The National Scholarship Service and Fund for Negro Students (NSSFNS) was founded in 1947 as the first talent identification organizaton in the United States to identify and place Black students in predominantly white boarding schools and colleges. In 1962, the organization phased out student referrals to boarding schools and focused on higher education. NSSFNS was instrumental in developing A Better Chance to place talented students of color into high-achieving day, boarding and public schools.The organization was based in New York and had field offices in Atlanta and Chicago. Since its founding, NSSFNS evolved from an organization designed to increase the number of Black students in predominantly white colleges and universities to one that worked to match students with nearly 3,000 two‐year and four‐year institutions of higher education, including historically Black colleges and universities. The organization also extended its services to include Upward Bound and Talent Search students students regardless of race, creed or national origin. By the 1970s, NSSFNS served about 40,000 students a year.

This collection's records are from the NSSFNS Southeastern Regional Office, established in Atlanta in 1969.