The Connect U.S. initiative was founded in 2004 by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Open Society Institute and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund to unite and support a growing number of U.S.-based organizations that work on global affairs. The Ford Foundation joined the collaborative in 2005 and The Atlantic Philanthropies joined in 2008. The Ploughshares Fund joined in 2009. The Carnegie Corporation of New York joined in 2010. The Connect U.S. Fund is managed and administered by the Tides Center. The Connect U.S. Council provides policy and program guidance for the Connect U.S. initiative, and is comprised of representatives from each of the five supporting foundations. The Council is supported by the Connect U.S. Fund professional staff, which operates as a project of the Tides Center.

The initiative came out of a series of meetings involving the partner foundations in 2002 and 2003, and focusing on the issue of responsible U.S. global engagement. The participants in these meetings represented diverse fields -- peace and security, human rights, the environment, development and global health – but discovered they faced similar challenges to advancing their policy objectives. These challenges included limited public and private resources for foreign policy advocacy, media focus on a narrowly defined security agenda, and the absence of informed and empowered constituencies on global issues to hold policy makers accountable for foreign policy decisions. At the same time, participants were able to identify new opportunities. Polling research indicated that in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Americans were increasingly interested in and concerned about the U.S. role in the world.

The foundations agreed that a collaborative fund, to which each would contribute, might provide an important incentive to collaboration among NGOs, and thereby enhance the collective impact of advocacy efforts. They thus created the Connect U.S. Fund and embarked on two rounds of grantmaking, from 2004 through 2006.

In 2006, the collaborative embarked on a search for an executive director to provide leadership for the Connect U.S. community of organizations, complete and implement a strategic plan, and provide a strategic vision for the funding and network-building activities. In November 2006, Eric Schwartz joined the Connect U.S. Fund as its first executive director. From 2006-early 2009, Eric Schwartz led the Connect U.S. Fund in developing a program of grant-making and operations designed to promote a vision of responsible U.S. global engagement during the Presidential election period, and the Presidential transition. In early 2009, Eric Schwartz entered the Obama Administration as Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, and Ambassador Nancy Soderberg joined the Connect U.S. Fund as its new President.