Our 2023.
Curiosity is the engine of change.
As we reflect on 2023, it has been a remarkable year — marked by the establishment of several new partnerships, alliances, and the welcoming of new team members. We celebrated Lind Foundation’s first anniversary and remain steadfast in our commitment and curiosity to explore and prove new pathways alongside social organisations, public institutions, and social entrepreneurs alike.
We are very proud of what our partnerships and team have accomplished in a very short time, and as we embark on the journey ahead, we are eager to forge new alliances. Through broadened dialogues, we aim to create a collective momentum of the challenges we face and uncover innovative solutions collaboratively by identifying and entering the right partnerships.
Together, we are poised for new beginnings, and taking responsibility for creating meaningful and measurable impact.
Highlights.
Measuring social impact is at the core of our very existence and we know that true impact needs time to happen. That is why we employ an average commitment period of 3.5 years. In 2023, we have brought on eight new projects and partners resulting in a total of DKK 16 million donated.
New projects and partnerships
Partnerships in total
SROI reports published
Million DKK in total donation commitments
Years of average commitment period
% of total donation commitments made in 2023 have been with Danish partnerships
In weighted average annual SROI ratio across evaluated partnerships in 2023
Volunteers across partnerships
People reached by our partners
A word from our CEO.
“
Our partnerships signify our ambition of collective effort to effect meaningful change. Nonetheless, social change takes time. We are in it for the long run, and steadfastly engaging in multi-year commitments.
We don’t believe in one-offs and see collaboration, motivation, and joint efforts as the most important components for catalysing change.
— Jens Bruun, CEO, Lind Foundation
A word from our CEO, Jens Bruun
2023 marked our first full year as a foundation! A year where we started many new, exciting partnerships, strengthened our method, and brought on new employees as part of executing on our strategy ‘Proving New Ways’.
Our firm belief is unchanged! Everyone has potential and dreams — and can realise them, if given the right conditions. Through close partnerships, we help people lead their own change regardless of differences and starting points. During 2023, we entered eight partnerships: six organisations in Denmark, one in Uganda and one in India with total commitments of DKK 16m and an average commitment period of 3.5 years.
Education remains one of our core focus areas, as the universal backbone of life-long skills and opportunities. We focused particularly on education in 2023 and among others established a partnership with Educate! to train 2,500 out-of-school youths through livelihood bootcamps in Uganda, empowering them to build businesses and uplift their local communities. In Denmark, we entered a partnership with HF Fundamentet to support young people facing psychological challenges such as anxiety, depression, and loneliness not only start, but also complete a youth education.
In general, mental health and loneliness challenges demand our attention as it is a continued challenge. Depression is ranked third in the global burden of diseases and is projected to rank first in 2030. Also in Denmark, the number of psychiatric patients has increased drastically the past 10 years and especially among children and young people. During 2023, we extended our long-term partnership with Gallo Kriserådgivning, who works to improve people’s mental wellbeing and help them find meaning through therapy and a warm and welcoming community. At Lind Foundation, we will focus even further on mental health during 2024 as a core area across partnerships, recognising its vital role in creating social change.
Our partnerships signify our ambition of collective effort to effect meaningful change. Nonetheless, social change takes time. We are in it for the long run, and steadfastly engaging in multi-year commitments. We don’t believe in one-offs and see collaboration, motivation, and joint efforts as the most important components for catalysing change. In October 2023, we invited all our small and medium-sized partners for our annual partnership day to discuss different models for improving social and financial sustainability.
For us, social impact transcends good intentions. We strongly believe that social change must be measurable and measured. In 2023, we solidified our commitment to employing the Social Return on Investment (SROI) method to all our donation commitments and published six new SROI reports that evaluated the value creation from the positive changes created – by the people and our partner organisations. Based on these SROI reports, we saw a weighted average annual SROI ratio of 7.9, facilitating positive changes for more than 20,000 people.
Unfortunately, 2023 was also a year of extreme weather, creating uncertainties affecting partners and underlined the importance of climate resilient solutions to fight off drought, floods, and cyclones. We have seen our partners be impacted by increased cost levels and lower outcomes — factors affecting both their interventions and operations, making it difficult to navigate and create change for those who truly need it. Global unrest continued in 2023, bringing devasting consequences for the involved people and countries. We have continued hopes for better times ahead.
As we embark on a new year, the team and I are looking forward to engaging with both our current partners and bringing on new partners. I extend my strong gratitude to our partners in Denmark, Kenya, India, Nepal, South Africa, Malawi and Uganda, as well as the Lind Foundation team for their unwavering commitment and work every single day to facilitate lasting changes.
— Jens Bruun, CEO, Lind Foundation
Our strategy
Proving New Ways.
