The Mahratta Education Fund (MEF) is a non-profit organization working for the spread of education to poor and deserving students of South Indian Marathi speaking community. The main objective of the MEF is to promote the economic well being of the community and to preserve its language, culture and tradition. The first object is achieved by granting scholarship to deserving students of the community for higher and technical education. This enables the recipient to qualify himself/herself for a decent job and ameliorate his/her economic condition in particular and that or his/her family in general.
The Fund was founded by a 21-year old lawyer E. Vinayaka Row during a meeting convened on September 15, 1912, hosted by Rao Saheb P. Ramachandra Rao and chaired by Dewan Bahadur K. Krishnaswami Rao Sahib (later Cabinet Secretary, Government of India).