United Negro College Fund (thing)

Our mission is to enhance the quality of education by providing financial assistance to deserving students, raising operating funds for member colleges and universities, and increasing access to technology for students and faculty at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Since its inception in 1944, UNCF has grown to become the nation's oldest and most successful African American education assistance organization.

United Negro College Fund Mission Statement

The United Negro College Fund is an organization dedicated to providing financial assistance to African American students as well as providing much needed funds for historically black colleges.

The United Negro College Fund was founded in 1944 by Dr. Frederick Patterson, who was the President of Tuskegee University. It began with 27 different member schools encompassing over 14,000 students. Today they have 39 member schools and the current President of the organization is former Congressman William Gray III.

The UNCF first coined their slogan "A mind is a terrible thing to waste", back in 1972 when they were running a national awareness campaign. Apparently the slogan was successful and stuck in a lot of people's heads. They are still using it today.

Over the years the United Negro College Fund has raised close to 2 billion dollars, which has helped over 300,000 African American students to graduate. The largest single contribution to date was 42 million dollars, which they received from the Lilly Endowment back in 1998. The UNCF are one of the best ranked charities when it comes to actually using donations properly, their cost ratio is only 12 percent, which means that 88 percent of donations are actually put to good use, while the other 12 percent cover operating expenses and advertising.

They have recently partnered with Microsoft, IBM, and AT&T in an effort to strengthen the technological capacities at member schools. Their headquarters is currently located in Fairfax, Virginia, and they have regional offices all across the United States.