The Stichting IKEA Foundation (KvK 41202422) is a Dutch foundation founded in 1982 by

Ingvar Kamprad Feodor Ingvar Kamprad (; 30 March 1926 – 27 January 2018) was a Swedish billionaire best known for founding IKEA, a multinational retail company specialising in furniture. He lived in Switzerland from 1976 to 2014. Early life and family ...

, a Swedish billionaire and founder of

IKEA IKEA (; ) is a Dutch multinational conglomerate based in the Netherlands that designs and sells , kitchen appliances, decoration, home accessories, and various other goods and home services. Started in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA has been ...

. The foundation receives its income from the

Stichting INGKA Foundation The Stichting INGKA Foundation is a Dutch foundation founded in 1982 by Ingvar Kamprad, a Swedish billionaire and founder of IKEA, and his corporate attorney Linnea Walsh. INGKA is one of the largest charitable foundations in the world and used ...

. Initially focused on architecture and interior design, its scope expanded in 2009 to include "improving children's opportunities". In 2020, total grants disbursed by the foundation amounted to $ million.

Giving

Unlike its funder the INGKA Foundation, the IKEA Foundation has ANBI (''

algemeen nut beogende instelling Since 2008 the Dutch Tax Administration can designate an institution to be a "Public Benefit Organisation" (Dutch: ''Algemeen Nut Beogende Instelling'', ANBI). At least 90% of the efforts of an ANBI has to be focused on the general good. And since ...

'', "Institution for General Benefit") status from the Dutch Tax Service. In 2017, the foundation received 159 million euros from the INGKA Foundation, of which it donated 144 million. Recipients of the donations include MSF,

UNHCR The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...

Save the Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization established in the United Kingdom in 1919 to improve the lives of children through better education, health care, and economic ...

, and We Mean Business Coalition for climate change. In 2019, the IKEA Foundation pledged $7.7 million to a development impact fund assembled by KOIS, an impact finance firm, to support Syrian refugees. According to the

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate ...

, the IKEA Foundation disbursed US$192.5 million for development in 2019 in the form of grants. In December 2020, the IKEA Foundation invested 30 million dollars in Aceli Africa (loans to agricultural SMEs) along with the

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) is an office-level agency in the federal administration of Switzerland, and a part of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. Together with other federal offices, SDC is responsible for ...

and the

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible f ...

.Romil Pandey
IKEA Foundation, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, USAID Invest $30m in Aceli Africa, Guarantor of Loans to Agricultural SMEs
''Microcapital.org'', 4 December 2020 The IKEA Foundation announced an alliance with the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Ca ...

to raise $10 billion in capital to finance small-scale renewable energy projects in June 2021. Each organization committed $500 million to the fund initially, with a goal to grow the fund to $100 billion, aftering partnering with other organizations. According to ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikke ...

'', the foundations set targets to reduce annual CO2 emissions by one billion tonnes, and eliminate

energy poverty Energy poverty is lack of access to modern energy services. It refers to the situation of large numbers of people in developing countries and some people in developed countries whose well-being is negatively affected by very low consumption of e ...

for one billion people by the end of 2029. The Bezos Earth Fund subsequently joined the IKEA and Rockefeller foundations, pledging an additional $500 million in funds in November 2021. The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet was officially launched at the

2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as COP26, was the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference, held at the SEC Centre in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, from 31 October to 13 November 2021. The ...

, with more than $8 billion pledged in additional funding from multilateral banks and development agencies. The alliance's first projects were scheduled to take place in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In March 2022, the IKEA Foundation gave $22 million in immediate aid to people displaced by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The announcement came shortly after IKEA ceased Russian operations in response to the conflict. The foundation provided $ million in funding to Renewable Energy for Refugees, a project that ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' reported had installed 183 streetlights, 4,000 solar home systems and 5,600 stoves across three refugee camps and nearby villages in Rwanda, as of April 2022. In May 2022, the foundation committed $5.8 million to the Sustainable Energy for All's Universal Energy Facility, a results-based financing initiative.

