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 of State Colleges and Universities to institutionally support public HBCUs. It underwent a name change in 2006 from the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. TMCF advocates for higher education at
public historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and has grown from a small organization providing scholarships for public HBCUs, raising over $500 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 supported approximately 65,000 students at 900 colleges and universities with approximately $113 million in grants and scholarships in 2015 alone. The Thurgood Marshall College fund supports 55 schools and is a
501(c)(3) tax-exempt, charitable organization, which means it does not pay taxes on its income. TMCF was granted $50 million in 2015 by
Apple, $25.6 million in 2017 by the
Charles Koch Foundation, and $6 million by
The Boeing Company in 2018. ==Acquisitions==