This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator. This document is also available as Markdown.

==> picture [200 x 273] intentionally omitted <==

AKO Foundation

Report and Financial Statements

31 December 2023

==> picture [293 x 192] intentionally omitted <==

==> picture [266 x 192] intentionally omitted <==

==> picture [182 x 25] intentionally omitted <==

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Section Marker

AKO Foundation

Report and Financial Statements

31 December 2023

==> picture [182 x 25] intentionally omitted <==

Trustees

The trustees, who were also directors under company law, who served during the year and up to the date of this report were as follows:

S Procopis H Syse D Woodburn

Senior Management Personnel P Lawford; Chief Executive Officer

Auditor

Sayer Vincent LLP Chartered accountants and statutory auditor 110 Golden Lane London, EC1Y 0TL

Bankers

Svenska Handelsbanken AB 35 Hay’s Mews London, W1J 5PY

Santander UK plc. Santander Corporate & Commercial Banking 2nd Floor, Santander House 100 Ludgate Hill London, EC4M 7RE

Registered Office

One Newman Street London, W1T 1PB

Registered Company No: 8385711 Registered Charity No: 1151815

www.akofoundation.org

About the AKO Foundation

During the year the AKO Foundation continued to make grants to charities and charitable projects within its three priority areas – to improve education and the wellbeing of young people, to promote the arts, and to combat the climate emergency. While continuing to help to start up, or to be the catalyst for, new charitable projects which otherwise might not be realised, the Foundation is also willing, where appropriate, to offer unrestricted support, recognising the need among its beneficiaries for financial flexibility. Mirroring the long-term thinking and investment strategy of AKO Capital, the Foundation aims to be a significant and reliable partner to its beneficiaries, and generally seeks multi-year relationships with them.

The Trustees re-iterate their gratitude for the past generosity of the founder and Settlor of the Foundation, Nicolai Tangen, particularly with regard to the arrangements made following his (and Katja Tangen’s) departure from the Board upon Nicolai’s appointment as Chief Executive Officer of the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund. This has allowed the Foundation to sustain the significant level of grant-making of the last few years.

A selection of the Foundation’s work is summarised in the pages that follow. A full list of grants made during the year appears in Note 6 to the Financial Statements.

The Foundation takes pride in the leanness of its administration, which results in fast decisionmaking and in the greatest possible proportion of its resources being available to support beneficiaries. Our vision is to be recognised as a cost-effective and fast-moving organisation that stands out for its responsiveness as well as for the quality of the projects and causes supported.

The Foundation adopts a proactive approach to grant-making; accordingly, it does not seek applications for grants, nor does it make grants in response to unsolicited applications.

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Education

The Foundation believes that education is the key to a successful future both for individuals and for societies as a whole, and thus supports educational projects in both developing and developed regions of the world.

Developing Countries

The Foundation’s approach is not to select specific countries in which to operate; rather, it supports trusted partners in their work, enabling them to use their local knowledge, expertise, and networks to judge where an intervention will have the greatest, or most widespread, impact. A number of large-scale studies have demonstrated the substantial positive social, economic and environmental impacts of giving girls, who would otherwise be disadvantaged or excluded, access to a good education; investing in girls’ education is a powerful catalyst for change, with a multiplier effect on 9 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, positively impacting issues ranging from child marriage and poverty to health and climate sustainability. The Trustees therefore have a particular interest in this area.

==> picture [414 x 286] intentionally omitted <==

CAMFED

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED)

AKO Foundation support since 2019

CAMFED tackles poverty and inequality through education, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. It supports marginalised girls and young women to attend school, to succeed academically, and then, as young women, to realise their potential to be leaders of change. In its 30-year history, CAMFED has helped more than 6.5 million children in Malawi, Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. Furthermore, its alumnae association is the largest and fastest growing network of educated young women in Africa - currently with more than 254,000 members. Each member of the network is, on average and voluntarily, financially supporting another three girls to go to school, thereby changing the future for whole communities.

The Foundation’s support has helped pioneer a training programme in sustainable agriculture practices, supporting CAMFED’s alumnae to manage the impacts of climate change on their food supplies and businesses. The programme informs CAMFED’s work with governments to bring climate education into national school systems. At the same time, the Foundation’s unrestricted support builds the pipeline of young women graduating from school determined to build a brighter future for the next generation.

Educate Girls

AKO Foundation support since 2019

Millions of school-age girls in India are denied their right to education – nearly all due to their gender. In response, Educate Girls has adopted a grassroots approach to re-enrol 1.6 million girls by 2025. This involves implementing a comprehensive remedial and life skills curriculum to improve learning outcomes and strengthening the school governance system and its infrastructure to ensure the sustainability of improved enrolment figures.

The Foundation collaborates with other prominent philanthropists in a joint funding initiative to support this project that aims to transform the educational landscape for millions of deserving girls in India.

==> picture [233 x 146] intentionally omitted <==

Educate Girls

Global Schools Forum

AKO Foundation support new in 2023 Global Schools Forum (GSF) is a collaborative community, innovation accelerator, and partnership builder for non-state organisations working to improve education outcomes at scale for underserved children in low- and middle-income countries. The community currently includes 111 organisations across 60 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, South and East Asia and Latin America that collectively run or support over 230,000 schools and centres providing education to almost 20 million children and youth.

The Foundation is one of a small group of major funders supporting the Impact at Scale Lab programme, GSF’s innovation accelerator. The Lab seeks to transform education systems by intensively working alongside local innovators to scale solutions. This is achieved by carefully selecting promising solutions and driving funding and significant, specialised technical support to them. In addition, the Lab programme generates and amplifies evidence and best practice from practitioners on what works effectively to achieve scale.

AKO’s support will focus on scaling promising innovations in two critical areas: Foundational Learning and Supporting Adolescent Transitions to Secondary Education. In both areas, there continue to be significant gaps in the provision of quality education across low-and middle-income countries, particularly for underserved children.

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Little Sun Foundation

AKO Foundation support since 2018 The Little Sun Foundation is a German non-profit organisation, founded by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. Little Sun creates solar-powered hand-held lamps, designed by Eliasson himself; they can be charged during the day and allow work to be undertaken during hours of darkness. The solar lamps also provide significant health and economic benefits, as they replace harmful kerosene lamps and expensive torches. The Foundation has supported the provision of lamps to students in several African countries, thus allowing them to undertake homework, and to increase their study time and academic attainment.

==> picture [233 x 182] intentionally omitted <==

Lively Minds

AKO Foundation support since 2017

Lively Minds is a UK charity working to get 3-6 year olds in rural Ghana and Uganda to thrive. It has developed an innovative scalable model that empowers marginalised parents to run free educational Play Schemes for all the young children in their communities, and to provide better childcare at home using their own resources. The programme is delivered by government and so in this way has been able to reach large scale, currently operating in over 2,500 communities and reaching over 250,000 children annually. The Foundation supports Lively Minds’ work in both Ghana and Uganda.

MM Foundation

AKO Foundation support since 2018

The MM (Mosvold-Martinus) Foundation seeks to improve the lives of less privileged young people in Sri Lanka. It promotes self-reliance by providing support to allow such young people to become the agents of their own development and progress. The Foundation has funded the MM Foundation’s “AKO Scholarship Program in Sri Lanka”, which provides scholarships to allow disadvantaged students to pursue higher education at university or through vocational or skills training.

==> picture [292 x 238] intentionally omitted <==

Little Sun

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Partnership for Change

AKO Foundation support since 2018

Partnership for Change is a Norwegian non-profit organisation that works for gender equality and a more inclusive economy by strengthening social infrastructure such as education and childcare. In many developing countries, girls – particularly in rural communities – face obstacles in accessing formal education. To address this inequality and the unmet educational needs of such girls, the Foundation is funding an intensive programme of material and academic support, mentoring, and life skills training in rural Ethiopia. This prevents girls from disadvantaged backgrounds from dropping out of high school, thereby helping them to secure better futures. Partnership for Change and its local partners work with local school authorities to ensure financial sustainability after the project is completed.

Social Finance

AKO Foundation support since 2021

After years of civil war and disease, Liberia faced the twin problems of several cohorts of undereducated young people, and one of the lowest rates of public expenditure per capita on education of any country. Social Finance, a UK non-profit entity, acts as grant administrator for ‘LEAP’ – the Liberian Education Advancement Programme. This is an innovative programme whereby the Liberian Ministry of Education has brought in non-state education partners to support quality education and safeguarding in nearly 20% of the country’s public schools, with a particular focus on historically underserved and rural communities. The programme aims to pioneer developments that could be scaled to other public schools to raise standards nationally. The Foundation is one of a small group of major funders supporting this programme.

Pratham

AKO Foundation support since 2022

Pratham conducts high-quality, low-cost, replicable interventions to address gaps in the education system, most notably through its Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) programme. This teaches literacy and numeracy at the level appropriate to a child’s educational attainment rather than chronological age. The Foundation is supporting Pratham’s work in the states of Odisha, on India’s east coast, and in Rajasthan in the North West.

TaRL was one of just three interventions classed as ‘Great Buys’ in the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel’s 2023 report ‘Cost-Effective Approaches to Improve Global Learning’, the criteria including cost-effectiveness strong evidential support.

