IKEA Foundation grants 2026:

The IKEA Foundation paid out EUR 404 million in 2025 to 128 active partners, according to its own website. It is also hard to approach, because it does not run open calls and does not accept unsolicited funding requests.

This guide sets out what the Foundation funds, how it chooses partners and what you can do instead of sending a proposal that will not be read. It ends with open calls in the same themes that you can apply to now.

Who the IKEA Foundation is

The IKEA Foundation is an independent philanthropy based in Leiden, the Netherlands, founded by Ingvar Kamprad. Its mission, in its own words: "We fight global warming with and for the many people."

All of its money comes from the INGKA Foundation, which owns Ingka Group and receives its dividends. The Foundation has its own board of five, on which members of the Kamprad family can hold at most two seats. The site puts its total grants to date at more than EUR 3 billion.

What it funds

The climate programme has three focus areas:

• Energy: helping emerging economies grow without depending on fossil fuels
• Land, food and forests: locally led land and food stewardship
• Buildings and transport: reducing and avoiding emissions from both

A separate emergency response programme funds pre-selected partners close to communities affected by humanitarian crises. It is outside the climate mission.

The Foundation names India, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda as countries where it works with partners, and Brazil and Indonesia as places where it is expanding. If your work sits outside these geographies and themes, treat the IKEA Foundation as a long shot.

How it makes grants

The Foundation describes five ways it drives change:

• Increasing capital flows
• Building markets
• Enabling policy and regulation
• Building narratives
• Local coordination of action

Read together with its published grants, this points to organisations that shift whole systems, such as market builders, policy coalitions, finance vehicles and alliances, more than to single projects.

On applications, the grants page FAQ is blunt: "No. IKEA Foundation does not accept unsolicited funding requests." Its in-house subject experts scout for partners that fit the strategy. Sending a cold proposal to the Foundation is wasted effort.

The biggest example: GEAPP

The clearest view of the Foundation's style is the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP). The IKEA Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation launched it at COP26 in 2021, with the Bezos Earth Fund joining as a third partner, according to the Bezos Earth Fund. GEAPP works with countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean on clean energy and energy access.

The IKEA Foundation calls itself an anchor partner. Its grant page records a EUR 18.54 million core grant to GEAPP in January 2025. That is the pattern: large, multi-year money into an intermediary that then funds, invests in or partners with others on the ground.

For more on the third partner, see our Bezos Earth Fund funder guide.

How to get on its radar

If you cannot apply, you can still become visible to the people who scout. Five practical steps:

1. Read the grant pages. The Foundation publishes a page for each grant, with the partner, the amount and the month. Work out which organisations it funds in your theme and country
2. Go to the intermediaries. Many IKEA Foundation partners run their own calls, accelerators and procurement. A grant, contract or fellowship from one of them puts you inside the network the Foundation already funds
3. Partner with an existing grantee. A consortium led by a current partner is a far stronger route than a cold approach
4. Publish evidence. The Foundation leans on learning and narratives. Results, data and case studies that its programme staff can find and cite do more work than a pitch deck
5. Show up where the scouts are. The sector events, coalitions and working groups in energy access, food systems and clean transport in its focus countries

Keep a short, current summary of your work ready. If a programme officer does get in touch, you want to send it the same day.

Open calls in IKEA Foundation themes

These calls are open now, are listed on Raise Lens, and fall within the Foundation's focus areas. They are not IKEA Foundation calls. Check each one on the funder's page before you apply.

• WiSER Pioneers 2027, Clean Cooking Alliance. A year-long programme for women preparing to become sustainability leaders. Closes 30 November 2026. View on Raise Lens
• Thrive Grant: alternatives to industrial animal agriculture, Thrive Philanthropy. USD 10,000 to 30,000 for non-profits outside the US working on plant-rich food systems. Africa-based applicants need an invitation or a previous Thrive grant. Next deadline 1 December 2026, 23:59 GMT. View on Raise Lens

For the full list in energy, food and transport, filter the opportunities feed by sector and country.

Track the money before the call

Because the IKEA Foundation does not publish calls, the useful signal is where its money goes next: a new alliance, a new country, a new grant to an intermediary. Those moves show up months before the intermediary opens its own call or tender.

Raise Lens tracks funder announcements and programme changes as signals, alongside grants and tenders from more than 100 sources. See the IKEA Foundation profile for the programmes and partners we track, and set an alert on your sector so the next call reaches you on the day it opens.

Summary

• The IKEA Foundation paid out EUR 404 million in 2025 to 128 partners (its own figures)
• Focus: energy; land, food and forests; buildings and transport; India, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, expanding to Brazil and Indonesia
• No open calls and no unsolicited requests: partners are scouted
• The realistic route is through the alliances and grantees it funds, such as GEAPP

Last updated 27 October 2026. Figures are taken from ikeafoundation.org on that date.

Search the feed free, no card needed, on the opportunities page. For alerts and the funder names on every listing, see pricing.