We believe that philanthropy must go beyond good intentions — towards achieving clear goals and enabling real and tangible change for those who need it. Our strategy is guided by that belief. We will continue to explore, evaluate, and prove best ways forward to drive social and societal change within our five distinct areas — all important to create solid foundations for empowering people to make lasting change.
During the strategy period, we have an ambition of making donation commitments equal to DKK 60-70 million. We have the ambition to facilitate positive social changes and measure the financial and social value through our donations to our partnerships during 2022-2024 based on the Social Return on Investment method.
Education
Employment
Mental health
Housing
Sustainable livelihoods
Focus areas.
Education
Even though education is a universal right, it appears to be out of reach for many children living in poverty. Despite different needs and starting points, education remains the universal backbone of life-long skills and opportunities.
We focus on enrolment and completion of school, supporting young disadvantaged people who are not in education.
Employment
Globally, more than 22% of all young people aged 15–24 is not in either employment, education, or training. This number has not changed radically in the past ten years.
We work to boost readiness for the job market and self-employment and help the people who are furthest from the labor market gain employment.
Mental health
Mental distress and disorders contribute to a substantial burden of disease, impacting individuals, families, communities, and economies.
We support interventions that improve mental wellbeing, helping people unfold their abilities, to be able to cope with daily challenges and participate in society.
Housing
Homelessness is one of the most severe manifestations of social marginalisation. In Scandinavian countries, with some of the world’s most extensive welfare systems, homelessness remains a persistent challenge.
We support the Housing First approach creating access to affordable housing combined with establishing a supportive network to improve people’s living conditions.
Sustainable livelihoods
648 million people in the world live in extreme poverty, subsisting on less than USD 2.15 per day. The extreme poor are primarily concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa.
We help empower people to create economically and socially sustainable change, through initiatives such as entrepreneurship training, self-help groups, mentorships and 21st century skills.
A word from our founder.
“
We are persistent in driving and measuring change — because we know that good intentions are not enough. We have a responsibility to think in new ways, that does not just treat social symptoms, but instead empower people to become catalysts of their own change.
— Henrik Lind, Founder and Chair, Lind Foundation
2023 at a glance.
The SROI method.
How can we be sure that we have made actual impact? We employ the Social Return on Investment (SROI) method. It allows us to gather key insights for the people, projects, and organisations we partner with and more importantly; analyse and prove their effort.
Measuring the ratio is not about increasing earnings. Finding the ratio helps ensuring that actual change can be attributed to initiatives and that this change is sustainable for specific audiences — also in the long run.
World map.
Our current projects range across Denmark, India, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, South Africa, and Uganda.
Denmark
India
Nepal
Kenya
Uganda
Malawi
South Africa
Denmark
India
Nepal
Kenya
Uganda
Malawi
South Africa
HF Fundamentet
At the end of 2023, we entered a partnership HF Fundamentet who supports young people facing psychological challenges such as anxiety, depression, and loneliness. These challenges often hinder their ability to complete secondary education without extra educational support.
HF Fundamentet supports young people with special vulnerabilities to not only enrol in but successfully complete secondary education. Lind Foundation’s support will fuel the development of HF Fundamentet until 2026, supporting the young people through tailored education, flexible teaching methods and personal mentoring, just as they become part of a healthy community.
By partnering up with HF Fundamentet, we test a new approach to schooling in Denmark and provide calculations on the Social Return on Investment created by the programme, measuring the long-term changes for the youth.
Where: Denmark
Duration: 2024-2026
Focus areas: Education
Commitment: DKK 1.5m
Hand in Hand.
Hand in Hand is an international network of NGOs fighting poverty through entrepreneurship training and job creation in India, Asia, and Southern and Eastern Africa. Through Hand in Hand Sweden, we’re currently part of a project in Kenya.
In collaboration with Hand in Hand, we assist in measuring and documenting the impact of the entrepreneurship programmes in the Eldoret area in Kenya.
So far, more than 4,500 people have been trained in creating resilient livelihoods and sustainable enterprises, and positive changes in income are experienced – despite being affected by a drought during the past season.
Where: Kenya
Duration: 2021-2026
Focus areas: Sustainable livelihoods
Commitment: DKK 13.3m
WAWCAS.
Women at Work, Children at School is an entrepreneurship-training programme that empowers extremely poor women and their families and helps them achieve personal, social, and economic change through education.
Together with the WAWCAS team, we are actively collecting data and measuring specific social efforts over time to learn and provide increased value to women, children and their families.
During 2023, WAWCAS expanded their programme by establishing local NGOs and Child Groups, providing a space for the children of the participating women to increase their wellbeing along with their mothers’.
