Giving your scene partner qualities, attributes, or history through your behavior toward them — rather than through direct statement about yourself. A concept formalized by Keith Johnstone in Impro. Endowment is one of the purest expressions of "make your partner look good."
Types of endowment:
Behavioral pattern: "You always do this." — Gives your partner a history and a character trait in one line. Implies: (a) this behavior isn't new, (b) it's a pattern, (c) there's a relationship with enough history to have noticed. Example: "Oh great, you're going to reorganize my desk again, aren't you?" — endows compulsive organizing, establishes precedent, AND reveals the speaker's feelings about it.
Relationship: "Mom always liked you better." — Six words that endow sibling relationship, parental favoritism, and a long emotional history. The endowed player doesn't need to have planned any of this; it arrives as a gift.
Emotional state: "You seem nervous." — Gives your partner an emotion to play without them having to generate it. This is a gift because it's easier to play an emotion that's been named than to invent one. The partner can accept ("I AM nervous, okay?") or play against ("I'm not nervous, I'm excited") — either generates material.
Status: Treating your partner with deference endows them as high-status; treating them dismissively endows low. Johnstone: the endowment happens through how you behave toward them, not through labels.
Endowment vs. initiation: All endowments are initiations, but not all initiations are endowments. Initiation establishes something about the scene's world ("We're at a restaurant"). Endowment establishes something about your partner's character specifically ("You always order the most expensive thing"). Endowment is initiation directed at your partner — it gives them something to embody.
Endowment vs. pimping: Johnstone distinguishes these sharply. Endowment gives: it hands your partner a playable character trait, a history, an emotional state. Pimping takes: it forces your partner into a difficult position for your own benefit ("You should sing us a song!"). Good endowment gives something playable. Bad endowment is just labeling ("You're boring") — what does the partner do with that?
The connection to support: When you endow your partner with interesting qualities, you are choosing to see them as interesting — which makes the scene interesting. You're gifting them a character instead of making them build one from scratch. This is Elevating applied at the moment of initiation.