United Negro College Fund Receives Record $100 Million from Lilly Endowment

United Negro College Fund (UNCF) announced today that it has been awarded a $100 million unrestricted grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. This is the organization’s largest donation in its 80-year history. This donation will support UNCF’s ongoing $1 billion fundraising campaign.

“Since our founding in 1944, the Lilly Endowment has consistently supported important philanthropy. This $100 million grant is the largest unrestricted private grant we have ever received. In 2015, with a $50 million grant from the Lilly Endowment, UNCF launched the Career Pathways Initiative (CPI), which strengthens HBCU programs and capabilities to improve student career outcomes. Dr. Michael L. Lomax said. UNCF Chairman and CEO said in a press release.

UNCF will use Lilly’s gift to build a collective endowment with the goal of increasing the endowment of each of UNCF’s 37 member institutions by $10 million. A list of member schools can be found here.

Lilly’s $100 million will immediately increase the contributions of each UNCF member state by $2.7 million, at least doubling the contributions of several institutions.

“We will establish an endowment for our member HBCUs that will be pooled and managed at UNCF. These will become permanent assets of the institution. A rising tide lifts all ships. We are committed to making this happen, as 100% of the funding will be used to strengthen the endowments of our 37 member universities. We believe this is the smartest way to utilize Lilly’s transformative support. I believe that,” Lomax said.

By leveraging the collective endowment, UNCF hopes to access “a wide range of investment opportunities in stocks, bonds and real estate with the potential to generate higher returns” and facilitate increased investment power.

According to a study by UNCF’s Frederick D. Patterson Institute, the median endowment to UNCF member institutions is $15.9 million. After the completion of the capital campaign, the median price is expected to reach $25.9 million.

Non-HBCU private endowments are about seven times higher than private HBCU endowments per student, according to Dennis Smith, director of higher education policy and senior fellow at the Century Foundation.

“This gift from the Lilly Endowment recognizes the important work that HBCUs do and the need to strengthen the endowment due to the lack of resources they receive.” Smith said of today’s announcement. “It is up to states and the federal government to ensure that HBCUs are provided with the resources they deserve and are entitled to by law.”

“For nearly 80 years, the Lilly Endowment has supported UNCF’s efforts to strengthen member institutions and thereby improve student achievement,” N. Clay Robbins, president and CEO of the Lilly Endowment, said in a UNCF press release. We have supported the initiative.” “The UNCF programs we have helped fund in the past have been successful, and we are confident that the efforts supported by this bold campaign will have a significant impact on the lives of UNCF member institutions and their students.”

About Lilly Fund

Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private foundation based in Indianapolis that was established in 1937 by JK Lilly and her sons Eli and JK Jr. through a gift of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. The endowment “supports community development, education, and religious causes and maintains a special commitment to our hometown of Indianapolis and our home state of Indiana.”

The gift to UNCF caps an unusual period of Lilly Endowment higher education philanthropy.

Just last month, we made a total gift of $145.8 million to six Indiana universities to support community development projects planned by them and their local communities. And earlier this week, she donated $100 million to Purdue University, the largest gift in the university’s history, to advance his twin initiatives in business and computing.

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