==> picture [293 x 254] intentionally omitted <==

Partnership for Change

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Strømme Foundation

AKO Foundation support since 2013 Strømme Foundation (Strømmestiftelsen) is a Norwegian development organisation that uses education to pursue its mission of creating a world free from poverty. Its approach is holistic; in its support for children, adolescents and their families within selected communities, Strømme invariably works with and through local delivery partners, thereby strengthening sustainability and maximising impact.

The Foundation supports a number of strands of Strømme’s work, including:

Educational work in Uganda

With 1.2 million refugees, Uganda is Africa’s largest refugee-hosting country, with recent significant influxes from South Sudan, DRC and Burundi. Among other problems, this creates a large out-ofschool population among adolescents, particularly girls, a large proportion of whom have suffered gender-based or sexual violence. Strømme seeks to enrol large numbers of children into formal education.

Educational work in West Africa

School attendance and literacy rates in Burkina Faso and Niger, two of the world’s poorest and least developed nations, are low, with female literacy rates less than 20%. Without even a primary education, children lack the skills and knowledge required to improve their situation and are likely to remain impoverished for the remainder of their lives. Strømme’s programmes provide out-of-school children, half of whom are girls, with accelerated learning courses designed to get them to the educational level necessary to enrol in formal school.

SAMVAD programme

SAMVAD (meaning ‘dialogue’ in Sanskrit), is a nonformal, community-based, participatory education system designed especially for adolescent girls at risk of dropping out of school and being trafficked. At SAMVAD centres, the girls follow a course that includes life skills, functional literacy, building selfconfidence and vocational skills. The Foundation supports Strømme’s existing SAMVAD programme in Nepal and Bangladesh; more recently we enhanced our support for the programme in Nepal, aiming to bring SAMVAD graduates together and to create a long-term, self-sustaining mentoring platform for sharing their knowledge, educating those who are left behind, and supporting livelihood improvement for those in need.

Strømme Foundation

==> picture [427 x 291] intentionally omitted <==

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Teach for India

AKO Foundation support since 2022

Teach for India’s core activity is not dissimilar to those of Teach First (see below) in the UK or Teach for America: college graduates (and others) do intensive training followed by a commitment to (at least) 2 years of teaching. Currently 1,000 ‘Fellows’ are actively teaching; there are around 4,000 exFellows, three-quarters of whom have remained in the education sector in India. The Foundation has made an unrestricted grant.

World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts

AKO Foundation support since 2020

The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) is the largest voluntary movement dedicated to girls and young women. It brings together 153 national Guiding Associations who represent 8.8 million girls and young women across the world.

==> picture [293 x 197] intentionally omitted <==

World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts

For more than 100 years, Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting has helped girls to develop the skills and confidence they need to achieve their fullest potential and to make positive changes to their lives, their communities and countries. This is achieved through non-formal education programmes, leadership development, advocacy and community action.

The Foundation continues to support the Girl Led Action on Climate Change (GLACC) programme; this aims to educate and empower girls and young women to be more resilient to climate change, to lead effective mitigation and adaption actions at community or national level, and to develop the skills they need to be climate leaders of the future.

In 2023, the Foundation made a further grant to continue to embed the programme in three participating countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and to launch the programme in India and two further African countries.

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

The UK and other developed countries

In the United Kingdom, the Foundation supports a number of charities that, broadly, share a common mission – to support students from less advantaged and under-represented backgrounds to raise both their aspirations and their achievements, frequently – though by no means exclusively – with the goal of assisting them to attain a place at one of the more competitive universities. These charities include:

Brightside

AKO Foundation support since 2021

Provides online mentoring, raising aspirations in school, supporting students in higher education, providing insights into careers, and learning skills for work. Brightside has mentored over 100,000 young people since 2003.

Brilliant Club

AKO Foundation support since 2019

The ‘Scholars Programme’, now largely delivered online, recruits, trains and places PhD researchers to deliver university-style courses, based on their research, to small groups of pupils aged 9-17. This charity was introduced to the Foundation by an analyst at AKO Capital who served as a trustee of The Brilliant Club.

Generating Genius

AKO Foundation support since 2020

Introduced to the Foundation through the Give Back programme, Generating Genius works with talented and able students, primarily from BAME backgrounds, to enable them to gain a place to study STEM subjects at leading universities, and then to excel in STEM-related careers.

IntoUniversity

AKO Foundation support since 2022

IntoUniversity works with schools, universities and communities to provide local learning centres across England, Wales and Scotland where young people, aged 7 and above, are offered both tuition and also the tailored support and advice regarding educational pathways which is readily available in more affluent homes.

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Other charities receiving support include the following.

Ark

AKO Foundation support since 2015

Ark seeks to transform the lives of under-privileged children by providing a great education, with a core focus on the school: it runs around three dozen Academy schools, at both primary and secondary levels, in the UK. Its schools are typically in areas of economic deprivation with a history of educational underachievement, which Ark seeks to change by setting high academic and behavioural expectations, thus providing more time for learning and improving the quality of teaching.

The Foundation has worked with Ark since 2015 and has supported a range of projects. These include Ark Start, which seeks improved ways of delivering pre-primary education; and the ‘Pathways and Enrichment’ programme, which is the ‘added-value’ services that Ark seeks to offer to its pupils, over and above the core academic curriculum, to prepare them for life beyond school.

Get Further

AKO Foundation support since 2022

Without a GCSE in Maths or English, a person’s life chances are severely impaired, with opportunities in both education and employment heavily restricted. Get Further employs specialist tutors to assist students who have not yet obtained a pass in GCSE Maths and / or English, but who have moved into Further education, to do so.

ImpactEd

AKO Foundation support since 2021

‘What works' in education is not an easy question to answer. Using robust research methodologies to make evaluation quicker, easier and more effective, ImpactEd supports schools and education organisations, including some of the charities supported by the Foundation and whose work is summarised in these pages, to evaluate their impact, to learn from it, and to prioritise what works best in improving outcomes for young people. The Foundation has made an unrestricted grant over 3 years.

==> picture [415 x 312] intentionally omitted <==

Ark

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

London School of Economics

AKO Foundation support since 2016 The AKO Foundation has pledged a £1 million gift to establish a programme of 30 scholarships for master’s students from under-represented backgrounds in the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Sciences. Over a three-year period, beginning in the 2024/25 academic year, the AKO Masters Scholarship will fund six full scholarships for candidates from the Global South, and 24 scholarships open to all applicants that will cover full tuition fees.

The Department of Psychological and Behavioural Sciences is focused on understanding human behaviour on an individual, group, organisational or national scale, and how using these insights can help to create a stronger, fairer and more sustainable world. The scholarships will be available across all five of the Department’s MSc programmes, which provide in-depth training in areas such as how to change human behaviour in corporate and public environments, how performance and well-being can be shaped by the interface between social psychological processes and organisational systems, and how communication can affect the conduct of everyday public and private life.

A key aim of the scholarships is to bring essential and diverse voices, perspectives and experiences to the Department’s cohorts of master’s students. It will empower changemakers to bring important psychological and behavioural insights – as well as their unique voices and perspectives – to leadership positions around the world, with a view to addressing the imbalance of diversity in leadership that persists across all sectors.

Place2Be

AKO Foundation support since 2022

Place2Be is a children’s mental health charity with over 25 years’ experience working with pupils, families and staff in UK schools. It provides mental health support in schools through one-to-one and group counselling; and offers expert training and professional qualifications.

The Foundation’s Trustees are increasingly aware that good mental health is often a prerequisite for successful teaching and learning.

Royal National Children’s Springboard Foundation

AKO Foundation support since 2020 The Royal National Children’s SpringBoard Foundation identifies, prepares and supports pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds – children and teenagers in or on the edge of care, or growing up in households and communities where opportunities to flourish are limited – to benefit from a boarding school education. It partners with schools across the country and arranges for 110% bursary places (those that cover all fees and extras) to be offered. In addition to lifting individual life chances, its work demonstrates the beneficial role that boarding, whether in the private or state sector, can play in addressing socio-economic mobility.

Now Teach

AKO Foundation support since 2018 Whereas Teach First seeks to address the difficulty of recruiting and retaining excellent teachers by recruiting some of the country’s best graduates, Now Teach recruits and supports high calibre, experienced professionals who have already had at least one successful career. Working in challenging schools across the country, they not only increase teaching capacity, but also bring vital life experience, as well as links to employers, universities and other post-school options. The Foundation’s grant helps Now Teach to expand its work and reach more disadvantaged areas across the United Kingdom.

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Teach First

AKO Foundation support since 2014 The Foundation continues to support the following programmes:

Careers Leaders

Teach First’s Careers Leader Programme helps schools to develop best practice in careers and employability, by working with middle-senior leaders with responsibility for careers to design and implement a whole-school careers strategy. Focused on schools where a high proportion of pupils live in poverty, the programme is designed to equip careers leaders with both the leadership skills and careers expertise to improve careers at a whole-school level, ultimately enhancing their pupils’ employability.

Leading Together

The quality of school leadership has a significant impact on the future performance of a school. Leading Together is a fully funded, two-year programme of support for a school’s entire senior leadership team, that builds and sustains strong leadership in the schools facing the toughest challenges. The ultimate objective is to improve pupil attainment by improving teacher retention and the quality of teaching throughout the school.

