Introduction. The lack of financial support in the sphere of higher education, the acute need of the real sector of the economy in highly qualified personnel create the need to attract targeted capital for investment in the education sector. Theoretical analysis. One of the tools for implementing public-private partnership in the sphere of education is the endowment funds – endowments. The advantages of creating endowments include legal and systematic attraction of investment resources, the possibility of planning the development and implementation of projects, attracting professionals to the management of incomes, transparency of spending. The endowment fund is not only an additional source of income, but also an indicator of the competitiveness of universities. Empirical analysis. The analysis of the experience of functioning of endowment funds made it possible to determine their main characteristics, the factors of successful functioning in Russia and the direction of development of financing education through endowment funds. Results. The conducted research has shown that the macroeconomic significance of their activities is significant. Endowment funds as institutional investors can become a significant resource for investing innovative projects in Russia through the use of public-private partnership mechanisms and project finance with the state shoulder. The formation of regional “points of growth” on the basis of endowments and the subsequent multiplier effect for regional and national economies is one of the most important macroeconomic problems.