UNICEF USA

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) works in more than 190 countries and territories to put children first. By providing access to health care, nutrition, clean water, education, protection and more, UNICEF empowers every child to have a brighter future. UNICEF USA supports UNICEF's work through fundraising, advocacy and education in the United States. Together, we are working toward the day when no children die from preventable causes, and every child has a safe and healthy childhood.

UNICEF focuses on meeting immediate needs of vulnerable children while also supporting the development of long-term, sustainable solutions to issues that impact their lives and futures, such as water scarcity, food insecurity and the effects of climate change. UNICEF workers brave war zones, treacherous terrain, disasters and disease to reach children in need, partnering with governments, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, civil society groups and other UN agencies to engage communities and maximize impact.

- Innovation has always been at the heart of UNICEF's ability to achieve results for children, from negotiating drug prices to establishing new delivery methods to utilizing new technologies. UNICEF's vast network means it can take successful approaches from one place and adapt them to meet challenges elsewhere, helping drive results for children on a global scale.

- In all UNICEF does, it works to engage and empower young people to have a voice in the decisions that affect their lives and support their peers. In the United States, UNICEF USA has a long history of instilling global citizenship in students. Over a million kids participate in Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF and other UNICEF USA initiatives every year.

- UNICEF USA is one of 33 National Committees, independent non-governmental organization that serves as the public face and dedicated voice of UNICEF in their respective countries. Each National Committee works to raise funds from the private sector, promote children’s rights and secure worldwide visibility for children threatened by poverty, disasters, armed conflict abuse and exploitation. In 2020, UNICEF USA contributed $286 million in cash and in-kind support to UNICEF.

- UNICEF USA invites all Americans to join us. Whether it's by giving time or money, through education, awareness-raising or advocacy, everyone has something to contribute to make this world a better place for all children.

- UNICEF works in more than 190 countries — more than any other children's organization. Almost 17,000 staff work with UNICEF, with approximately 85 percent located in the organization’s 190 country offices.

- With a global innovation center to help scale up proven solutions, UNICEF is helping lead the development of a new wave of technologies and products to help reach the hardest-to-reach children and communities.

- As one of the world's largest buyers of lifesaving supplies such as vaccines, mosquito nets and Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), UNICEF has unique leverage to negotiate the lowest prices.

- UNICEF's global network of staff and volunteers is on the ground before, during and after humanitarian emergencies, in some of the toughest, most remote places in the world. Activating at a moment's notice, UNICEF can ship emergency supplies anywhere in the world within 48 to 72 hours from its warehouse in Copenhagen, which is the world's largest humanitarian warehouse.

- UNICEF USA has communities of supporters all over the United States that work together to fundraise and advocate for the world's most vulnerable children. This nationwide base of supporters includes over 500,000 individual donors, more than 6,000 corporations, foundations and NGOs and more than 500 campus clubs at high schools and colleges around the USA that engage over 90,000 active volunteers. Students who join UNICEF high school and college campus clubs participate in campaigns, host international dinners, organize concerts, advocate on Capitol Hill, collaborate on regional webinars and much more.

- The organization's five regional communities work to highlight UNICEF's work from coast to coast and engage people in their communities in support of our mission. These regional communities host a number of events, educational speaker series and family-friendly activities throughout the year that allow people to take action locally, knowing that their impact will be felt around the globe.

- UNICEF USA has a long history of promoting global citizenship among children and young people. Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF, the original Kids-Helping-Kids campaign, was introduced in 1950 as a way for kids in the U.S. to help their peers around the world.

Since its inception following World War II, UNICEF has meaningfully improved more children's lives than any other humanitarian organization and has been a major contributor to several advances in child survival, health and well-being. UNICEF's programs have helped reduce the under-five child mortality rate by 59 percent since 1990 . UNICEF supplies vaccines to immunize 45 percent of the world’s children under 5, protecting them against polio, measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases. UNICEF and its partners have helped bring polio to the brink of eradication; in 2020, Nigeria was certified free of wild poliovirus, affording Africa the same status, bringing the number of endemic countries down to two, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of child marriage and child labor steadily declined while access to education increased. Since the pandemic began, UNICEF has worked to prevent backsliding on this progress and ensure access to essential services for all children, especially the most vulnerable. In 2021, UNICEF reached 48.6 million out-of-school children with education, 7.6 million adolescent girls with programs to prevent child marriage, and 132 million children with the benefits of cash transfers.

Like UNICEF, UNICEF USA knows that big problems need big solutions; that despite tremendous progress, the world’s children continue to face a number of threats to their health, safety and future well-being. Thousands of children still die every day from preventable causes. Tens of millions of children miss out on essential vaccines. Hundreds of millions of children lack access to clean water, adequate sanitation and hygiene. Hundreds of millions remain out of school. Violence, war, poverty and climate change are displacing children and families in record numbers, heightening all of these risks.

At UNICEF USA, we focus on harnessing our collective voice and energy to advance UNICEF’s mission to do more good in more places for more children. Like UNICEF, we know that sustainable change doesn’t happen overnight; that it takes relentless commitment and working tirelessly in some of the toughest, hardest-to-reach places. We will never stop supporting UNICEF to develop smarter, more cost-effective solutions, scaling up proven data-drive programs and harnessing new technologies to create measurable change for children.