Our 10th anniversary: a message from Per Heggenes, IKEA Foundation CEO

This month, we’re delighted to celebrate the IKEA Foundation’s 10th anniversary with our partners, co-workers and friends.

In 2009, we expanded our charter and shifted the focus of our grant making to create opportunities for children in some of the world’s poorest communities. Since then, we have worked with many partners who have all made an incredible contribution towards realising the vision of our founder—Ingvar Kamprad—to create a better everyday life for the many people. We would like to thank all our partners for their commitment.

After a decade of learning, growing and exploring, we are now embarking on a new strategic direction that will help us address the two biggest threats to children’s futures: poverty and climate change. Moving forward, our aims are to enable families to afford a better life while protecting the planet.

These strategic priorities will help build momentum for climate action, power communities with renewable energy, support agricultural livelihoods, and promote dignified employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in impoverished communities.

As part of this renewed focus, we want to accelerate efforts around climate action, access to renewable energy and livelihoods by engaging more actors and exploring new and unprecedented ways of collaborating.

Since families living in poverty are especially vulnerable to climate-related disasters and other devastating events, we also support emergency-relief efforts and longer-term programmes that help refugees and other displaced people become self-reliant in their new communities.

We are excited about the future of the IKEA Foundation and about all the possibilities that lie ahead. Much remains to be done if we are to make our vision a reality…and now is the time to do it.