The United Negro College Fund has been a provider of college education opportunities to students with African roots and others that belong to non-Caucasian races. The United Negro College Fund continues to fund more than 65,000 college students every year since its creation in 1944.

The United Negro College Fund is the largest and oldest higher education assistance institution. Though the organization was designed to provide financial and other forms of assistance to the African-American minority, their choice of recipients changed through the years and now includes students from Latin, Asian, and Native American lineage. However, the majority of scholars are still from the African-American bloc.

The United Negro College Fund has raised more than $2.5 billion to aid 350,000 financially-strapped non-Caucasian students to attend and graduate from college. The United Negro College Fund is in ties with 900 colleges and universities across the United States.

Among the famous alumni supported by the United Negro College Fund during their college years are Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., film director Spike Lee, celebrated actor Samuel L. Jackson, and US Air Force General Daniel “Chappie” James who is the first African-American to receive the rank of 4-Star general.

The United Negro College Fund gets its funding from donations. Among its highly celebrated donors was the late US President John F. Kennedy, who gave the Pulitzer Prize honorarium for his book to the fund, and Walter Annenberg, who gave $50 million.

One of the most important figures in the Foundation’s fundraising events was jazz musician Lou Rawls. Since 1980, Rawls has performed on an annual dinner benefit known as the “Lou Rawls Parade of the Stars.” The event, which was basically a telethon, features various performances from famous musical artists. Today, the event is known as “An Evening with the Stars.”