United Nations Foundation

The United Nations Foundation was launched in 1998 with a $1 billion gift from Ted Turner to support the United Nations causes. The creation of the Foundation was intended to encourage other donors to also support the UN in its activities. The main issue areas that the Foundation addresses are child health, climate change & energy, sustainable development, technology, women, girls, and population, and supporting the United Nations. Some of the biggest global campaigns that the UN Foundation has been involved in include Nothing But Nets, the Measles & Rubella Initiative, the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, Girl Up, Shot@Life, and the Better World Campaign, among others.

United Nations Foundation's original purpose was to build support for United Nations causes and to make sure that the United States honors its commitments to the United Nations. Since its beginning, the United Nations Foundation and the Better World Campaign have provided grants in order to support the UN goals worldwide. The United Nations Foundation serves as the largest source of private funding to the United Nations. In conjunction with the UN, they established the United Nations Fund for International Partnerships to serve as the UN counterpart to the Foundation.

The United Nations Foundation has collected more than $1.2 billion from other places, including from other foundations, corporations, NGOs, and individuals. The Foundation also works with UN partners in order to provide policy recommendations and project proposals. The Foundation and its sister organization, The Better World Campaign, have helped raise awareness of and support for the UN among global policy makers and the public. The UN Foundation's current budgetary breakdown is $115.7 million going to program services, $7.3 million to fundraising, and $11.8 million going to management and overhead.

Ted Turner, who in 1996 was worth $3.2 billion due to his Time Warner enterprise, decided to make a $1 billion contribution to the UN because he had previously donated to similar causes, and felt strongly about the issues the UN were participating in. Before donating to the UN, Turner was a proponent for the protection of the environment, especially in combating global warming. Turner believed that his $100 million per year donation over the course of 10 years would make a difference in the direction of the United Nations, and that he could use this donation to encourage other wealthy members of society to make financial contributions to the work of the UN. By Giving away nearly 1/3 of his wealth while still living, Ted Turner was a major influence in the Giving Pledge movement.

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