[2] Originally primarily a grantmaker, the UN Foundation has evolved into a strategic partner to the UN, mobilizing support to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and help the UN address issues such as climate change, global health, gender equality, human rights, data and technology, peace, and humanitarian responses.

[3] The UN Foundation's main work occurs through building public-private partnerships, communities, initiatives, campaigns, and alliances to broaden support for the UN and solve global problems.

The UN Foundation is now supported by a variety of philanthropic, corporate, government, and individual donors, and it continues to serve as a substantial source of private funding to the United Nations.

Turner chose to donate to the UN and create the UN Foundation because he was a prior donor to similar causes and felt strongly that the UN was critical to solve the world’s most pressing challenges.

Turner’s gift was also inspired by the fact that the UN was underfunded at the time because the U.S. government had not met its allocated financial contribution to the UN due to a lack of sufficient appropriations in the federal budget.

Other current board members include Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan, former Deputy Secretary-General of the UN Mark Malloch-Brown, Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Infosys N. R. Narayana Murthy, Master of University College Oxford Valerie Amos, CEO of Verizon Communications Hans Vestberg, Former Prime Minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, President of the University of Miami Julio Frenk, Chairman of Endeavor Brazil Fábio Colletti Barbosa, Senior Partner of the Southbridge Group Dr. Frannie Léautier, Chair of the Captain Planet Foundation Laura Turner Seydel, and former UN Foundation Presidents Timothy E. Wirth and Kathy Calvin.

A top priority was to build upon previously-successful UN programs, including children's health, population and family planning issues, global environmental agreements, and the safe removal of land-mines.

The UN Foundation's Shot@Life campaign educates, connects and empowers Americans to champion vaccines as one of the most cost-effective ways to save the lives of children in developing countries.

As of 2019, Shot@Life had protected over $4.1 billion in U.S. funding for global childhood immunization programs and helped provide more than 82 million vaccines through direct grant support to UN partners.

Every Woman Every Child was launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit in 2010 and aims to save and improve the lives of millions of women, children and adolescents around the world by 2030.

It is a global effort to mobilize international and national action by governments, multilaterals, the private sector and civil society to address health challenges facing women and children around the world.

The fund raised over $200 million within six weeks, which went toward WHO’s efforts to track and understand the spread of the virus, to mobilize protective equipment to frontline health workers, and to develop vaccines, tests, and treatments.

Led by an 23-member Reference Group, operated daily by a Secretariat, and hosted by the United Nations Foundation, FP2020 is based on the principle that all women, no matter where they live should have access to lifesaving contraceptives.

[24] Data2X, a collaborative technical and advocacy platform, was formed after former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called for its creation in a policy speech in July 2012 and cited the lack of reliable and regular data on the lives of women and girls.

[25] Through research, advocacy and communications, Data2X works to improve the availability, quality, and use of gender data to make a practical difference in the lives of women and girls worldwide.

The Foundation’s climate team works with partners in the NGO sector, the UN, governments, and private corporations to come up with solutions and provide funding to programs related to this issue.

The alliance works with public, private, and non-profit partners to overcome market barriers that hamper the production, deployment, and use of clean cookstoves and fuels in the developing world.