UNICEF and Faith-Inspired Partners: From Shared Values to Collective Action

Around the world, people and communities may come to humanitarian work from different perspectives but share a simple belief: every child deserves a chance to survive, thrive and realize their full potential. Across traditions, communities and areas of expertise, faith-inspired organizations find common ground in a mutual commitment to children’s rights and a trusted, global partner in UNICEF. 

Faith-inspired organizations and communities have long been one of the most influential forces for positive change. Deeply rooted in communities and guided by strong values and a commitment to service, they help advance the well-being, dignity and rights of children. UNICEF USA partners with a growing network of faith-inspired organizations and leaders across the United States to help children everywhere.

The reach of faith-inspired communities

While UNICEF USA’s faith partners often provide generous financial support, their contributions go well beyond funding. Through their deep community ties, robust volunteer networks, ample resources and complementary strengths, faith-inspired partners help UNICEF reach more children and families — extending the reach and impact of every dollar.

And while “faith-inspired” can be a useful label to refer to this growing cohort, no two groups are alike or collaborate with UNICEF USA in just the same way. UNICEF USA draws on each organization’s unique capabilities, moral leadership, community connections and generosity to reach more children and their families.

UNICEF USA’s expanding faith-inspired ecosystem is composed of organizations and individuals with a range of identities and missions. Faith, values or traditions may shape a partner’s approach without being a formal part of its identity. The network also includes “faith-based” groups, which typically have a direct connection to a particular faith and ground their work in religious teachings, spiritual beliefs or a specific denomination, institution or tradition.

These different identities can also apply specialized knowledge and perspectives to advancing children’s well-being. The nonprofit Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA) is one example. 

Where faith, science and public health meet

IFANCA’s mission and expertise connect directly to children’s health and well-being through its focus on halal food integrity, nutrition and health equity. IFANCA provides a perspective that complements UNICEF’s global efforts to strengthen health systems and protect children from preventable diseases, like polio.

The partnership began during COVID-19, when IFANCA supported UNICEF-backed efforts through ACT-A to advance equitable access to vaccines and other essential health tools. From this initial response, the partnership has expanded to address longer-term global health priorities, including polio eradication. Together, IFANCA and UNICEF demonstrate how faith-inspired partnerships can connect faith and science, cultural understanding and public health, and community trust with technical knowledge. The collaboration also connects Muslim community leadership with global humanitarian action, linking a U.S.-based organization with UNICEF’s presence around the world.

Partnerships between organizations like IFANCA and UNICEF demonstrate that when expertise, trust and shared purpose come together, meaningful progress follows. — Muhammed Munir Chaudry, IFANCA President and CEO

IFANCA’s commitment has translated into more than $7 million for UNICEF-supported initiatives, including ACT-A, COVAX and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Most recently, IFANCA committed $4 million to help end polio in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other at-risk areas. In addition to funding, IFANCA has become an important voice on vaccine confidence, transparency and the importance of culturally appropriate health efforts, helping connect global health priorities with Muslim communities. From nutrition to immunization, global coordination to community, the collaboration shows how different strengths can combine to create lasting change.

Together, UNICEF and IFANCA can accomplish more for children than either could alone. 

Related: What the IFANCA-UNICEF Partnership Reveals About High-Impact Giving

From community engagement to global mobilization

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints brings a distinctive strength: a global faith community committed to service, able to mobilize people, resources and collaborations to deliver lifesaving support to women and children. Through its members’ generosity and service, the Church expands humanitarian efforts worldwide, working alongside organizations like UNICEF to reach more children and families.

UNICEF and the Church have collaborated since 2013 on health, nutrition, immunization, education, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and emergency response. In 2025, Church-supported programs reached more than 10 million people. In 2026, the Church committed $25 million to the UNICEF-led Child Nutrition Fund, a contribution that will unlock an additional $25 million through the Childhood Nutrition Fund (CNF) match challenge. The combined $50 million will strengthen CNF’s efforts to reach 320 million children and women each year by 2030 with proven nutrition interventions. The Church’s contribution will support nutrition programs in five countries. 

But the collaboration is about more than funding programs; it gathers people around a shared commitment to children. Through its year-end Light the World Giving Machines initiative, the Church mobilizes congregations and local communities to help children and families in need. The Church places Giving Machines in locations worldwide, turning passerby attention into life-changing action for the world’s most vulnerable children. 

Bringing more voices to the table

UNICEF USA is building new and stronger relationships with faith-inspired organizations, inviting more communities to protect and improve children’s lives. 

Buddhist Global Relief (BGR), a newer UNICEF USA partner, has worked since 2008 to alleviate hunger in communities facing chronic food insecurity and has recently expanded its mission to include support for crisis responses in areas of urgent need. Guided by Buddhist values of compassion and service, BGR provides emergency grants to support UNICEF’s humanitarian responses in crisis-affected regions facing aid shortages, with a particular focus on emergencies where children face severe nutrition needs, including in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.

Other partners live out their values by how they steward their financial resources. Beyond joint advocacy efforts, the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace has supported UNICEF USA through the Every Child Fund, providing flexible funding that lets UNICEF direct resources where children need them most. The Congregation has also invested in the UNICEF USA Bridge Fund, reflecting its longstanding commitment to using its resources to advance equity and respond to critical needs around the world.

As UNICEF USA builds relationships across faith traditions, it creates paths for each partner to put its distinctive strengths to work — through funding, advocacy, expertise, community engagement and, above all, a shared commitment to children.

Putting complementary strengths to work

Faith-inspired partners come to UNICEF USA with their own communities, networks, capabilities and humanitarian traditions because UNICEF builds on these strengths by bringing global reach, technical expertise and deep experience across multiple humanitarian sectors. 

UNICEF also provides a common platform for groups from different traditions to collaborate around a shared commitment to children — without asking them to give up what makes them distinct. And the impact stretches beyond immediate aid. UNICEF works with governments and communities to strengthen stable, sustainable systems that can improve children’s lives over the long term.

A time to come together for children

The power of UNICEF USA’s burgeoning faith-inspired ecosystem is not that everyone approaches humanitarian action the same way. It is that different strengths combine to achieve more for children than any one community could alone — ultimately making every dollar count.

Children around the world face enormous need, outpacing the availability of international assistance. Faith-inspired communities have an essential role to play, bringing strong community ties, moral leadership and the ability to convene people around a mutual responsibility to help others.

These UNICEF USA partnerships can help build public confidence in humanitarian action, connect global challenges to a personal sense of responsibility and mobilize communities when emergencies arise. They also bring culturally grounded perspectives to humanitarian conversations and create new coalitions for protecting children.

When shared purpose becomes collective action, more children can get what they need, when and where they need it.

Faith-inspired organizations and communities interested in partnering with UNICEF USA can contact Hannah Scully at hscully@unicefusa.org to learn more.

UNICEF does not endorse any company, brand, organization, product or service.