A $50 million gift from the Lilly Endowment to the Hispanic Scholarship Fund will be used for scholarship programs as part of an effort to double the number of minorities earning college degrees, Nando Media/Reuters News Service reports.

This is the largest single donation made to Hispanic education efforts in the U.S., the fund reports.

The scholarship fund aims to double the number of Hispanics receiving college degrees by 2006. Just 9 percent of Hispanics receive college degrees currently.

The San Francisco-based fund has already given more than $38 million to 36,000 college-bound Hispanics since it was established in 1975.

The private Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment was founded in 1937 by heirs of the Eli Lilly and Co. pharmaceutical company. It has more than $12 billion in assets and supports religious, educational and community development efforts.

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