2. Mills College 135 Acres Worth Less Than $300,000? College Owns H...

Since President Hillman announced her termination plan for Mills College on St Patrick's Day, let us respond by calling Shenanigans on the Balance Sheet.

In our earlier post 1. Mills College is Worth Billions. Who Gets The Prize?
, we quoted the Mills College endowment being worth $191.3 million in 2018.

We now have more recent information than that: $196.4 million at June 30, 2019. We also have a more detailed breakdown of how that vast wealth is held.

With stock markets hitting record highs in 2020 and 2021, the Mills College endowment presumably grew even larger than this.

In the image below, "Current Year" is July 2018-June 2019 and "Four Years Back" is July 2014-June 2015.

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Source: IRS Form 990, financial year ended 30 June 2019

The investment banking fees, excuse me, "administrative expenses" for the endowment were $1,228,438 for the year. Even after that, the endowment investments grew $5,125,358. The endowment is therefore growing at 2.6% net (and tax free). The fees and the return seem good enough for an institution of this age and prestige, not spectacular but certainly respectable. The financial challenges of the college therefore must relate to the operations and the plans of the leadership, not seemingly the management of its sizable endowment.

We can go back further from the IRS 990 Forms. In the below image, "Current Year" is July 2013-June 2014" and "Four Years Back" is July 2009-June 2010:

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These numbers show that in the last 10 years the asset value of the Mills College endowment has increased by more than $31 million. The average annual appreciation of $3.1 million exceeds the stated budget deficit of $3 million.

You can see Mills College IRS 990 Forms back to 2000 at ProPublica.

THE PLOT THICKENS

Meanwhile the 135 acres of prime East Bay real estate, valued in billions, is held on their balance sheet for $291,686.

Was this the cost price in 1871?

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It seems surprising the auditors sign off on such a serious understatement of the value of a primary asset. If anyone has more information about this, please comment.

Note the buildings, improvement and equipment are valued at more than $100 million, even after massive depreciation accounting entries (a non-cash expense). Yes, buildings depreciate; yes, maintenance of historic buildings can be funded by external sources.

As well as 9 figures' worth of its own buildings, and billions of land, Mills College owns 8 figures' worth of real estate investments.

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For some reason Mills College has massive amounts of money invested in Central America and Europe

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We are told the annual budget deficit (impacted by COVID) is $3 million. Depreciation - a non-cash expense from year to year - was $4.8 million. They are also recording deferred tax assets despite having no tax liability as a 501(c)3 non-profit Federally and in the State of California:

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Please help get the word out and #SaveMills. Please like and share our posts, let us know it is worth continuing to investigate whatever publicly available information we can find. #MillsStrong #MillsProud #MillsForever

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DISCUSSION OF INFORMATION IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST. PUBLIC COMMENTARY WELCOME. WE PROVIDE CITATIONS TO PRIMARY SOURCES, FOLLOW THE HYPERLINKS. ANY PERSON MENTIONED HERE IS INVITED TO SHARE THEIR SIDE OF THE STORY IN THE COMMENT SECTION. ALL IMAGES USED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES UNDER FAIR USE PROVISIONS OF THE COPYRIGHT ACT. WE ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH ANY ORGANIZED MILLS COLLEGE GROUP, BUT WE JOIN THEM ALL IN RESISTANCE TO ANY ATTEMPTED TAKEOVER.

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2. Mills College 135 Acres Worth Less Than $300,000? College Owns Hundreds of Millions in Equities, Real Estate

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