The Foundation also continues to provide bursary support targeted at those students who have come to UAL under its ‘Insights’ programme, through which UAL seeks to recruit talented students from disadvantaged and otherwise under-represented backgrounds.

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

AKO Foundation support since 2013

The Foundation has an ongoing relationship with the internationally renowned Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The Foundation, and Nicolai Tangen privately, have endowed undergraduate scholarships to support more than 20 international students at any one time who would otherwise be unable to meet the cost of their education. The scholarships benefit the individual recipients and, due to the recipients’ global background and international perspective, enrich the student community. Their education will also benefit the communities and organisations they go on to lead after graduating.

The Foundation previously made a major grant to spearhead construction of a new campus building, Tangen Hall, which opened in 2021. This provides a space dedicated to cross-campus student entrepreneurship at the University of Pennsylvania.

Work experience

Teach First’s work experience programme, a programme instigated in partnership with the AKO Foundation, provides week-long, paid work experience placements for pupils from schools in which Teach First works at a wide range of organisations, including AKO Capital.

University of the Arts

AKO Foundation support since 2017 The University of the Arts London (UAL) is Europe’s largest specialist arts and design university. It offers courses in arts, design, fashion and communication and is attended by over 19,000 students from more than 130 countries.

In recent years, UAL has established a new model of academic delivery, UAL Institute s, which overlay UAL’s six art and design colleges. The Foundation previously provided seed funding for two of these: the Creative Computing Institute, and the Social Design Institute. More recently, UAL established a new Institute, the Storytelling Institute, which it is intended will become an influential academic leader in a wide range of narrative disciplines, while also enhancing UAL’s public programme and audience engagement. The Foundation’s grant provides the seed funding for the Institute’s first few years.

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Wellbeing of young people

Within the field of education, the Trustees recognised that certain of the grants that they had made could more accurately be considered as falling within the general heading of young people’s wellbeing; and they are increasingly aware that wellbeing generally, and good mental health in particular, is often a prerequisite for successful teaching and learning. Accordingly, Trustees formally created a new grant-making category, Wellbeing of Young People.

Babyzone

AKO Foundation support since 2022

Babyzone was created to give families with very young children opportunities equivalent to those that young people have at their local OnSide Youth Zone (see below). Early years activities and classes are made available at Youth Zones during the school day, when the facilities would otherwise be unused.

Bite Back 2030

AKO Foundation support since 2019 The Foundation and the Jamie Oliver Group together founded Bite Back 2030, with the goal of halving the rate of childhood obesity in the United Kingdom by 2030, while at the same time eliminating the gap in obesity rates between children from more and less affluent backgrounds. Bite Back aims to build a youth movement that will have sufficient authenticity and critical mass so that it can act as a credible advocate to government (national and local), schools, hospitals and other entities delivering food on a large scale to young people, and will make progress towards identifying the creative media through which to engage key audiences. The Foundation continues to provide core support.

Frontline

AKO Foundation support since 2018

Frontline is England's largest children’s social work charity, working to make life better for the 700,000 children and young people who need a social worker every year.

Frontline recruits, trains and supports outstanding individuals to become specialist children’s social workers, as well as providing leadership development to children’s social work managers and supervisors. About 1 in 10 children’s social workers have been trained by Frontline, joining a growing Fellowship of over 3,000 social workers at all stages of their careers who use their excellent practice, leadership skills and innovative ideas to drive sectorwide change and build brighter, safer futures for vulnerable children and young people.

The Foundation continues to provide unrestricted support.

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Institutt for Spiseforstyrrelser

AKO Foundation support since 2022

The Institutt for Spiseforstyrrelser (Institute for Eating Disorders Foundation) undertakes a number of activities to promote better emotional and mental health related to eating disorders. These include treatment, research, education and teaching delivered to young people, their families, students (future therapists) and health workers, throughout Norway. The Institute does this by advancing, translating, delivering and sharing research and best practice in the field of eating disorders. A national survey (2023), funded by the Foundation, found that 1 in 7 Norwegians struggle with regard to food or weight; however only 1 in 6 of those with any form of experience of eating disorder (including among close relatives) seek help and support.

OnSide Youth Zones

AKO Foundation support since 2017

OnSide provides modern, world class, custom-built youth centres (‘Youth Zones’) for young people aged 8–19 (up to 25 for those with additional needs). Located in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, the Youth Zones offer a wide range of sport, art and enterprise activities, giving young people somewhere to go, something to do and someone to talk to. An independent study found that anti-social behaviour drops by between 30% and 77% around a Youth Zone.

Having started in northwest England, OnSide subsequently expanded into London and elsewhere in England. The Foundation has maintained its support for two of the London Youth Zones – those in Barnet, and in Barking & Dagenham; and has also made an unrestricted grant towards further development and rollout of the Onside model.

==> picture [415 x 294] intentionally omitted <==

OnSide Youth Zones

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Arts

The Foundation has a particular interest in the visual arts, reflecting the interest and expertise of its founder, Nicolai Tangen. It seeks to develop close relationships with a limited number of partner institutions, primarily in the UK and Norway.

AKO Kunststiftelse

AKO Foundation support since 2016 AKO Kunststiftelse is a Norwegian non-profit foundation whose objective is to advance the public's access to Nordic visual arts from 1900 onwards. To achieve this objective AKO Kunststiftelse has built a collection of such art for public exhibition, which it will lend indefinitely to Kunstsilo (see below), which will have the right to use it free of charge. The public exhibition of the collection will be in a new museum, the Kunstsilo Museum, located in Kristiansand, southern Norway; the establishment of this new museum has been undertaken in cooperation with the Kristiansand municipal authorities, the Norwegian government and other Norwegian institutions. The Kunstsilo Museum opens in May 2024.

The Foundation has provided significant levels of support to several aspects of this project since its inception.

==> picture [292 x 245] intentionally omitted <==

To date the main focus of AKO Kunststiftelse has been on building the collection and overseeing the development of the new Museum building, while Kunstsilo (formerly Sørlandets Kunstmuseum - SKMU) has undertaken the building out of the Museum’s organisation and artistic vision. The ultimate combined vision is to create a public art collection of international importance housed in an art museum of outstanding architectural quality.

AKO Kunststiftelse – aerial view of the Kunstsilo

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

==> picture [415 x 298] intentionally omitted <==

HM Queen Margrethe of Denmark and Edmund de Waal inspecting the exhibition “Playing with Fire: Edmund de Waal and Axel Salto” at the CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art

British Museum

AKO Foundation support since 2018 The Foundation has supported a number of exhibitions at the British Museum in recent years. It is currently supporting two other initiatives:

A strand of what the Museum calls the ‘Rosetta Project’, a comprehensive review of how the permanent collection is displayed, as well as an overhaul of the Museum’s physical infrastructure; and
Support over 5 years towards the Museum’s collection of Nordic prints and drawings, through funding a dedicated curatorship, facilitating acquisitions, and, in 2025, presentation of a related exhibition.

CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark

AKO Foundation support new in 2023 Since its opening in 1994, the CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art, located in Middelfart, Denmark, has established a unique collection of Danish and international ceramic art – the only one of its kind in the Nordic region. In collaboration with the Kunstsilo Museum (see below) and supported by the Foundation, CLAY is currently presenting an exhibition (‘Playing with Fire’) of works by the acclaimed Danish ceramicist Axel Salto (1889 – 1961); curated by the renowned British artist Edmund de Waal, the exhibition also includes specially created work by de Waal himself. The exhibition will subsequently be shown in late 2024 at the Kunstsilo, and in 2025 at the Hepworth Wakefield, in West Yorkshire.

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

The Courtauld Institute of Art

AKO Foundation support since 2014

The Courtauld Institute of Art is an international centre for the study of the history and conservation of art and is also home to one of the finest small art museums in the world. Its Institute of Art, a college of the University of London, is the preeminent centre for the study of the history of art in Europe. The Foundation has endowed an academic post for the study of European art of the 20th century, in particular, German Expressionism. The gift was made by the Foundation in honour of the late Dr Shulamith Behr, Honorary Research Fellow at the Courtauld, who taught Nicolai Tangen during his MA studies there.

More recently, the Foundation supported the Courtauld Connects capital project, which successfully refurbished the Courtauld Gallery’s Somerset House premises.

==> picture [233 x 347] intentionally omitted <==

Courtauld Institute

20 About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Kilden

AKO Foundation support new in 2023

A multi-purpose performing arts venue, which opened in 2012 and is situated adjacent to the Kunstsilo Museum (see below), Kilden sees a number of opportunities for collaboration with Kunstsilo following the opening of the latter in 2024. Among these is the ‘Nordic Art Symphony’ project, which will present visual art and symphonic music in innovative, immersive ways. The Foundation has contributed towards the cost of the related technical equipment.

Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

AKO Foundation support since 2022

Following the creation of the National Museum (Nasjonalmuseet) and its relocation to a purposebuilt building in Oslo, the Foundation commenced its support for the Museum by acting as principal supporter of a temporary exhibition (‘Fitting In and Standing Out’) of works by the British artist Grayson Perry. The Foundation will also support a forthcoming exhibition of works by the Norwegian artist Anna-Eva Bergman.

