The Vienna NGO Committee on the Family was originally founded in 1985 as a platform for exchange of information on family issues with the support of the then United Nations Center for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs, to offer coordination and facilitation and promotion of the activities of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) represented at the United Nations, who are interested in questions relating to families, and to convene meetings, and facilitate liaison with United Nations agencies, governments, other Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), research institutions etc.
 
The Vienna NGO Committee on the Family has grown to understand itself as a bridge between families-oriented Civil Society Organisations, the United Nations, Member States of the United Nations, and their governments, and Academic Institutions. The Vienna Committee further offers knowledge resources, on issues relating to families, through the online networks set up and maintained by the Committee at: www.civilsocietynetworks.org and the online archive of the tenth anniversary of the United Nations International Year of the Family (IYF) in 2004 at: www.10yearsIYF.org as well as at www.20yearsIYF.org to observe IYF+20 in 2014. The online publication, by the Committee, of the Quarterly Bulletin Families International can be accessed and downloaded on the homepage of the Committee at: www.viennafamilycommittee.org