As Treasurer it is a pleasure to report to you the overall strong operating performance of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for the year ended June 30, 2015. I am also pleased to advise that our capital campaign is making excellent progress, particularly in its goal to reduce the overall debt of the Museum.
In terms of operating performance, last year we attracted 1,227,000 visitors to the Museum, a number that reflects 8 percent growth above the previous fiscal year. This strong attendance reflects well on the MFA’s mission of effectively engaging our community and visitors to Boston. And, of course, good financial results follow from there. Audience-driven revenue segments exceeded their individual goals, thus allowing us to have a better than budgeted operating surplus. The MFA overall achieved a surplus of approximately $2.7 million versus the budgeted surplus of approximately $765,000.
The value of our endowment was $597 million on June 30, and sustained a performance return of negative 0.5 percent for the year. As I mentioned last year, we have a well-diversified portfolio to weather challenging financial markets like those that we saw in the last fiscal year, and that have continued into the current fiscal year. We continue to look for opportunities to enhance performance in all of the asset classes and recognize that challenging markets may inhibit our achieving the 20-year long-term performance of nearly 8.5 percent in the near term.
The second year of our capital campaign has shown progress, having achieved 67 percent of our overall campaign goal. We look forward to further progress in the months ahead as we strive to achieve our overall goal of $200 million.
During the year, we reduced our long-term debt by $15 million. We reduced long-term debt by an additional $5 million in July 2015, and expect to reduce it by another $5 million by November 2015. Thus, in two years we will have reduced our long-term debt by $54 million, inclusive of the amounts just noted, leaving us with approximately $135 million. Against an overall endowment of $597 million, we feel the MFA is well positioned financially. Standard & Poor concurs, continuing to rate our debt as AA with a stable outlook.
While the SMFA achieved an operating surplus for the year, the headwinds in American higher education continue pressure on our niche, particularly as a relatively small, focused school. We are reviewing possible further academic collaborations to enhance our position, and ensure the excellent arts education for which the SMFA has been known internationally for well over a century.
Finally, I want to say welcome to Matthew! We wish to thank the many people serving on the Budget and Finance and Audit Committees, and a particular thanks to the operating and finance teams at the MFA, who deliver these great results year after year, balancing our institutional mission with financial stability.
Respectfully submitted,