Our history
Timeline
1982
Ingvar Kamprad founds the IKEA Foundation to support innovative architecture and interior design.
2009
The IKEA Foundation receives its current expanded charter to benefit vulnerable children.
2010
The first IKEA Foundation grant to UNICEF supports children in Gansu province in China following a devastating earthquake. In total, we grant €45 million to support 90 projects in 40 countries.
2012
We begin a long-lasting partnership with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency to help refugees and host families in Dollo Ado, Ethiopia to become self-reliant.
2013
We support Better Shelter, a flat-pack emergency shelter provider, to bring safety and dignity to people who have been forced to flee their homes. And we work with Kepler Foundation to pilot the world’s first university degree programme in a refugee camp.
2014
We help found the We Mean Business Coalition to support companies to cut their carbon emissions. And we donate €5 million to Médecins San Frontières (MSF) to respond to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
2015
We commit €400 million over five years to fight climate change.
2016
We launch an ambitious partnership with UNDP in India to help one million young women living in poverty learn marketable skills and connect them to livelihood opportunities.
2017
With our support, UNHCR opens the world’s first solar plant to serve a refugee camp in Jordan. And we enter a special agreement with MSF to provide unrestricted funds so they can quickly respond to emergencies, including those which are not highlighted by the media.
2018
Recognising that climate change and poverty are the biggest threats to children’s futures, we embark on a new strategic direction focusing on climate action and improving livelihoods.
2021
We commit an additional €1 billion to climate-related programmes over five years. As part of this commitment, and together with the Rockefeller Foundation and Bezos Earth Fund, we launch the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet at COP 26.