Toward the end of his 1945 report to President Conant, Dean David provided a succinct snapshot of the then-present business model of the School, and a look into its future:

"During the year on which I am reporting, expenses and revenues were approximately balanced at about $1,600,000 . . . Gross income from our living halls amounted to $250,000, and we had an income of nearly $150,000 on endowment funds. This left approximately $450,000 which the School had to obtain in order to finance its work. These funds could not have been raised without the truly great support given to the School by the Associates of the Harvard Business School.

"The new program upon which the future of the School depends is an expensive program; in fact, it will involve considerably greater costs than the School has incurred in the past. We have concluded from a study of our past operations and future plans that operating costs will amount to at least $1,500,000 each year. With a normal peacetime enrolment of 850 to 900 students the School can anticipate tuition revenue of approximately $500,000 and gross revenue on the living halls of some $200,000. To these two items there would be added income of $150,000 from endowment funds, and an average annual income of perhaps $150,000 from current gifts for special research purposes. There would be left an annual operating deficit approaching a half million dollars. Funds to meet this annual deficit can come only from higher tuition rates, from unrestricted gifts for immediate use, or from income on additional endowment.

"I do not believe that current tuition fees should be increased unless there is a significant and sustained price inflation. Our current tuition of $300 a term is higher than that of any other division of the University; and unless we should be willing to exclude from the School many men of ability but modest circumstances, any increase in tuition would have to be offset by large scholarship funds appropriated from operating revenues.

"No organization or institution can safely preserve an independent, detached, and impartial position if it must depend every year, regardless of general economic and business conditions, on the generosity and support of others. Nor can the Business School look forward confidently to a period of vigorous growth and a position of intellectual leadership if it must rely on continued annual gifts as a means of covering an operating deficit of $500,000.

"Thus we come very directly to the conclusion that the School must obtain additional endowment to provide at least $500,000 in free funds available for the general educational purposes of the School. In view of the return currently and prospectively obtainable on invested funds, I place the new endowment requirements of the Business School at approximately fifteen million dollars."