Inside Philanthropy

Go beyond 990s.

IKEA Foundation

|

OVERVIEW: The IKEA Foundation supports workforce development and 21st-century skills training around the world, as well as efforts to combat climate change, promote renewable energy, and build sustainable agricultural practices around the world. It also provides unrestricted disaster relief funding to select partner organizations working in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and grants for refugees.

IP TAKE: The IKEA Foundation primarily conducts its grantmaking through the lenses of climate change and global economic development. It offers unrestricted funding to a handful of partners. It has been ramping up giving for refugees in recent years, tending to prioritize large, established organizations that are often global in scope and can scale quickly if necessary to meet the harrowing demands refugees face. In order to better qualify for a grant here, your work must intersect with the refugee community and climate change.

The IKEA Foundation offers a comprehensive, searchable grant database, but it is not the most accessible funder. It does not accept unsolicited proposal, instead preferring to establish long-term partnerships for ongoing support. Grantees are generally large and established rather than servicing grassroots causes. For grantees who do secure funds here, giving can be bureaucratic. While grantmaking is not accessible, one method of standing out here may be to partner with or engage with one of IKEA’s partners in the refugee funding space, like the UNHCR.

PROFILE: The IKEA Foundation is the main philanthropic arm of the Stichting INGKA Foundation, the holding company that owns IKEA. Established in 1982 by IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad to fund architecture and interior design proposals, the foundation gradually expanded its mission to address the causes of child labor and support children’s rights and education. Its stated mission is to “improve the lives of vulnerable children by enabling their families to create sustainable livelihoods, and fight and cope with climate change.” Today, its two main goals are helping families afford a better life and protecting the planet. It categorizes its giving into the Themes of People and Planet. In the former, its thematic areas are Renewable Energy, Agricultural Livelihoods, Employment & Entrepreneurship, and Refugee Livelihoods, while in the latter, its thematic areas are Governance and Society and Real Economy. It also conducts grantmaking through its Special Initiatives & Emergency Response program.

Grants for Global Development and Economic Development

IKEA’s belief that employment and training lift people out of poverty drives much of its giving. The IKEA Foundation’s Employment & Entrepreneurship grantmaking aims to help youth, women, and refugees in East Africa and South Asia to “develop marketable skills,” “find sustainable jobs,” and “run successful businesses.”

  • It supports programs that attempt to effect systemic change, as well as supporting “existing small and growing businesses with the expertise they need to scale up and create more employment opportunities.” However, the IKEA Foundation makes grants for economic opportunities across various aspects of its funding.
  • Grant partners in this area include Unicef, African Entrepreneur Collective, Global Child Forum, BOMA Project, and Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship.

The foundation’s Real Economy grants support efforts to accelerate “the corporate transition needed to meet the 1.5°C global warming threshold, focusing particularly on road transport and the built environment.”

  • It seeks to apply progressive corporate climate policies that have been introduced in the global north to the needs of the global south.
  • Grant partners include Climateworks Foundation, Built by Nature, Crux Alliance, NewClimate Institute, and We Mean Business Coalition.

Grants for Refugees

IKEA is committed to supporting global refugees through its Refugee Livelihoods giving. It supports efforts to “empower refugees to find pathways towards economic self-reliance,” and to “generate and share evidence of what works so governments, humanitarian organisations and businesses can scale up the most effective programmes.” IKEA is also committed to hiring refugees through its supply chains all over the world.

  • The IKEA Foundation’s grants for refugees focus on families “living in poverty and families who are particularly vulnerable to a changing climate.” The foundation also invests in “programs and partners aimed at strengthening the resilience of refugee communities and creating livelihood opportunities for refugee and host populations in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Jordan.”
  • The IKEA Foundation is committed to providing another 100 million EUR in grants over the next five years for programs that help refugees to improve their incomes and become more self-reliant. In 2020 the foundation committed to providing an additional 100 million EUR in grants over the next five years.” Indeed, since 2010 the IKEA Foundation has contributed to UNHCR activities in 16 countries and counting. The UNHCR has since received 198 million dollars and counting. Past grantees in this giving space also include 30 million euro to the International Rescue Committee in order to support “livelihoods development for urban refugees in East Africa.” As a result, these grants solidify IKEA as one of the biggest grantmakers in the refugee giving space, a standout amongst corporate foundations.
  • IKEA has partnered with the Mayors Migration Council and others to support the Global Cities Fund for Migrants and Refugees to help cities support migrants and displaced people.
  • Other grant partners in this area include International Institute for Environment and Development, African Entrepreneur Collective, Norwegian Refugee Council, Innovations for Poverty Action, and Global Platform for Action.

