Thurgood Marshall College Fund


The Thurgood Marshall College Fund is an American non-profit organization that supports and represents nearly 300,000 students attending its 47 member-schools that include public historically black colleges and universities, medical schools, and law schools. It is named for the U.S. Supreme Court's first African-American Justice, Thurgood Marshall. Its major partners include McDonald's and several others.

History

The organization was established in 1987, under the leadership of Dr. N. Joyce Payne in cooperation with Miller Brewing Company, Sony Music, the NBA, Reebok and the American Association for State Colleges and Universities to Institutionally support the public HBCUs. It underwent a name change in 2006 from the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
TMCF has championed higher education at public historically black colleges and universities and has grown from a small organization providing scholarships for public HBCUs, raising over $300 million to date for programmatic support, capacity building support and scholarships for its member-schools and the students matriculating on the campuses.
Its mission differs from that of the United Negro College Fund, which only supports private HBCUs; it is a 501 tax-exempt, charitable organization.
TMCF was granted $50 million in 2015 by Apple, $26.5 million in 2017 by the Charles Koch Foundation and Koch Industries, and $6 million by The Boeing Company in 2018.

Acquisitions

In 2013, TMCF acquired the Opportunity Funding Corporation, merging the two organizations with TMCF becoming the parent organization. Both organizations share a similar mission of providing service to the HBCU community, particularly in the area of talent identification. OFC, while continuing its efforts to enhance the entrepreneurship curriculum within public and private HBCUs, will now focus on identifying the most promising future entrepreneurs and introducing them to potential investors and very successful entrepreneurs.

Leadership