National Portrait Gallery

Kunstsilo (formerly SKMU Sørlandets Kunstmuseum)

AKO Foundation support since 2015

The SKMU Sørlandets Kunstmuseum was a regional art institution, located in Kristiansand, Norway, which, since its formation in 1995, collected and displayed high quality modern and contemporary art and crafts objects from the local area. The Foundation made a number of grants to SKMU to be used for the acquisition of such objects, and also supported an initiative to cover the cost of transport to bring school children to the museum.

AKO Foundation support since 2021

The Foundation has agreed to support an exhibition of portraits by Edvard Munch; taking place in 2025, this will be one of the first exhibitions at the National Portrait Gallery following its recent major refurbishment.

Now renamed Kunstsilo, the former SKMU will take over the Kunstsilo Museum upon the completion and opening of the latter in 2024. (See also AKO Kunststiftelse above.) The Foundation has supported SKMU’s extensive preparations for the opening of the Kunstsilo Museum.

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Climate

The AKO Foundation Trustees have become increasingly concerned by the effect of the changing climate on current and future generations and on global biodiversity. Accordingly, in 2019 they initiated a third principal strand of grant-making, under the category heading ‘Climate’.

Having developed a portfolio of beneficiaries within this field, the Trustees now focus their grantmaking in three sub-categories: ‘coal-to-clean’, carbon disclosure, and natural solutions. Although these are widely used terms, this classification is somewhat artificial; in practice, many of these organisations work across more than one of these three sub-categories.

Several of the Foundation’s beneficiaries are themselves re-granting organisations. The Foundation is thereby able to benefit from their research, scale and networks, which in turn benefit, in many cases, from the experience and expertise of other major funders. The Foundation has also been able to take advantage of the knowledge and advice offered by the Climate Leadership Initiative.

==> picture [233 x 320] intentionally omitted <==

Client Earth (Getty images)

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Coal to-Clean

ClientEarth

AKO Foundation support since 2020

ClientEarth uses the law to make positive changes to the world’s energy, food, finance, and transport systems. Operating in over 50 countries, it drafts and implement laws; train lawyers and judges to support the effective use of national environmental laws; and, where necessary, brings strategic litigation to ensure governments and corporates comply with existing laws. ClientEarth works in collaboration with local partners and identifies strategic areas where legal action can have an impact.

The Foundation provides unrestricted support and also contributes specifically towards ClientEarth’s work to address deforestation.

Foundation for International Law for the Environment

AKO Foundation support since 2021

Foundation for International Law for the Environment (FILE) was established to accelerate legal action globally to address the crises in climate and biodiversity. Through a combination of grant-making and in-house legal expertise, FILE collaborates with partners in countries around the world that seek to drive legal innovation and to bring high impact legal action and precedent-setting cases. Rather than bringing cases itself, FILE aims to promote successful legal outcomes through access to key research, strategic communications, campaign alignment, and capacity building.

Global Methane Hub

Energy Foundation China

AKO Foundation support since 2019

Energy Foundation China (EFC) is the largest climaterelated grantmaker operating in China. Dedicated to facilitating China’s sustainable energy development and working closely with a wide range of both public and private sector bodies, EFC acts as re-granter, facilitator, and strategic adviser. Its Beijing-based staff support policy research, the development of new standards, capacity building, and dissemination of best practices across multiple sectors of the economy, for example in key areas such as transport electrification, cooling efficiency, power sector reform, and green finance. It makes around 200 grants per annum to research institutes, academies, think tanks, and other NGOs.

European Climate Foundation

AKO Foundation support new in 2023

Although short-lived (emissions begin to dissipate in a matter of years), methane has an outsized impact on the climate because it has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide during its lifetime in the atmosphere. Not only is methane responsible for nearly half of the warming experienced today, but emissions continue to trend upwards.

Accordingly, Global Methane Hub was created in 2022 in order to accelerate action by governments, civil society, researchers, investors, and the private sector to reduce methane emissions rapidly and systemically – in particular, in the sectors largely responsible for methane emissions: agriculture, energy, and waste operations. The Foundation has made its largest grant to date in the Climate field in support of this urgent work.

AKO Foundation support since 2020

Founded in 2008, the European Climate Foundation (ECF) is a strategic re-granter whose aims are to promote climate and energy policies that will reduce Europe's greenhouse gas emissions, and to help Europe play a stronger international leadership role in mitigating climate change. It undertakes research, technical analysis and strategic communications, convenes partnerships between policy-makers and other representative groups, and co-ordinates highlevel political and diplomatic action.

The Foundation provides unrestricted support to ECF; and has also made grants to the Pooled Fund on International Energy (PIE), a re-granting entity within ECF, towards shifting both the power and steel sectors from coal to clean.

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Carbon Disclosure

CDP

AKO Foundation support since 2019

CDP is a global environmental disclosure mechanism. It gathers and analyses a comprehensive collection of reported environmental data, with the aim of making environmental reporting and risk management a business norm. The aim is to underpin and institutionalise efforts across economic actors, public sector, and civil society. In 2022 nearly 20,000 entities (companies, cities, states and regions) disclosed their environmental data through CDP.

CDP's climate change programme aims to reduce companies' greenhouse gas emissions and to mitigate climate change risk. It requests information on climate risks and low carbon opportunities from the world's largest companies on behalf of over 800 institutional investor signatories with a combined US$ 100 trillion in assets. It has recently expanded to new areas such as biodiversity, plastics and oceans, recognising the interconnectedness of nature and the earth’s systems.

Climate Arc

AKO Foundation support since 2022

Climate Arc’s ambition is to see global capital flows aligned with global climate goals. Through regranting, it assists participants in financial markets to incorporate climate science-based data into investment decisions and corporate transition plans; and it supports organisations that produce the raw data and analytics, anchored in climate science.

Natural Solutions

Basecamp Explorer Foundation

AKO Foundation support since 2019

The Basecamp Explorer Foundation (BEF) is the charitable arm of a Norwegian sustainable tourism business which operates in the Arctic and in Kenya.

In Kenya, Basecamp has had a long association with tribal chiefs in the Maasai Mara region; by collaborating with the local communities, BEF seeks to halt the diminution of the region’s woodlands and wildlife. The Foundation’s support has been used to lease, from local families, corridors of land that are critical for wildlife migrations; it also contributed towards the capital and operating costs of a new educational entity, the Wildlife Tourism College (WTC) of Maasai Mara, which will train local people in the tourism and hospitality industries. The Foundation renewed its support during the year, primarily towards the educational curriculum at WTC, and forest conservation.

Cool Earth

AKO Foundation support since 2020 Introduced to the Foundation through the Give Back programme in 2020, Cool Earth is an environmental charity that works with rainforest communities to halt deforestation and its impact on climate change. Following the expiry of the Give Back grant, made towards Cool Earth’s work in Peru, the Foundation renewed its support with an unrestricted grant.

Conservation International

AKO Foundation support since 2020 Conservation International (CI) seeks to protect the earth’s natural assets by promoting sustainable economic growth and climate resilience.

Rangelands (grasslands, savannah and shrub lands) cover nearly half the Earth’s land surface and provide livelihoods to 180 million people globally, including more than 20 million pastoralists in Africa. For certain African communities, restoration and sustainable management of this land is essential to lift them out of poverty and to provide them with water, food and jobs. In addition, rangelands play an important role in ecological processes across Africa, forming important water catchment areas in dryland countries. The Foundation funds a project whereby CI works with women in Kenya and South Africa to assist them in the sustainable management of their rangelands.

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Global Greengrants Fund

AKO Foundation support since 2021 Global Greengrants Fund and its affiliate in the US are re-granting entities, using a widespread network of expert advisers around the world to offer microgrants to community organisations working in the fields of climate justice, healthy ecosystems and other environmental causes. The Foundation made a 3-year grant to be used towards re-granting in agroecology, a practice and science that uses ecological concepts and principles in the design and management of sustainable agricultural ecosystems, thus empowering local communities to lever traditional knowledge, local seed production, local consumption of food, and crop diversification.

Live Ocean

AKO Foundation support since 2019

Live Ocean is an NGO based in New Zealand, working to protect and preserve the world’s oceans, and in particular the oceans around New Zealand, the country with the 4th largest marine space on the planet. It funds marine research and the transition of research data and conclusions into ocean health action; and it uses sailing events globally to promote ocean-friendly behaviour. During the year, the Foundation renewed its unrestricted match-funding support.

The Nature Conservancy

AKO Foundation support since 2021

The Nature Conservancy promotes the conservation, protection and improvement of the physical and natural environment; biodiversity; sustainable development; and the education of the public regarding environmental and conservation issues.

The Foundation’s grant supports The Nature Conservancy’s work in ‘Natural Climate Solutions’ – the protection, restoration and sustainable management of forests, farms, wetlands and grasslands as a way both of reducing emissions, and also of enhancing mechanisms of carbon capture and storage.

World Resources Institute (WRI)

AKO Foundation support since 2022

Last year the Foundation supported the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100), a pan-African platform for advancing forest landscape restoration during this current critical decade. Endorsed by the African Union in 2015, AFR100 comprises 31 African governments committed to begin restoring at least 100 million hectares by 2030. The project works through local entrepreneurs and social enterprises, who may derive a commercial as well as ecological benefit from tree-planting and reforestation.

