Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has awarded the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) with a $70 million gift aimed at strengthening historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The organization called the donation “extraordinary” and said it will be invested in the UNCF Members Pooled Endowment Fund to support the long-term financial health of all 37 private member schools.

According to ABC, this new contribution follows Scott’s $10 million gift in 2020, which helped create an emergency reserve fund for UNCF. President and CEO Michael L. Lomax said he was overjoyed when he learned about the latest donation. "She is Saint MacKenzie Scott," Lomax told ABC News, adding, "She is rewriting the book on philanthropy, not just in this country, but in the world."

The $70 million gift brings Scott’s total contributions to UNCF to $80 million and moves the organization closer to its $1 billion capital campaign goal, launched in 2021 to provide critical resources for HBCUs. 

Each private member school will receive a $5 million stake in the pooled endowment as part of the initiative, which seeks to raise $370 million total, about $10 million for each institution’s endowment, ABC notes. 

Lomax said Scott’s generosity challenges other donors to step up. "I think it's a challenge to them to do more and to give more," he told ABC News. "We [HBCUs] often say we do more with less. Now it's time for us to do more with more."

The announcement came during HBCU Week 2025, which celebrates the legacy of historically Black institutions. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon called the schools “pillars of excellence” since 1837. Federal funding for HBCUs also increased after more than $300 million was reallocated by the federal government, as BET previously reported. Lomax said he is “guardedly optimistic” about the future, adding, "I thought that, you know, maybe the support will go down, when, in fact, what's happening is that the support is going up."