NFI was founded on March 7, 1994, by Don Eberly, a civil society scholar.

The organization also produced and disseminated a national public service advertising campaign, in partnership with the Ad Council.

[4] Although the size of NFI's staff has decreased over the last years, the organization remains by some measures the largest provider of fatherhood resources and training in the nation.

Since 2002, NFI has trained over 18,000 practitioners from more than 6,300 organizations on how to deliver fatherhood programming to dads via webinar.

Among the awards that the organization has given are awards to race car driver Dale Jarrett (in 2003), singer Kenny Chesney (in 2004), singer Buddy Jewell (in 2005), Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (in 2007), basketball player Dwyane Wade (in 2011), mayor Michael Bloomberg (in 2012), and film director Andy Fickman (in 2013).