BRUNSWICK

With the close of Fiscal Year 2013 in June, interest generated by the collective wealth of Bowdoin College’s assets pushed the small private school’s endowment to more than $1 billion.

Bowdoin holds about 1,600 individual accounts, which generated a return of 16 percent during the year just passed, for a total endowment of $1.04 billion.

Forty-five percent of the endowment, or about $17 million, is dedicated to funding student aid.

Cambridge Associates, a Massachusetts firm that tracks performance of holdings, foundations and endowments nationwide, ranked Bowdoin’s fiscal year return in the top 5 percent of its peers. Nationwide, colleges and universities reported an average return of 11.6 percent for 2013.

Despite a perception that Bowdoin is an elitist school for children of wealth, President Barry Mills attributed the college’s “need-blind” admissions policy — that qualified students are admitted without regard to their ability to pay for tuition, room and board — to the robust endowment.

However, the strong endowment also provides fodder for criticism.

Recently, student-led organizations such as Bowdoin Climate Action and other political groups repeatedly have called on the school’s leaders to divest Bowdoin’s portfolio of accounts that trade in fossil fuels.

Yet another protest is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Saturday, to be led by Bowdoin Climate Action and 350 Maine.

Thus far, Mills and the school’s Board of Trustees steadfastly have refused to change successful investment practices.