A broadly similar project in India – the Landscape Restoration Fund for India – has also been launched by WRI India, in collaboration with Sidhi District Administration, the Government of Madhya Pradesh, and an Indian NGO, Action for Social Advancement (ASA). This will support local organisations in protecting and restoring landscapes that can mitigate the impacts of climate change, strengthen biodiversity, improve rural livelihoods, improve soil health, and enhance food and nutritional security in India. As with AFR100, the Foundation has provided seed funding for this project.

==> picture [233 x 313] intentionally omitted <==

The Nature Conservancy (Alfan Subekti, YKAN)

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Local Projects

The Foundation is a London-based charity; its founder previously lived, and the majority of the trustees do live, in north London. The founder, Nicolai Tangen, was born and brought up in Kristiansand, Norway; other Trustees also have connections to Norway. The Foundation values these links and has supported the following projects in north London and in Norway:

London

Doorstep Homeless Families Project

AKO Foundation support since 2017

The Foundation supports Doorstep in its mission to provide homeless families (frequently recent arrivals to the UK) living in temporary accommodation in north London with access to services, so that they can enjoy a better quality of life.

Hampstead Theatre

AKO Foundation support since 2014

Based in north London, Hampstead Theatre has as its mission the creation of original theatre without creative restriction. The Foundation has been an important partner over several years, including in the creation of ‘The Next Decade’ initiative – the commissioning of new plays from leading playwrights – for which the Foundation matched the funding raised by Hampstead Theatre.

Roundhouse

AKO Foundation support since 2022 In addition to being a well-known performance venue, the Roundhouse is a creative youth centre in north London where young people – artists, creatives, performers and creative entrepreneurs – are given the space and facilities to develop their talents.

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Norway

Fontenehuset Arendal

AKO Foundation support since 2021

The Clubhouse model of psychosocial rehabilitation is an international community mental health service model that helps people with a history of mental illness or vulnerability to re-join society and to maintain their place in it. A new Clubhouse recently opened in the southern Norwegian town of Arendal; the Foundation will contribute towards operating expenses during the first three years.

Fontenehus Norge

AKO Foundation support since 2022

Fontenehus Norge is the umbrella body of Clubhouses in Norway. The Foundation’s grant will enable Fontenehus Norge to employ two members of staff dedicated to working with Clubhouse members across Norway to assist them back into employment.

Ibsenstiftelsen

AKO Foundation support new in 2023

The Foundation has agreed to support performances over the three years 2023 – 2025 by the Norwegian Ibsen Company, led by the actor Kåre Conradi, at the open-air theatre Fjaereheia, in southern Norway.

Redningsselskapet

AKO Foundation support new in 2023

The full name of Redningsselskapet can be translated as ‘The Norwegian Society for the Rescue of Shipwrecked People’: its mission is to protect those who travel on or by the sea; to make sea travel and recreation safe for all; and to save and protect valuables on and by the sea. The Foundation has agreed to fund the acquisition of an offshore rescue boat, to be deployed in southern Norway.

Røde Kors Kristiansand

AKO Foundation support since 2021

The branch of the Red Cross based in Kristiansand has constructed a new, purpose-built base for its search and rescue activities in Hovden, a popular centre for winter sports in southern Norway. The Foundation provided the majority of the financial support for the construction of the new building, which opened in 2023

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Other Initiatives

Give Back

The AKO Give Back scheme provides all AKO Capital staff with the opportunity to nominate a charity to receive a grant from the Foundation. As well as nominating charities, the staff collectively determine the recipients of the larger grants. A committee of staff members selects a short list of the nominated charities, and all staff then vote on the allocation of a pool that in 2023 amounted to some £885,000.

Matched Funding

Certain charitable donations by members of staff of AKO Capital are matched, on a 1:1 basis, by the Foundation. The Foundation gave matching grants of around £260,000 under this scheme in 2023.

The two categories summarised immediately above – Give Back, and Matched Funding – are together described as ‘Other’ in the following Trustees’ report and financial statements.

In 2023 the largest grants were to the following recipients:

Speech & Language (brand name of I CAN Charity ): Provides specialist therapy and education for children with speech and language difficulties; resources to parents; and courses, conferences, training, and seminars to professionals.
Women and Girls Network : A counselling and healing centre for women and girls overcoming experiences of physical, sexual or emotional violence; and provides training that promotes good practice within this field.
Shannon Trust : Supports people who can read to teach those who can’t, both in prisons and in the community.
Age UK : Towards the Silver Line Helpline, the UK's only free, confidential helpline providing friendship to older people – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Housing for Women : Provides and promotes affordable homes for women and gender-specific support services.

The trustees are pleased that certain charities introduced to the Foundation through the Give Back programme have subsequently developed deeper, multi-year relationships with the Foundation. Cool Earth, Generating Genius, Lively Minds, and OnSide Youth Zones, all covered in the sections above, are examples of such relationships.

In addition to the annual opportunity to recommend purely financial support, AKO Capital staff are also encouraged to give their time and expertise to those charities that the Foundation supports, for example by serving as charity trustee, school governor or mentor to young people.

About the AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

About the AKO Foundation 29

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Report of the trustees

Independent auditor's report Financial Statements

Report of the Trustees

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Report of the trustees

The trustees present their report and the audited financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2023.

Reference and administrative information set out on page 1 forms part of this report. The financial statements comply with the current statutory requirements, the memorandum and articles of association and the Statement of Recommended Practice – Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (Charities SORP (FRS 102)).

Structure, governance, management & remuneration

The Foundation is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 1 February 2013 and registered as a charity on 29 April 2013. The company was established under a memorandum of association which established the objects and powers of the charitable organisation and is governed under its articles of association.

The Foundation had two wholly owned subsidiaries one of which was dissolved in the year to 31 December 2022. It also has one associated undertaking. Further details on these entities are included in notes 8 and 9 to the financial statements.

The Foundation is managed by the trustees with decisions taken at the regular trustee meetings. Trustees are given training and advice on their responsibilities when they take on the position. They give their time voluntarily and receive no remuneration or benefits from the Foundation. Any expenses reclaimed from the Foundation are set out in note 3 to the financial statements.

Any future trustee appointments are made by the Members of the Foundation. The Members are David Woodburn and Nicola Staples; David Woodburn is also a trustee of the Foundation.

The Foundation has a single employee and its reward and recognition strategy is designed to attract and retain motivated and talented individuals.

Objectives and activities

The objective of the Foundation is to act as a charity for general charitable purposes with a focus on education and the arts, in particular the provision of grants for charitable purposes (as prescribed by the Charities Act 2011).

The Foundation’s charitable objectives are:

The advancement of education;
The advancement of the arts, culture, heritage and science; and
All other charitable purposes for the benefit of the public.

The trustees review the aims, objectives and activities of the Foundation each year. In recent years the trustees have become increasingly concerned by the effect of the changing climate on current and future generations and on global biodiversity and in 2019 they initiated a grant making programme in this field. In 2022 the trustees added “Wellbeing of young people” as a separate category of grant making.

This report looks at what the Foundation has achieved and the outcomes of its work in 2023. Details of the grants made in the year are included in the financial statements.

The trustees have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the Foundation's aims and objectives and in planning its future activities. In planning the Foundation’s activities, the trustees consider how these will contribute to the aims and objectives that have been set.

In undertaking their management of the Foundation, and the making of grants, the trustees have had regard to their obligations under Section 172 (1)(a)-(f) and 172(2) of the Companies Act 2006 to promote the success of the Foundation to achieve its charitable objectives.

Report of the Trustees 31

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Strategic Report

Achievements and performance in the delivery of public benefit

The Foundation’s main activity is to make grants to UK charities and for general charitable purposes elsewhere in the world. The primary foci of its grant making activities are initiatives and projects which improve education or the wellbeing or young people, promote the arts, or combat climate change.

During the year to 31 December 2023 the Foundation made grants to a variety of entities involved in these areas. The major grants, considered as being those for an amount of £100,000 or more, are described below, listed in descending size order within the respective categories:

Grants for the advancement of education

Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) – unrestricted support for CAMFED’s work in promoting the education of girls and young women in African countries.
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) – scholarships within the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science.
The Hall School Endowment Fund – to support the Senior School Development Project.
World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (“WAGGGS”) – to support the “Girl Led Action on Climate Change” initiative.
Global Schools Forum – towards the “Impact at Scale Labs 3” initiative which aims to advance foundational learning and secondary education transitions in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Pratham UK – to support the education of young children in Odisha, India.
Ark – to support Ark in developing a digital culture across its schools network.
Partnership for Change (“PfC”) – to support PfC’s work in Ethiopia helping disadvantaged girls to obtain a high-quality education.
MM Foundation – to support the MM
Foundation’s work in enhancing the employment prospects of vulnerable youth through education and vocational training in Sri Lanka.
Little Sun Foundation – towards provision of solar lamps to students in Burkina Faso and Tanzania.
London Academy of Excellence (“LAE”) (Stratford and Tottenham) – towards the provision of co-curricular activities and providing access to LAE’s programmes to disadvantaged students in other areas of England.
Royal National Children’s Springboard Foundation – towards the provision of bursaries for disadvantaged young people to attend boarding school.
Social Finance – towards the Liberia Education Advancement Program (LEAP) to improve learning outcomes in primary schools in Liberia.
ReachOut Youth – to support its work mentoring children in disadvantaged communities.
Literacy Pirates – to support its work in providing literacy support to 9-12 year-olds in the London boroughs of Hackney and Haringey.
Lively Minds – towards establishment of informal play schemes for pre-school children in rural villages in Uganda.

