another university. These professorships will allow the university to benefit from talent that would otherwise be unavailable or to share the expertise of our faculty with another university. The gift minimum for a Named Professorship is $500,000.

Current UAF Chairs/Professorship:

• C.W. Snedden Chair The purpose of this fund is to be used exclusively for the development and maintenance of the Charles Willis Snedden Chair of Newspaper Journalism within the University of Alaska Fairbanks Department of Journalism.
• Arthur T. Fathauer Chair in History The purpose of this fund is to provide funds to support a full professor position in the History Department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The candidate must be student oriented - with a main priority to teach and work with students.  This appointment can be either tenure-track, or term after an initial five-year commitment, with an option for renewal.  Funds from this account may be used for, but are not limited to, salaries and operation expenses of a full professor.
• Ted Stevens Distinguished Professorship of Marine Policy The purpose of this fund is to provide funds to support salary, expenses, and a research stipend for a marine policy faculty position at the University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences (SFOS), to be named the "Ted Stevens Distinguished Professorship of Marine Policy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks." No expenditures may be made from this fund, for University administrative and overhead costs.
• Sydney Chapman Chair This Chair was established to enhance the quality of teaching and research areas of the physical sciences which are of special interest to the North. Appointments to this Chair shall not exceed 3 years and shall honor and acknowledge the contribution of a distinguished, physical scientist. Note: the chair can be continued after three years but the appointments are in three year blocks.