Grants for Sustainable Agriculture

IKEA’s Agricultural Livelihoods grants aim to help farmers in East Africa and India that are affected by “systems that prevent them from accessing quality seeds, credit, training and markets” and climate change effects that cause droughts and floods, “jeopardising farmers’ incomes.”

  • The foundation takes a “planet-positive approach,” prioritizing agricultural reform that “regenerates resources, protects ecosystems and enhances biodiversity.”
  • The foundation sees agriculture and food as central issues that impact all of IKEA’s other thematic areas, specifically clean energy. Haileselassie Medhin, programs director for the People focus area, has said: “We will not make progress in addressing poverty, in addressing food security and hunger, and also in achieving our climate goals, if we do not address the food issue.”
  • Partners include the Misizi Marshland Project in Rwanda, World Youth Skills Day, and PRADAN.
  • Its corporate sister and foundation do not, at the time of this publication, yet apply sustainable practices in timber harvesting, so this may be another area of development down the road as climate change forces multiply.

Grants for Humanitarian and Disaster Relief

Through its Special Initiatives and Emergency Response grantmaking, the IKEA Foundation provides “unrestricted emergency funding to a select few partner organisations” working primarily in Asia, Africa and parts of the Middle East. These partners provide “life-saving support for families affected by disasters,” including shelter, food, water, medical supplies, and even “livelihood opportunities.”

  • Funding also invests in climate action efforts.
  • Current partners include UNICEF, Center for Global Development, and the UNHCR.

Grants for Climate Change and Clean Energy

The IKEA Foundation’s Governance and Society grantmaking funds work that addresses four priority areas: “frameworks and instruments to achieve 1.5°C, citizen empowerment, media understanding, and collaborative action that impacts behavioural change and active engagement.”

  • The foundation prioritizes efforts that acknowledge the complex relationship between climate change and other issues, including inequality, development, economic growth and health.
  • In 2021, the IKEA Foundation announced a €1 billion commitment to climate action over five years. Of this, €400 million was allocated to the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet initiative launched at COP26, aimed at expanding access to renewable energy in low-income communities
  • The foundation committed $20 million in seed funding to an initiative, in partnership with ClimateWorks, to provide retraining and job placement for workers in high-polluting industries to transition to sustainable energy industries.
  • It also gave $100 million in catalytic funding to ClimateWorks to help develop infrastructure to support electric vehicles in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
  • Other grantee partners include Global Methane Hub, Our Common Home, and Windward Fund.
  • While separate from the Foundation, the IKEA business itself has committed to halving GHG emissions by 2030 and reducing them by at least 90% by 2050 across its value chain

IKEA’s Renewable Energy grants support “partners working on renewable-energy projects in some of the world’s poorest communities,” such as parts of Africa and Asia. It supports organizations that “work closely with the communities they serve” in order to make access to renewable energy “easier, quicker, more affordable, cleaner and more inclusive.”

  • Current partners include Instituto Clima e Sociedade in Brazil, the Misizi Marshland Project in Rwanda, and New Energy Nexus Indonesia.

Important Grant Details

The IKEA Foundation’s grants are substantial, generally ranging from $1 to $10 million, although they can reach even higher for larger projects. It awards between €200-350 million annually.

  • Grantseekers may learn more about its philanthropic partnerships by reviewing its Partners or Grants.
  • The IKEA Foundation conducts the majority of its grantmaking through a climate change and economic development lens, with a focus on the Global South, and it names India, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Indonesia as the top five countries represented in its grant portfolio.
  • The IKEA Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals or requests for funding.
  • Grant proposals are generally developed by the foundation’s grantmaking partners or an internal group delegated by the Board of Directors.
  • The final decision on funding strategy and grant distribution rests with the Board of Directors.
  • Contact the IKEA Foundation at info@ikeafoundation.org.

PEOPLE:

Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).

LINKS: