Lowes Charitable and Educational Foundation (LCEF) donated $250,000 to the United Negro College Fund's Emergency Student Aid Campaign to help African American students hurt by the recession reach graduation in their senior year. The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) is the largest minority education organization in the country with 39 member historically black colleges and universities including Morehouse College and Tuskegee University. Their Emergency Student Aid Campaign aims to raise $5 million in tax-deductible gifts along with gifts of school supplies like textbooks and lab coats.
 
"The Emergency Student Aid Campaign is for the students,” said Michael L. Lomax, Ph.D., UNCF president and CEO. “Thousands of students at UNCF member colleges have seen family contributions reduced or eliminated due to job loss and pay cuts…Many of these students wouldn't have been able to register this fall if Lowe's hadn't stepped up."
 
While all 39 UNCF schools will benefit from the donation, its distribution will be focused in UNCF schools in North Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, and Virginia. These were the states deemed highest priority in a survey of students with the most urgent need for tuition assistance.
 
55,000 students attend UNCF schools each year, and 350,000 students have earned a degree with help from UNCF since its founding.

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