Understanding the funding requirements of public institutions starts with recognizing them as state assets with capacity to meet state needs, especially those that disproportionately serve underrepresented, low-income, or rural student populations and adult learners. As policy makers wrestle with resource allocation decisions under unfavorable conditions, they could benefit from an evidence-based framework designed to help them recognize and consider the level of public support necessary to provide for the most basic of institutional funding requirements. Such a framework would offer insights that help policy makers avoid making decisions that contribute to institutions drifting toward fiscal peril. It would also encourage a strategic conversation about which institutions are addressing state priorities and the level of funding needed to ensure that they are able to continue doing so (Prescott et al., 2021). This article summarizes findings from a white paper drafted by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems for a series on public finance of higher education sponsored by the State Higher Education Executive Officers national association (2020). The paper also proposes a framework for thinking about institutional budgets and their basic foundational costs (Prescott et al., 2021).