Where: Nepal
Duration: 2016-2025
Focus areas: Sustainable livelihoods
Commitment: DKK 3.1m
HackYourFuture
A new partnership was established with HackYourFuture in 2023 to help people with limited access to further education acquiring the necessary skills to become web developers and entering a very in-demand field.
The nonprofit coding school was founded in Amsterdam in 2016 and is now active in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark. The curriculum is open-source and is also used by coding schools in Greece, Spain, and the UK.
We will help HackYourFuture scale and expand their programmes in both Copenhagen and Aarhus. A partnership period of 5 years provides HackYourFuture with the possibility to prove their long-term impact as well as offer shorter (10-12 weeks) programmes to the most disadvantaged people of their target group.
Where: Denmark
Duration: 2023-2027
Focus areas: Employment
Commitment: DKK 3.8m
UngiFokus
UngiFokus aims to counsel 500 young unemployed people more intensively by lowering the amount of young people counsellors service to 21 (normal caseload is in between 60 and 70).
With Aarhus Municipality, we test a new approach to counselling to hopefully be able to guide young unemployed people better and more efficiently.
The evaluation work has been initiated during 2023, and there are positive indications of effectiveness of the method and approach by the end of 2023, although they are only initial results.
Where: Denmark
Duration: 2023-2026
Focus areas: Employement
Commitment: DKK 925,000
ReDI School
ReDI School works to provide women with refugee and migrant backgrounds with valuable digital skills and a strong network of other students, volunteers, and alumni to provide new social and professional opportunities.
We partner with ReDI School to scale their programme in Aarhus and help build and prove their value, scaling potential and model in Aarhus by calculating a social return on the investment.
Our partnership with ReDI School was established in 2023, where two semesters of teaching has been completed so far.
Where: Denmark
Duration: 2023-2025
Focus areas: Employment
Commitment: DKK 2.3m
Gallo Kriserådgivning.
Gallo Kriserådgivning (Gallo Crisis Counselling) is a nonprofit organisation located in Aarhus. Gallo Kriserådgivning volunteers to help and support socially disadvantaged citizens and offers free, anonymous counselling to everyone in the need of it.
In collaboration with Gallo, we collect data and measure the impact of the social work and free counselling to document the effect of their work to inspire others.
During 2023, Gallo has experienced an increased demand for their services, why we expanded the long-term partnership with Gallo with three additional years.
Where: Aarhus, Denmark
Duration: 2013-2025
Focus areas: Mental health
Commitment: DKK 2.6m
Educate!
Educate! tackles youth unemployment by partnering with youth, schools, and governments to deliver solutions that equip young people in Africa with the skills to start a business, acquire a decent pay, and drive development in their communities.
By supporting Educate! we help enable them to scale their out-of-school programme to reach more of the hardest-to-reach youth in Uganda.
The partnership was established in 2023 and will help Educate! scale their livelihood bootcamps to reach 2,500 out-of-school youth in Uganda, empowering them to build businesses, meeting local needs, and uplifting others.
Where: Uganda
Duration: 2023-2026
Focus areas: Sustainable livelihoods
Commitment: DKK 4m
Ungebudgetter
Project Ungebudgetter (Youth Budgets) is a pilot project with the Centre for Social Rethinking and Aarhus Municipality. The project tests a different employment effort in the public sector by allocating a budget of DKK 25,000 to each participant in the target group consisting of long-term jobless people from the age of 18 to 29.
Together with Aarhus Municipality, we evaluate the effect of the alternative effort for the target group allowing for more freedom and ownership in the job counselling.
The project concluded in 2023 with a final evaluation showing promising results: participants demonstrated a higher level of engagement in the labour market compared to their peers, resulting in an SROI ratio of 3.2 over two years.
Where: Aarhus, Denmark
Duration: 2021-2023
Focus areas: Employment
Commitment: DKK 375,000
LittleBigHelp.
LittleBigHelp is an NGO established in 2010 to create better opportunities for vulnerable children and women in West Bengal, India. We support the two projects: Boys’ Hostel and Girls’ Hostel.
Together with the LittleBigHelp team, we help collect data and measure the effect of both the hostels and follow the development of the children’s education.
In 2023, the partnership with the Boys’ Hostel has been extended, continuing our support for two more years, where we look forward to measuring the results for both boys and girls.
Where: India
Duration: 2014-2026
Focus areas: Sustainable livelihoods
Commitment: DKK 5m
FlexFabrikken.
FlexFabrikken is an innovative Danish agency with the aim of boosting readiness for the job market, matching people with relevant jobs and creating better conditions for people out of employment for longer periods.
Together with the FlexFabrikken team, we are actively collecting data and measuring specific social efforts over time in order to learn and provide increased value to further roll out the concept in municipalities.