Grants towards the wellbeing of young people

Bite Back 2030 – to support its work towards halving the rate of childhood obesity in the United Kingdom by 2030.
OnSide Youth Zones – to support the operations of the Barking & Dagenham, Barnet and Croydon Youth Zones.
Roundhouse Trust – towards the youth programme at the Roundhouse, London.

Grants for the advancement of arte

AKO Kunststiftelse – to support AKO Kunststiftelse’s acquisition of Nordic visual works of art, and towards the support of Kunstsilo (formerly SKMU Sørlandets Kunstmuseum) and AKO Kunststiftelse’s general administration. The ultimate purpose of this support is the establishment of a permanent public exhibition of Nordic visual works of art in Kristiansand, Norway.

32 Section MarkerReport of the Trustees

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Strategic Report (continued)

Kunstsilo (formerly SKMU Sørlandets Kunstmuseum ) – towards their Artist Portrait Programme, the reception, conservation and storage of their art collection and preparation for the opening of the Kunstsilo Museum.
Kilden – towards the Nordic Art Symphony project at the Kilden Performing Arts Centre, Kristiansand, Norway.
Hampstead Theatre – unrestricted support for the Hampstead Theatre.
CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark together and SKMU Sørlandets Kunstmuseu m – towards the exhibition Playing with Fire: Edmund de Waal in dialogue with Axel Salto.
Arts Emergency – unrestricted support for Arts Emergency’s work in providing creative opportunities for marginalised youth.
Nasjonalmuseet Oslo – to support the proposed exhibition Becoming Anna-Eva Bergman.

Grants to mitigate the effect of climate change

Global Methane Hub – to support its work towards rapid and systemic reductions in methane emissions.
European Climate Foundation (“ECF”) – unrestricted support for ECF’s work in combating climate change.
The Energy Foundation China – towards achieving climate objectives and emission reduction in China.
The Foundation for International Law for the Environment (“FILE”) – unrestricted support for the work of FILE to accelerate legal action globally to address the climate and nature crises.
Climate Arc – unrestricted support for the work of Climate Arc in catalysing the corporate climate transition using the power of finance.
Live Ocean – unrestricted support for the work of Live Ocean in the preservation and enhancement of ocean health.
World Resources Institute – support for land restoration and sustainable reforestation in India.
The Big Give Trust – provision of match-funding for the Green Match Fund 2023.

Local Projects

Redningsselskapet – towards the funding for a rescue vessel of the Simrad class which will operate from southern Norway.
Ibsenstiftelsen – support for the Norwegian Ibsen Company’s theatre productions at Fjaereheia (Grimstad).

Other major grants (through the ‘Give Back’ programme)

Speech & Language UK – towards their work in the provision of specialist therapy and education and other support for children with speech and language difficulties.
Women and Girls Network (“WGN”) – unrestricted support for WGN’s work with women and girls overcoming experiences of physical, sexual or emotional violence.

The Foundation’s general grant making policy is for individual trustees or the Chief Executive to identify possible grant recipients, which are then considered by the trustees acting as a body. The Foundation does not seek applications for grants and does not make grants in response to unsolicited applications received.

As a grant making charity the primary key performance indicators for the Foundation are its income and carried forward funds, as these set its ability to make future grants; and the grants made, and cash distributed, in the year. During the year to 31 December 2023 the Foundation had income of £117,443,000 (2022: £79,111,000), made new grants of £46,563,000 (2022: £34,598,000) and carried forward funds of £1,178,071,000 (2022: £1,074,296,000). It distributed cash of £34,019,000 (2022: £37,083,000) to grant recipients and also made a grant of artworks to the value of £9,891,000 (2022: £Nil). The trustees are satisfied with the performance of the Foundation over the year.

Basecamp Explorer Foundation (“Basecamp”) – support for Basecamp’s conservation education and other work to address threats to the Maasai Mara ecosystem.

Report of the TrusteSection Markers 33

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Financial Review

In 2023 the Foundation received its income via Gift Aid donations from AKO Capital Management Limited, donations of artworks from Nicolai Tangen and from its interest in AKO Capital LLP held via its trading subsidiary AKO Subsidiary 2020 Limited (2022: donations from AKO Capital Management Limited and from its interest in AKO Capital LLP). Total donations of £9,895,000 (2022: total donations of £4,000) were received in the year to 31 December 2023 which includes £Nil receivable at 31 December 2023 (2022: £Nil receivable at 31 December 2022). The income arising from its interest in AKO Capital LLP in 2023 was £105,360,000 of which £48,170,000 was receivable at 31 December 2023 (2022: £78,695,000 of which £20,248,000 was receivable at 31 December 2022).

Reserves Policy

At 31 December 2023 the Foundation had total funds of £1,178,071,000 (2022; £1,074,296,000). The Foundation’s reserves policy is to ensure it maintains adequate funds to meet its commitments and to hold reserves while it identifies appropriate projects to fund. It does not currently hold any restricted funds and thus characterises all funds as unrestricted reserves.

ethical policies of the relevant fund entities but this is not a primary consideration in determining its investments.

The trustees are mindful of their duty to review and monitor the Foundation’s investments and receive regular investment reports in respect of the funds in which they are invested.

Costs

The Foundation seeks to minimise its cost base to maximise the funds available for its charitable purposes. As stated elsewhere in this report, the trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no remuneration or benefits; and the largest component of the Foundation’s investments is the Management Shares of funds managed by AKO Capital LLP which are non-fee paying. In 2023 the total costs of the Foundation were £184,000 which represents 0.02% of the Foundation’s net assets and 0.4% of the grants payable in the year.

Energy usage

The Foundation did not consume more than 40,000 kWh of energy in its reporting period. It therefore qualifies as a low energy user and is exempt from the reporting otherwise required under the United Kingdom’s Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting regulations.

Investment Policy

Several venture capital type investments have been donated to the Foundation and the nature of these investments means that the Foundation expects to hold them to their maturity.

With respect to its other assets, the Investment Policy of the Foundation is for these to be held in either equity-based investments or as cash or shortterm fixed interest instruments. The equity-based component is held in Management Shares in funds managed by AKO Capital LLP. These shares are non-fee paying and the investment is split between NOK, Euro and US$ denominated share classes. The funds managed by AKO Capital LLP invest in a diversified range of European and Global equities.

The investment objective of the Foundation is to maintain the real value of its investment portfolio over the longer term and to provide capital growth for the furtherance of the Foundation’s objectives. In 2023 the investment return of the Foundation, measured in GBP, was an overall gain of approximately 4%. The trustees remain confident as to the long-term prospects of the Foundation’s investments.

In respect of its investments the Foundation seeks an awareness of the social, environmental, or

Risk Statement and Going Concern

The trustees have reviewed the major risks to which the Foundation is exposed and consider that systems are in place to mitigate exposure to these risks. As a grant making charity the main risk facing the Foundation is that it has inadequate income or existing resources to fund its grant making activity. In 2024 the Foundation’s main source of income is expected be a profit share from AKO Capital LLP and the main current risk is, therefore, the profitability of AKO Capital LLP. During the year to 31 December 2023 AKO Capital LLP remained profitable. In addition, the Foundation’s reserves policy is to ensure it maintains adequate funds to meet its commitments and to allow it to continue as a grant making charity; the Trustees consider that the Foundation’s reserves are more than adequate for this purpose. Accordingly, the trustees believe that there is a reasonable expectation that the Foundation will have adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future; they have thus continued to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the annual financial statements.

Section MarkerReport of the Trustees

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Fundraising

The Foundation’s main source of future income is expected be a profit share from AKO Capital LLP. The Foundation does not engage in public fundraising and does not use professional fundraisers or commercial participators. The Foundation nevertheless observes and complies with the relevant fundraising regulations and codes. During the year there was no noncompliance of these regulations and codes and the Foundation received no complaints relating to its fundraising practice.

Relationship with stakeholders

The Foundation’s primary stakeholders are the grant recipients. The Foundation seeks to foster long-term and open relationships with these partners.

Plans for the Future

The Foundation plans to continue as a grant making charity with a focus on education, the wellbeing of young people, the arts and combating climate change.

Statement of responsibilities of the trustees

The trustees (who are also directors of AKO Foundation for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the report of the trustees, including the strategic report and the financial statements, in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:

Select suitable accounting policies and apply them consistently;
Observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;
Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
State whether applicable UK Accounting Standards and statements of recommended practice have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and
Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.

The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

In so far as the trustees are aware:

There is no relevant audit information of which the charitable company’s auditor is unaware.
The trustees have taken all steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditor is aware of that information.

The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company's website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

Members of the charity guarantee to contribute an amount not exceeding £1 to the assets of the charity in the event of winding up. The total number of such guarantees at 31 December 2023 was 2. One of the trustees is a Member of the charity but this entitles him only to voting rights. The trustees have no beneficial interest in the charity.

Auditor

Sayer Vincent LLP was re-appointed as the Foundation’s auditor and has expressed its willingness to continue in that capacity.

