IKEA Foundation2023

IKEA Foundation.

A redesigned annual grantmaking process that was less siloed, more collaborative, and strategically aligned with the IKEA Foundation's multi-year funding priorities.

The Client

The Chief Program Officer at the IKEA Foundation, which grants approximately €200 million per year.

What I Did

As part of a small design team, we redesigned the yearly process by which IKEA Foundation grantmakers decide who and how much they will fund each year. We conducted extensive internal and external interviews and workshops with IKEA Foundation grantmakers and program officers from analogous foundations like Gates and Packard. We mapped how decisions actually flowed across the foundation, then built a new annual planning process that surfaced cross-portfolio strategic opportunities rather than just rolling up siloed program plans into a single budget. Once the design work was complete, we helped the IKEA Foundation pilot the new annual planning process.

A collage of photos from a two-day workshop with IKEA Foundation grantmakers collaborating around sticky notes and tables, alongside text about reflecting on the old Annual Planning process and dreaming big about the new one.
Our collaborative and human-centered process design process enabled IKEA's grantmakers to dream big about what the future grantmaking process could become.FIG. 01
A slide titled "Four Shifts" with four columns — Aligned & Transparent, Right-Sized Co-Creation, A Simple Yet Invaluable Tool, and Enabled and Confident — each listing recommendations for the future of annual planning.
Our research uncovered four key shifts for the transformed grantmaking process.FIG. 02
Outcome

A redesigned annual planning process adopted by the IKEA Foundation and successfully piloted. The work is also a strong case study in process redesign of the sort that many organizations will need to undergo as AI technology catalyzes significant changes to how they have traditionally worked.

A diagram, "Our Recommendations Visualized," with three overlapping circles — Quick Wins (2023), Bigger Bets (2024), and Blue Sky (2024-26) — spanning Annual Planning and Broader Strategic Initiatives.
In addition to a reimagined grantmaking process, we also delivered a series of macro strategic and organizational decisions for the IKEA Foundation.FIG. 03
A timeline of "The 2024 Annual Planning Process" running from October through January, with milestones like Annual Planning Kickoff, Portfolio Reading Period, and Annual Plans Approved.
During Phase 2 of the project, we helped the Foundation pilot each key step in the new process.FIG. 04
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