UNCF, the United Negro College Fund, known as the United Fund, is a philanthropic organization that funds scholarships for Black students and general scholarship funds for 37 private HBCUs. UNCF was incorporated on April 25, 1944, by Frederick D. Patterson, Mary McLeod Bethune, and others. UNCF is headquartered in DC. In 2005, UNCF supported approximately 65,000 students at over 900 colleges and universities with approximately $113 million in grants and scholarships. About 60% of these students are the first in their families to attend college, and 62% have annual family incomes of less than $25,000. UNCF administers over 450 named scholarships.
UNCF’s president and chief executive officer is Michael Lomax. Past presidents of the UNCF included William H. Gray and Vernon Jordan.
Though founded to address funding inequities in education resources for African Americans, UNCF-administered scholarships are open to all ethnicities; the great majority of recipients are still African-American. It provides scholarships to students attending its member colleges as well as to those going elsewhere.
Graduates of UNCF member institutions and scholarships have included many Black people in the fields of business, politics, health care, and the arts. Some prominent UNCF alumni include Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Alexis Herman; Spike Lee; Samuel L. Jackson; General Chappie James; and Dr. David Satcher.
UNCF adopted as its motto the maxim “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” This maxim has become one of the most widely recognized slogans in advertising history. The motto was notably mangled in an address to the organization by VPOTUS Dan Quayle, who stated: “And you take the UNCF model that what a waste it is to lose one’s mind or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.” The motto, which has been used in numerous award-winning UNCF ad campaigns, was created by Forest Long, of the advertising agency Young & Rubicam, in partnership with the Ad Council. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence
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