The report of the trustees including the strategic report was approved by the trustees on 24 April 2024 and signed on their behalf by

David Woodburn, Trustee 24 April 2024

Report of the TrusteSection Markers 35

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Independent auditor’s report to the members of AKO Foundation

charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of AKO Foundation (the ‘parent charitable company’) and its subsidiaries (the ‘group’) for the year ended 31 December 2023 which comprise the consolidated statement of financial activities, the group and parent charitable company balance sheets, the consolidated statement of cash flows and the notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including FRS 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

Give a true and fair view of the state of the group’s and of the parent charitable company’s affairs as at 31 December 2023 and of the group’s incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended
Have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice
Have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities Act 2011

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the group financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the group and parent

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on AKO Foundation's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The other information comprises the information included in the trustees’ annual report, including the strategic report, other than the group financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the group financial statements does not cover the other information, and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the group financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the group financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

Section MarkerIndependent auditor's report

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

The information given in the trustees’ annual report, including the strategic report, for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements
The trustees’ annual report, including the strategic report, has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the group and the parent charitable company and their environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the trustees’ annual report, including the strategic report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 and Charities Act 2011 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

Adequate accounting records have not been kept by the parent charitable company, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or
The parent charitable company financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
Certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or
We have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the statement of trustees’ responsibilities set out in the trustees’ annual report, the trustees (who are also the directors of the parent charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the group’s and the parent charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the group or the parent charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

We have been appointed auditor under the Companies Act 2006 and section 151 of the Charites Act 2011 and report in accordance with those Acts.

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud are set out below.

Independent auditor's reportSection Marker

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Capability of the audit in detecting irregularities

In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and non-compliance with laws and regulations, our procedures included the following:

We enquired of management, and the board of trustees, which included obtaining and reviewing supporting documentation, concerning the group’s policies and procedures relating to:
Identifying, evaluating, and complying with laws and regulations and whether they were aware of any instances of non-compliance;
Detecting and responding to the risks of fraud and whether they have knowledge of any actual, suspected, or alleged fraud;
The internal controls established to mitigate risks related to fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations.
We inspected the minutes of meetings of those charged with governance.
We obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework that the group operates in, focusing on those laws and regulations that had a material effect on the financial statements or that had a fundamental effect on the operations of the group from our professional and sector experience.
We communicated applicable laws and regulations throughout the audit team and remained alert to any indications of noncompliance throughout the audit.
We reviewed any reports made to regulators.
We reviewed the financial statement disclosures and tested these to supporting documentation to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
We performed analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships that may indicate risks of material misstatement due to fraud.

Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or noncompliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk is also greater regarding irregularities occurring due to fraud rather than error, as fraud involves intentional concealment, forgery, collusion, omission or misrepresentation.

A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company's members as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006 and section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 and regulations made under section 154 of that Act. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company's members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company's members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Joanna Pittman (Senior statutory auditor) Date: 25 April 2024

for and on behalf of Sayer Vincent LLP, Statutory Auditors Sayer Vincent LLP, 110 Golden Lane, London, EC1Y 0TL

In addressing the risk of fraud through management override of controls, we tested the appropriateness of journal entries and other adjustments, assessed whether the judgements made in making accounting estimates are indicative of a potential bias and tested significant transactions that are unusual or those outside the normal course of business.

38 Section MarkerIndependent auditor's report

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Group Statement of Financial Activities

Group Statement of Financial Activities
Incorporating an income and expenditure account For the year ended 31 December 2023 Notes Income Incoming resources from generated funds Income from interests in associated undertakings Donations Investment income Total incoming resources Expenditure Charitable activities Education Wellbeing of young people Art Climate Local projects Other Total resources expended 2 Net incoming resources for the year 3 Net gains/(loss) on investments Foreign exchange gain/(loss) Net income for the year and net movement in funds Total funds brought forward Total funds carried forward 16	Year ended 31 December 2023 £’000 105,360 9,895 2,188 117,443 8,938 1,821 18,028 15,583 1,227 1,150 46,747 70,696 34,273 (1,194) 103,775 1,074,296 1,178,071	Year ended 31 December 2022 £’000 78,695 4 4121
		79,111
		7,637 1,926 13,026 10,060 807 1,344
		34,800

		44,311 (41,443) (234) 2,634 1,071,662
		1,074,296

All of the above results are derived from continuing activities and are unrestricted. There were no other recognised gains and losses other than those stated above. Movements in funds are disclosed in note 16 to the financial statements.

Financial StatementsSection Marker

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Registered Company Nº 08385711

Group Balance Sheet

as at 31 December 2023

Notes Fixed assets Investments 7 Current assets Debtors 11 Cash Current liabilities Creditors:_amounts falling due within one year 12 Net current assets _Creditors: amounts falling due in more than one year 13 Net assets 15 Funds Unrestricted funds – general income funds 16 Unrestricted funds – fair value reserve 16 Total unrestricted funds and total funds	2023 £’000 1,030,818 1,030,818 49,067 126,983 176,050 22,323 153,727 6,474 1,178,071 972,290 205,781 1,178,071	2022 £’000 968,856 968,856 20,248 111,195 131,443 17,917 113,526 8,086 1,074,296 900,554 173,742 1,074,296

Approved by the trustees on 24 April 2024 and signed on their behalf by:

David Woodburn Trustee

Section MarkerFinancial Statements

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Registered Company Nº 08385711

Company Balance Sheet

as at 31 December 2023

Notes Fixed assets Investments 7 Current assets Debtors 11 Cash Current liabilities Creditors: amounts falling due within one year 12 Net current assets Creditors: amounts falling due in more than one year 13 Net assets Funds Unrestricted funds – general income funds 16 Unrestricted funds – fair value reserve 16 Total unrestricted funds and total funds	2023 £’000 1,030,818 1,030,818 897 126,543 127,440 22,318 105,122 6,474 1,129,466 929,638 199,828 1,129,466	2022 £’000 968,856 968,856 - 111,022 111,022 17,911 93,111 8,086 1,053,881 886,092 167,789 1,053,881

Approved by the trustees on 24 April 2024 and signed on their behalf by:

David Woodburn Trustee

Financial StatementsSection Marker 41

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Group Cash Flow Statement

For the year ended 31 December 2023

Reconciliation of net incoming resources to operating cash fow Net incoming/(outgoing) resources for the period Foreign exchange gain/(loss) Interest receivable (Increase)/decrease in debtors Increase/(decrease) in creditors Net cash outfow from operating activities before tax Corporation tax paid Net cash outfow from operating activities after tax Return on investments Interest received Capital expenditure/receipts Additions to investments Proceeds from sale of investments Increase/(decrease) in cash Cash at bank and in hand brought forward Cash at bank and in hand carried forward		2023 £’000 70,696 (1,194) (2,188) (28,819) 2,794 41,289 - 41,289 2,188 (74,523) 46,834 15,788 111,195 126,983	2022 £’000 44,311 (234) (412) 162,923 (1,401) 205,187 - 205,187 412 (152,105) 16,230 69,724 41,471 111,195

Section MarkerFinancial Statements

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Notes to the financial statements

For the year ended 31 December 2023

1. Accounting policies

a) AKO Foundation is a charitable company limited by guarantee and is incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is One Newman Street, London, W1T 1PB.
b) The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention as modified by the revaluation of investments and in accordance with applicable accounting standards and the Companies Act 2006. They follow the recommendations in the “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)” (Charities SORP FRS 102).

The trustees consider that there are no material uncertainties in respect of the Foundation’s ability to continue as a going concern and therefore continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.

c) These financial statements consolidate the results of the Foundation and its wholly owned subsidiary AKO Subsidiary 2020 Limited on a line by line basis with subsidiaries included from the date of acquisition or establishment. Transactions and balances between the Foundation and its subsidiaries have been eliminated from the consolidated financial statements. Any balances between the Foundation and its subsidiaries are disclosed in the notes to the Foundation’s balance sheet. A separate statement of financial activities, or income and expenditure account, for the Foundation itself is not presented because the Foundation has taken advantage of the exemptions afforded by section 408 of the Companies Act 2006.

Investments in associated undertakings are accounted for under the equity method of accounting such that the investment is initially recognised at cost and is subsequently adjusted to reflect the group’s share of the profit or loss of the associate.

d) Donations and other income are recognised when the Foundation has entitlement, any performance conditions attached to the income have been met and it is probable that the income will be received. Donations are measured at fair value unless it is impractical to measure reliably the fair value of the donated item.
e) Resources expended are allocated to the activity where the cost relates directly to that activity. Support costs and Governance costs, which are costs associated with constitutional and statutory requirements and include any costs associated with the strategic management of the charity’s activities, are reallocated to each of the activities on the following basis which is an estimate, based on grants payable, of the amount attributable to each activity:

	2023	2022
Education	19%	22%
Wellbeing of young people	4%	5%
Art	38%	38%
Climate	33%	29%
Local projects	3%	2%
Other	3%	4%

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Financial StatementsSection Marker

1. Accounting policies (continued)

f) Grants payable are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities in the year in which the offer is conveyed to the recipient except in those cases where the offer is conditional, such grants being recognised as expenditure when the conditions attaching are fulfilled.
g) Most of the Foundation’s financial assets and financial liabilities are of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments, and these are initially recognised at transaction value. Those parts of the Foundation’s investments which do not qualify as basic financial instruments are initially recognised at fair value.

