Many museums operate on prime real estate. Nonprofit staff salaries may be inadequate to local housing costs. Qualified people often elect not to work in the museum on economic grounds. Colleges and universities have solved a piece of this problem with cooperative housing investment programs.

Here's how it works in Southern California: the college provides a professor with up to 70 percent of the cost of the house (or a maximum of $150,000). Because of this large down payment, the monthly mortgage payment is low and manageable. The professor has a home, may reap the benefit from the increase in the home's value when it is sold, and reaps the tax benefits of home ownership. When she leaves, moves, or dies, the college recoups its investment plus a prorated share of the increased value.

In other words, the college endowment is invested in real estate instead of CDs, stocks, or bonds. The endowment is safely invested in one of the most reliable long-term growth investments: real estate. By making this switch in investment policy, the college uses the same dollar to make an investment for its endowment and for its staff. Twice the benefit for the same dollar.

If you know of innovative endowment museum programs you'd like to share, let us know and we'll pass it on.