Projects with UNHCR

Between 2012 and 2019, the foundation invested approximately US$100 million in the

operations in the Dollo Ado refugee camps. According to a study by the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...

Refugee Studies Centre The Refugee Studies Centre (RSC) was established in 1982, as part of the University of Oxford's Department of International Development ( Queen Elizabeth House), in order to promote the understanding of the causes and consequences of forced migrat ...

, at the time it was the largest private sector investment made in a specific refugee setting. The funds were grouped into two phases. From 2012 through 2014, a $61.5 million grant was distributed to address infrastructure and emergency aid needs, including investments in education, shelter, nutrition, water, sanitation, and hygiene. From 2015 to 2019, a $37.5 million grant supported refugee livelihoods and establishment of self-reliance. This phase emphasized investments in agriculture, livestock, environment, energy, and microfinance loan initiatives. At the end of 2018, the livelihood program had 2050 members earning income, and had disbursed 525 loans. The foundation has also partnered with UNHCR for its Brighter Lives for Refugees campaign, contributing $10.6 million to provide lighting to refugees in 2014; and the foundation funded Better Shelter to develop a flat packed refugee shelter in collaboration with UNHCR. The shelter consists of a steel frame, stab-proof polypropylene panels, and rooftop solar panels. Better Shelter won the London

Design Museum The Design Museum in Kensington, London exhibits product, industrial, graphic, fashion, and architectural design. In 2018, the museum won the European Museum of the Year Award. The museum operates as a registered charity, and all funds generate ...

's Design of the Year award in 2016. Between 2015 and 2017, shelters were sent to locations such as Iraq and

Djibouti Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Re ...

. They were also used as clinics following the

April 2015 Nepal earthquake The April 2015 Nepal earthquake (also known as the Gorkha earthquake) killed 8,964 people and injured 21,952 more. It occurred at on Saturday, 25 April 2015, with a magnitude of 7.8 Mw or 8.1 Ms and a maximum Mercalli Intensity of X (''Extrem ...

. The shelter project had some challenges; 62 shelters ordered by Zurich, Switzerland were not used due to fire concerns. A spokesperson for Better Shelters noted that they were not intended to meet Swiss fire regulations, or be used indoors as the city planned. In April 2017, Better Shelter said the product would be redesigned with improvements to lighting and ventilation, and sturdier frames and walls.

Criticisms and reforms

In May 2006, ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econ ...

'' magazine estimated that the parent organization's foundation's endowment was worth US$36 billion, making it the world's wealthiest charity at the time; however, it also stated that the foundation "is at the moment also one of its least generous. The overall set-up of IKEA minimises

tax A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...

and disclosure, handsomely rewards the founding Kamprad family and makes IKEA immune to a takeover". Following the publication of the ''Economist'' article, Ingvar Kamprad went to court in the Netherlands to expand the donor intent of the foundation, whereby more money would be spent on children in the developing world.IKEA founder pledges £1bn to charity following Nazi past revelations
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

''. Prior to this, the foundation's

articles of association In corporate governance, a company's articles of association (AoA, called articles of incorporation in some jurisdictions) is a document which, along with the memorandum of association (in cases where it exists) form the company's constitu ...

limited the foundation's purpose to "innovation in the field of architectural and interior design" and it had given a relatively small amount of its assets to the

Lund Institute of Technology The Faculty of Engineering is one of the eight faculties at Lund University in Lund, Sweden, commonly called LTH (after its Swedish name ''Lunds Tekniska Högskola''). LTH has (2022) about 1,500 employees and nearly 10,000 students, of which ...

References

{{reflist Foundations based in the Netherlands IKEA 1982 establishments in the Netherlands

Giving

Projects with UNHCR

Criticisms and reforms

See also

References