In 2023, 50 participants started their course at Flexfabrikken, signaling the beginning of our second partnership, and in 2024, additional 40 participants will start the course meaning that a total of 90 participants receive FlexFabrikken’s course across Kolding, Thisted and Aarhus municipalities.
Where: Denmark
Duration: 2022-2025
Focus areas: Employment
Commitment: DKK 3.9m
Fundamentet.
The Aarhus-based nonprofit organisation was founded in 2014 with the aim of rethinking social work. Fundamentet focuses on the well-being of youth through close dialogue with strong and trusted relationships and considering individual needs.
In 2023, Fundamentet implemented a new approach for the programme towards the young people. Unlike before, they are either assigned a mentor, a contact person or are categorised as ready to manage on their own. Furthermore, the data collection has been improved, resulting in higher response rates – establishing a solid foundation for measuring and proving the lasting impact of the social work.
Where: Aarhus, Denmark
Duration: 2016-2026
Focus areas: Mental health
Commitment: DKK 6m
Fundabolig.
Fundabolig is a partnership between AL2bolig, Fundamentet and Lind Foundation, employing the Housing First approach with the aim of creating access to affordable housing for young people living with homelessness, while establishing a supportive network to help them into education and employment.
In cooperation with Fundamentet and AL2bolig, we help measure the impact of providing affordable housing and a supportive network for the young people in homelessness.
2023 marked the first full year of Fundabolig. All 14 apartments have been occupied in 2023 and our well-being survey at the end of the year indicated improved well-being among the young people living in a Fundabolig apartment.
Where: Aarhus, Denmark
Duration: 2022-2027
Focus areas: Housing
Commitment: DKK 4.2m
One Acre Fund.
One Acre Fund is an agricultural service provider that supports Africa’s smallholder farmers to build resilient communities. Through One Acre Fund, we help train farmers in Malawi, providing farmers with the knowledge and means to achieve bigger harvests, healthier families and cultivate rich soils.
Malawi’s agricultural sector has been hit particularly hard by severe weather conditions during 2023. One Acre Fund are working to build multiple layers of resilience for farmers: crop diversification, soil health training and products, and locally-optimised seed varieties as a defense to climate shocks.
Where: Malawi
Duration: 2022-2025
Focus areas: Sustainable livelihoods
Commitment: DKK 4.2m
Where Rainbows Meet.
Where Rainbows Meet was established in 2008 as a nonprofit training and development organisation located in one of Cape Town’s slum areas, the so-called townships, helping and advising both children, youth, and adults.
We assist Where Rainbows Meet in measuring the effect of their social work enabling them to share the lasting impact of their efforts with others.
In 2023, Where Rainbows Meet among other things started Jumpstarter, a new youth employment training programme and embarked on their journey to establish a sister organisation.
Where: South Africa
Duration: 2014-2024
Focus areas: Sustainable livelihoods
Commitment: DKK 1.4m
Space.
Space is a project between Aarhus Municipality and Lind Foundation that aims to help 20 young people with a psychiatric diagnosis to find their way back to a good youth, and strengthen the individual’s possibilities to live an independent life with a network, education, and job.
Together with Aarhus Municipality, we support project Space to test and rethink how to find one’s way back to a sustainable livelihood with a psychiatric diagnosis.
The project will continue into 2024 without the participation of Lind Foundation as partner.
Where: Aarhus, Denmark
Duration: 2022-2023
Focus areas: Mental health
Commitment: DKK 1m
Words from our partners.
“
With HackYourFuture, we’re trying to accelerate the learning and development of people in disadvantaged situations who have great potential to work in the tech industry, but lack an opportunity to upskill. Having a partner who supports us long-term creates the type of stability needed. We feel that we’ve found a partner in Lind Foundation who truly wants to understand our project, engage in conversation, and collect the right data to see what works, and what doesn’t.
Christopher Klüter
Founder & Managing Director, HackYourFuture – Denmark
“
Lind Foundation’s support to our Girls’ and Boy’s Hostel in India is providing a lifeline to vulnerable children, offering not just shelter and sustenance, but a brighter future through education, therapy, and holistic care. With Lind Foundation’s long-term commitment, we are empowering these children to break the cycle of poverty and fulfill their potential.
Lisbeth Johansen
Founder, LittleBigHelp
Philanthropic hearts, business-driven minds.
We firmly believe that social impact should not only be meaningful but also measurable. In addition to supporting and expanding our ongoing projects and forging new partnerships within our five focus areas, we are dedicated to exploring new avenues.
Going forward, we plan to allocate additional resources to our focus areas: mental health, education, and housing. Through the establishment of partnerships and alliances, we are confident that we can drive tangible systemic change.