The Stichting INGKA Foundation is a Dutch

foundation Foundation may refer to: * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...

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 t ...

, and his corporate attorney Linnea Walsh. INGKA is one of the largest charitable foundations in the world and used to be one of the largest

nonprofit organisation A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

s in the world. The name "INGKA" comes from a contraction of Ingvar's name (INGvar KAmprad), while ''

stichting A ''stichting'' () is a Dutch legal entity with limited liability, but no members or share capital, that exists for a specific purpose. This form of entity makes it possible to separate functions of ownership and control. Its use has been pioneered ...

'' is the

Dutch language Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-Europea ...

word for foundation. The stated purpose of the foundation is "To promote and support

innovation Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or services or improvement in offering goods or services. ISO TC 279 in the standard ISO 56000:2020 defines innovation as "a new or changed entity ...

in the field of

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings o ...

and

interior design Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. An interior designer is someone who plans, researches, coordina ...

"; however, the organization has recently expanded its philanthropic agenda towards well-being of children in the developing world. The foundation contributes funds via the IKEA Foundation which works with the

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 ...

. It is one of the seven international entities who support the UNHCR camp office in Kutupalong (

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

) for the

Rohingya The Rohingya people () are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnic group who predominantly follow Islam and reside in Rakhine State, Myanmar (previously known as Burma). Before the Rohingya genocide in 2017, when over 740,000 fled to Bangladesh, an ...

refugees from

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

Overview

The foundation owns the private Dutch company INGKA Holding, based in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

, which is the

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

that controls 372 of the 432 outlets of IKEA. In an explanation of IKEA's complex corporate structure, Ingvar Kamprad stated to the authors of a Swedish documentary that

tax efficiency Economic theory evaluates how taxes are able to provide the government with required amount of the financial resources (fiscal efficiency) and what are the impacts of this tax system on overall economic efficiency. If tax efficiency needs to be as ...

was "a natural part of the company's low-cost culture". Sweden had in 1982 very high

Inheritance tax An inheritance tax is a tax paid by a person who inherits money or property of a person who has died, whereas an estate tax is a levy on the estate (money and property) of a person who has died. International tax law distinguishes between an es ...

for larger fortunes, and the tax on the profit of selling stocks to pay for the tax was added. The foundation also provides an anti-takeover protection scheme for IKEA. The Dutch Tax Service at that time applied the "Institution for General Benefit" (''

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 ...

'', ANBI) status to the Stichting IKEA Foundation. According to the ANBI register in the Netherlands, Stichting INGKA Foundation lost ANBI status in 2010, but was registered as an ANBI from January 1, 2008 until January 1, 2010. Due to changes in Dutch tax law, Stichting INGKA Foundation does not currently hold ANBI status.

Giving

In 2017, the foundation donated 159 million euros to the IKEA Foundation of which 144 million was subsequently donated.

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 Econo ...

'' 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 A donor in general is a person, organization or government which donates something voluntarily. The term is usually used to represent a form of pure altruism, but is sometimes used when the payment for a service is recognized by all parties as rep ...

of the foundation, whereby a fraction of the endowment 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 fo ...

''. 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 constituti ...

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 abo ...

References

External links

* *
Official website of Stichting INGKA Foundation
{{IKEA ownership Foundations based in the Netherlands IKEA 1982 establishments in the Netherlands

Overview

Giving

Criticisms and reforms

See also

References

External links