LARAMIE -- The 2008 market free fall wiped out more than three years of gains in the University of Wyoming's endowment, according to figures from the UW Foundation released Friday.

The market value of the endowment climbed back 5 percent during the first six months of this year after plunging nearly 30 percent during the market dive last year, UW Foundation President Ben Blalock said during a joint meeting of the UW Board of Trustees and the Foundation Board on Friday.

At the end of 2008, the market value of UW's endowment stood at $211 million, down 27 percent -- or $78 million -- from where it stood a year earlier. By June 30 of this year, the endowment had rebounded to $221.7 million, but this still amounted to a 19 percent drop over prior year. The June 30 market value was down 12 percent from two years earlier and down 3.25 percent from three years ago.

Foundation Treasurer Mary Ann Garman said the endowment climbed to $229 million by the end of July.

Roy Whitney of Wheatland, chair of the Foundation Board's investment committee, said the losses in the UW portfolio forced a $2.3 million reduction in the Foundation's spending budget on behalf of UW for the current fiscal year compared to fiscal year 2009, which ended June 30. He said UW's investment losses were lower than most of its peer institutions.

A report in Oregon Business in February said the University of Oregon's endowment stood at $365 million at the end of 2008, a decline of 18 percent -- or $80 million -- over prior year. That report said Portland State's endowment at the end of November stood 31 percent lower than at the beginning of the year.

According to a report in the New York Times on Friday, Harvard's endowment declined 27.3 percent in its latest fiscal year, a disappearance of $10 billion, leaving the endowment at $26 billion. The loss at Harvard was the largest percentage decline in 40 years.

The University of Pennsylvania's endowment, on the other hand, declined 15.7 percent during the past fiscal year, the Times report said.

A survey of foundations and endowments with assets of more than $1 billion found an average decline of 17 percent.

Foundation Board Chair Pat Rile of Scottsdale, Ariz., noted that the upcoming exhaustion of the $140 million in state matching funds will complicate UW fundraising efforts going forward. For several years, UW fundraisers have been able to entice private donations of more than $25,000 by telling donors that their gifts would be matched by the state endowment funds.

But because of the decline in mineral revenues, the Legislature early this year was unable to add matching funds for the university.

UW President Tom Buchanan told the assemblage that approximately $6 million was still available from the matching funds and those would be used to target donations for the most critical needs.

Buchanan said the matching program had allowed UW to dramatically increase donations from corporations. According to a chart he presented, corporate donations made up 56 percent of UW's 2008 donations while the average for public doctoral institutions nationwide was only 15.5 percent.