Short answers, pulled from the story.
UNICEF was founded on the 11th of December 1946, by resolution 57(I) of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. It was created to provide immediate relief to children and mothers displaced by the Second World War, drawing on residual funds from the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.
Polish health specialist Ludwik Rajchman was the driving force behind UNICEF's creation. He chose Maurice Pate of the Commission for Relief in Belgium to direct the agency and had the support of La Guardia, Herbert Hoover, and Pate when presenting the founding resolution to the General Assembly.
UNICEF relies entirely on voluntary contributions from governments and private donors. In 2024, its total income was $8.61 billion, of which public-sector partners contributed $4.92 billion. The 34 national committees collectively account for roughly one-third of annual income through private fundraising from corporations, civil society groups, and around six million individual donors.
In 2018, UNICEF assisted in the birth of 27 million babies, administered pentavalent vaccines to an estimated 65.5 million children, provided education for 12 million children, treated four million children with severe acute malnutrition, and responded to 285 humanitarian emergencies in 90 countries.
UNICEF received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1965, the Indira Gandhi Prize in 1989, and the Princess of Asturias Award in 2006.
The Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF campaign traces back to 1950, when a group of children in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania donated $17 collected on Halloween to help post-World War II victims. Since then, the campaign has raised approximately C$91 million in Canada and more than US$167 million in the United States, though Canada discontinued the program in 2006.