United Negro College Fund
The United Negro College Fund is an philanthropic African-American organization. It raises funds for college tuition for black students and scholarships for 39 private historically black colleges and universities. The United Negro College Fund was created in April 1944 by Dr. Frederick D. Patterson, Mary McLeod Bethune and a few other people. The headquarters of the organization are at in Fairfax County in Virginia. A large number of students that the fund helps are deserving students who should go to college and most of them have an annual income of less than $25000.
The fund administers over 450 names scholarships and even though the fund was initially set up to help African Americans, the scholarships are available to all ethnicities. Some of the prominent United Negro College Fund alumni include Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Alexis Herman, Spike Lee, Samuel L. Jackson and Dr. David Satcher.
A large number of institutions across the country are member institutions of the United Negro College Fund. These include Oakwood University in Huntsville, Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens, Morehouse College in Atlanta, Shaw University in Raleigh, Lane College in Jackson and Virginia Union University in Richmond.
The organization believes that it is criminal to waste a mind and feels that all those who have the ability should be given the opportunity to learn and use it to give back to society. The maxim “a mind is a terrible thing to waste”, has become one of the most popular slogans in advertising history.
The fund receives charitable donations for the scholarships. Some of the prominent donations have been made by famous personalities like John F. Kennedy and Walter Annenburg. While President Kennedy gave up all the money that he received as his Pulitzer Prize for the book Profiles in Courage, Annenburg donated $50 million to the fund in a single offering.
NOTE: Information on this site is not guaranteed to be accurate. Some content is compiled from 3rd party sources. If you are aware of incorrect or outdated information, feel free to contact us.