The Forum was founded by a group of international donors called together by the Fondazione San Paolo di Torino and the Rockefeller Foundation to a meeting in April 1993 in Bellagio, a small village on the shores of Lake Como, Northern Italy.

The group was concerned by the magnitude of the task of promoting and achieving global sustainability and conceived the idea of creating a platform for raising international awareness, bringing together an expanding membership and identifying worthwhile projects which would advance the cause.

Thus the Forum aims to bring together like-minded, yet diverse partners to identify and fund innovative concepts and practical projects.  The Forum focuses on those activities that can be more effectively implemented by partners than by individual organisations working alone. Experience and expertise are exchanged, trust is built, information transferred and new initiatives brought to life.

With its current home on the premises of the German Environmental Foundation, the forum draws its members from a wide range of international foundations, corporations and corporate foundations. The Forum also engages in partnerships with business networks, media organizations, non-governmental organizations, government institutions and research institutes when necessary to achieve the goals set by the members.  

In order to facilitate and focus cooperative efforts, the Forum's members have established five distinct working groups: Energy, Water, Awareness (Education), Finance and Health. By concentrating on, but not limiting themselves to these specific topics, the members aim is to increase their own focus and ability to forge effective partnerships.

The BFSD achieves its goals by facilitating the multi-stakeholder partnership process.  Bridging the gap between its different members and partners to form innovative and courageous collaboratives focused on tackling challenging issues.  The Forum, true to its name, brings together different individuals and organizations who strive to build the trust and mutual understanding necessary to achieve signficant and lasting results.