[6] Though founded to address funding inequities in education resources for African Americans, UNCF-administered scholarships are open to all ethnicities; the great majority of recipients are still African-American.

[7] Graduates of UNCF member institutions and scholarships have included many Black people in the fields of business, politics, health care and the arts.

Some prominent UNCF alumni include: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and leader in the civil rights movement; Alexis Herman, former U.S. Secretary of Labor; movie director Spike Lee; actor Samuel L. Jackson; General Chappie James, the U.S. Air Force’s first black four-star general; and Dr. David Satcher, a former U.S.

As the first executive director from the organization's start in 1944 until 1964, Trent raised $78 million for historically Black colleges so they could become "strong citadels of learning, carriers of the American dream, seedbeds of social evolution and revolution".

The annual event, now known as "An Evening of Stars", consists of stories of successful African-American students who have graduated or benefited from one of the many historically black colleges and universities and who received support from the UNCF.

Before his death in January 2006, Rawls' last performance was a taping for the 2006 telethon that honored Wonder, months before entering the hospital after being diagnosed with cancer earlier in the year.

[15] In protest of the Kochs, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a major labor union, ended its yearly $50,000–60,000 support for UNCF.