Luca Balestra (asker) Apr 29, 2015:

I am very grateful for everyone's input and will be using it for future reference. Thank you all!

David Gibney Apr 29, 2015:

I think the question relates to funds that are equivalent to the endowment. Not the actual endowment. Also, endowment in this context would have the nuance of retaining its value over time.

Marc Brunet Apr 29, 2015:

Another 2 bobs' worth ...(2/2) 'Treasury'type Fund (A)'s purpose:
- support Fund B's needs
- protect its original principal (how? presumably through:
** new external endowments
** partial pay back from Fund B for support received from Fund A
'Operation' type Fund (B)'s purpose:
- generate revenues from endowments received from Fund A
- feed part of these revenues back to Fund A to shore up the latter's non-expendability charter, when required.

Actually, contrasting how 基本金 (non)expendable endowment funds and 資本準備金 (capital reserves) are formed clearly helps to understand the nature of each:
- endowment funds are created from resources external to the intended beneficiary organisation(s) to foster their growth recognised as of benefit to the community;
- capital reserves are created from surpluses internally generated by the organisation concerned, as a safety buffer to face future tough times or moderate dividend issues and smooth out wild share price fluctuations.

Marc Brunet Apr 29, 2015:

Another 2 bobs' worth ...(1/2) David, you were right: 'endowment' is a necessary term to denote how this 基本金 operates. However, from what I read, endowment funds come in 2 types: 'expendable' or 'non expendable'. So both terms are needed to describe the fund Luca is referring us to.
Here is a useful overview on how a 'non expendable endowment fund' operates. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD1zZONq3bc (segment 2:08~2:58)
Such a fund is structured as two separate interacting funds: a 'treasury'arm (A) and an 'operation' arm (B). Th above link helps clarify the point of the fund transfers made either way between that Fund and the beneficiary institution (as transpires from the P/L and A/L spreadsheets of Luca's Link#2, P2:

Port City Apr 28, 2015:

@mmb42, regarding the difference between 基本金 and 資本準備金, the link I referred to in my answer says as below in page 4:
基本金には、第1号基本金のように企業会計上の資本金に近い性格のものもあるが、第2号以下の各基本金に見られるように将来支出が予定されている資金枠をプールするための引当金的な性格をもつものもある。つまり、学校法人会計における基本金は、企業会計における資本金と引当金（ただし、評価性引当金は除く）とを融合させたような内容となっている。

I understand「基本金見合い」refers to non-第1号基本金 among 4 types of 基本金 mentioned in the same link.

Marc Brunet Apr 28, 2015:

(2/2) So the deciding factor here could be to determine whether in Note 8, "学校法人がその諸活動の計画に基づき必要な資産を継続的に保持するために帰属収入から組入れた金額である。" thisからshould be taken at face value (if so, this looks like this capitalisation top up comes from revenues achieved from internal efforts) OR is actually a short for ～不足に従って/なので(if so, the top up amount must come from in whole or in part from a source externally provisioned as your hunch points to). What would be useful to nail down is the difference between 基本金and資本準備金 while we are at it. Cheers and thanks for your input :-)

Marc Brunet Apr 28, 2015:

(1/2) Interesting connection, David. The ways according to which each type of 'rescue/supporting' fund operates are pretty close and practically identical in purpose.
Taking a close look at those A/L and P/L statements (same link Page 2), it appears that 'endowments' （寄付金）are already slotted in the revenues as funds raised , and far from match the total already contributed by this '基本金' fund，when discounted from the gross revenues, to show the real amount earned/raised by the institution alone.

David Gibney Apr 28, 2015:

I think "endowment" might be equivalent to the term mmb42 suggested.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/endowment.asp