United Nations Foundation

United Nations Foundation

Ted Turner founded the United Nations Foundation in 1998 with a landmark $1 billion pledge, channeling the media fortune he built through CNN into a permanent charitable endowment. The foundation operates from Washington, D.C., with an additional office in New York, and it serves as a central partner to the UN system. Turner remains Chairman; Elizabeth M. Cousens has led the organization as President and CEO. The foundation deploys its capital through grants, advocacy, and campaign-building rather than traditional investments. It focuses on climate change, global health, and sustainable development, working alongside UN agencies and other philanthropic entities. Its advocacy arm, the Better World Campaign, advances US-UN relations. While the foundation does not disclose its portfolio, its reported endowment size places it firmly among mid-sized US philanthropies (Altss estimate). Governance sits with a board chaired by Turner, while day-to-day operations fall to Cousens. The foundation runs several adjacent vehicles, including the Better World Fund, Inc., and the United Nations Fund for International Partnerships (UNFIP). During the pandemic, it launched the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. The New York office, located in the Ford Foundation Building, anchors its presence in the multilateral hub. The foundation's structure is distinct: a private, grantmaking charity created to support a public multilateral institution. Unlike family offices that manage direct investments, the United Nations Foundation channels nearly all its resources into programmatic work and advocacy, with a small endowment managed conservatively. Succession planning centers on the board's ability to appoint leaders who maintain Turner's original vision of a privately funded UN partner.