Editing United Nations Foundation (section)

==History==

In 1998, [[Ted Turner]], an American media proprietor, producer, and philanthropist, announced his decision to make a $1{{nbsp}}billion contribution to the United Nations at the annual [[United Nations Association of the United States of America|United Nations Association of the USA]] gala dinner, with then [[Secretary-General of the United Nations|UN Secretary-General]] [[Kofi Annan]] present. This $1{{nbsp}}billion donation was used to establish the United Nations Foundation.

Beyond his philanthropy work, Turner is best known for founding cable television network [[CNN]], as well as the [[Turner Broadcasting System]] (TBS) and Turner Entertainment Company. 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. Prior to his $1{{nbsp}}billion donation to the UN, Turner was already an active philanthropist and had been a proponent for the protection of the environment, especially in combating global warming. Turner believed that his $100{{nbsp}}million per year donation over the course of 10 years would make a difference to 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.<ref>{{citation|author=Howard Fineman and Carol Bogert|title=Why Ted gave it away|date=29 September 1997|publisher=Newsweek v.130}}</ref> In 1996, Turner was worth $3.2{{nbsp}}billion due to his shares in [[Time Warner]] (which had bought TBS that year). By giving away nearly a third of his wealth while still living, Ted Turner became a noted participant in the [[The Giving Pledge|Giving Pledge]] movement.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ted Turner|url=https://givingpledge.org/Pledger.aspx?id=302|access-date=2021-01-27|website=Giving Pledge|language=en}}</ref>