Within the Foundation itself investments in subsidiaries and associates are accounted for at cost less any impairment. All other investments held as fixed assets are revalued at market value at the balance sheet date with the gain or loss for the year taken to the Statement of Financial Activities. Other basic financial instruments are measured at their settlement value.

h) Monetary assets and liabilities in foreign currencies are translated into sterling at the rates of exchange ruling at the balance sheet date. Transactions in foreign currencies are translated into sterling at the rate of exchange utilised at the date of transaction. Exchange differences are included in the net movement in funds for the year.
i) AKO Foundation meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102.

2. Total resources expended

2023 Education Wellbeing of young people Art Climate Local Projects Other Governance Costs Support Costs Total resources expended	Grants Payable (Note 6) £’000 8,903 1,814 17,957 15,522 1,222 1,145 46,563 - - 46,563	Legal fees Other Governance and Support Costs £’000 £’000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2 17 - 165 2 182	Total Allocation of Governance and Support Costs £’000 £’000 8,903 35 1,814 7 17,957 71 15,522 61 1,222 5 1,145 5 46,563 184 19 (19) 165 (165) 46,747 -	Total 2023 £’000 8,938 1,821 18,028 15,583 1,227 1,150
				46,747 - -
				46,747

Included in the Arts category of Grants payable is an amount of £9,891,000 representing a grant of artworks made to AKO Kunststiftelse. Donations income includes an equivalent amount representing the donation of these artworks to AKO Foundation by Nicolai Tangen.

Section MarkerFinancial Statements

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

2. Total resources expended (continued)

2022 Education Wellbeing of young people Arts & Culture Climate Local Projects Other Governance Costs Support Costs Total resources expended	Grants Payable (Note 6) £’000 7,593 1,915 12,950 10,002 802 1,336 34,598 - - 34,598	Legal fees Other Governance and Support Costs £’000 £’000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 35 17 - 150 15 167	Total Allocation of Governance and Support Costs £’000 £’000 7,593 44 1,915 11 12,950 76 10,002 58 802 5 1,336 8 34,598 202 52 (52) 150 (150) 34,800 -	Total 2022 £’000 7,637 1,926 13,026 10,060 807 1,344
				34,800 - -
				34,800

Analysis of Support Costs Governance Costs Legal fees Audit & Accountancy Other Support Costs Staf costs Bank charges and other costs Total Governance and Support Costs	2023 £‘000 2 17 19 146 19 165 184	2022 £’000 35 17
		52 138 12
		150
		202

Financial StatementsSection Marker 45

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

3. Net incoming resources for the year

This is stated after charging

This is stated after charging
	2023	2022
	£’000	£’000
Trustees’ remuneration	-	-
Trustees’ expenses	-	-
Auditor’s remuneration (excluding VAT)
Audit	12	11
Other	3	4

During 2023 Trustees’ expenses of £429 (2022: £300) were incurred representing the payment of travel costs for one trustee relating to project visits.

4. Staff cost

4. Staff cost
Wages and salaries Social security costs Other pension costs Total staf costs	2023 £’000 99 10 37 146	2022 £’000 120 15 4
		139

The average monthly number of employees was 1 (2022: 1) and the employee benefits detailed above relate to a single employee.

The total employee benefits including pension contributions of the key management personnel were £146,000 (2022: £139,000).

5. Taxation

The Foundation is generally exempt from corporation tax as all its income is charitable and is applied for charitable purposes.

Section MarkerFinancial Statements

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

6. Grants Payable

A list of recipients of the grants made during the years ended 31 December 2023 and 31 December 2022 are shown below.

2023 Recipient Grants for the advancement of education Campaign for Female Education London School of Economics and Political Science The Hall School Endowment Fund World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts Global Schools Forum Pratham UK Ark Partnership for Change MM Foundation Little Sun Foundation London Academy of Excellence Stratford London Academy of Excellence Tottenham Royal National Children’s Springboard Foundation Social Finance ReachOut Youth Literacy Pirates Lively Minds University of the Arts Sandvika Rotary Club Grants towards the wellbeing of young people Bite Back 2030 OnSide Youth Zones Roundhouse Kirkens Ungdomsprosjekt Humans for Humans Grants for the advancement of art AKO Kunststiftelse Kunstsilo (formerly SKMU Sørlandets Kunstmuseum) Kilden Hampstead Theatre CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark together with SKMU Sørlandets Kunstmuseum Arts Emergency Nasjonalmuseet Oslo British Museum Zeitz MOCAA	£’000 1,500 1,000 1,000 1,000 800 600 500 457 422 308 240 240 200 170 150 120 120 60 16
	8,903
	£’000 1,000 500 150 99 65
	1,814
	£’000 14,007 2,356 518 500 265 135 110 44 22
	17,957

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

Financial StatementsSection Marker

6. Grants Payable (continued)

Grants to mitigate the effect of climate change Global Methane Hub European Climate Foundation The Energy Foundation China Foundation for International Law for the Environment Other Climate Arc Live Ocean Basecamp Explorer Foundation World Resources Institute The Big Give Trust Local projects Redningsselskapet Ibsenstiftelsen Doorstep Homeless Families Project Maytree Respite Services – grant cancelation Other Speech & Language UK Women and Girls Network Age UK Housing for Women Shannon Trust Other AKO Give Back donations AKO Matched Funding donations	£’000 4,827 2,575 2,369 1,974 1,574 592 558 494 401 158
	15,522
	£’000 1,096 216 10 (100)
	1,222
	£’000 111 101 96 96 96 385 260
	1,145
	46,563

Section MarkerFinancial Statements

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

6. Grants Payable (continued)

2022 Recipient Grants for the advancement of education Teach First Campaign for Female Education Ark Get Further Place2Be Social Finance Strømme Foundation Now Teach IntoUniversity Pratham UK Teach for India Education and Employers Lively Minds Street League Sandvika Rotary Club Christ’s Hospital Generating Genius Royal National Children’s Springboard Foundation Partnership for Change MM Foundation University of the Arts World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts Grants towards the wellbeing of young people Institutt for Spiseforstyrrelser OnSide Youth Zones Frontline Babyzone NSPCC Good Kitchen	£’000 1,500 1,212 500 500 500 422 430 375 300 300 285 200 200 150 119 100 100 100 91 81 70 38
	7,593
	£’000 807 600 250 200 50 8
	1,915

Financial StatementsSection Marker 49

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

6. Grants Payable (continued)

Grants for the advancement of art AKO Kunststiftelse CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark together with SKMU Sørlandets Kunstmuseum SKMU Sørlandets Kunstmuseum Camden Arts Centre Hampstead Theatre Nasjonalmuseet Oslo Roundhouse City & Guilds of London Art School Kettle’s Yard Grants to mitigate the effect of climate change CDP Worldwide ClientEarth European Climate Foundation Climate Arc World Resources Institute TNC UK Foundation The Big Give Trust Cool Earth Science Museum Local projects Fontenehus Norge Maytree Respite Services Røde Kors Kristiansand Vennesla Rotary Club Other Pets as Therapy Campaign Against Living Miserably Breaking Barriers FoodCycle The Access Project AKO Matched Funding donations Other AKO Give Back donations	£’000 10,607 910 775 300 125 123 50 50 10
	12,950
	£’000 3,750 2,500 2,394 476 369 258 105 100 50
	10,002
	£’000 580 150 68 4
	802
	£’000 128 101 97 97 77 451 385
	1,336
	34,598

Section MarkerFinancial Statements

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

7. Investments

*Group and Foundation* Carrying value at the start of the year Additions Disposals Gain on investments Carrying value at the end of the year Historic cost at the end of the year - Group Historic cost at the end of the year - Foundation Investments comprise *Group and Foundation* Interests in associated (Group)/subsidiary (Foundation) undertakings *Other investments* Investment funds Investment in AKO Fund Investment in AKO Global Fund Investment in AKO European Long-only Fund Investment in other investment funds Venture capital type investments Investment in money market and short dated fxed income funds Market value at the end of the year Total investments	2023 £’000 968,856 74,523 (44,600) 32,039 1,030,818 825,037 830,991 2023 £’000 1,303 £’000 214,080 213,865 27,964 13,721 165,373 394,512 1,029,515 1,030,818	2022 £’000 874,424 298,870 (106,037) (98,401)
		968,856
		795,114
		801,068
		2022 £’000 1,303
		£’000 193,043 179,678 23,812 13,877 200,921 356,222
		967,553
		968,856

Financial StatementsSection Marker 51

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

8. Subsidiary Undertakings

The Foundation owns or owned the whole of the issued ordinary share capital of the following subsidiary undertakings:

AKO Subsidiary 2020 Limited, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 12847959. AKO Subsidiary 2020 Limited was established by the Foundation and holds the investment in AKO Capital LLP which the group acquired on 1 December 2020 (see note 9 below).
AKO Investment Holdings Limited, a company registered in the British Virgin Island with company number 1814633. AKO Investment Holdings Limited was liquidated effective 10 March 2022.

A summary of the results of the AKO Subsidiary 2020 Limited as included in these consolidated results is shown below:

AKO Subsidiary2020 Limited Percentage owned by the Foundation *Financial information* Income Expenses Proft/(loss) Assets and liabilities at 31 December: Assets Liabilities Shareholders' funds	2023 100% £’000 105,443 3 105,440 £’000 49,913 5 49,908	2022 100% £’000 78,719 4
		78,715
		£’000 21,724 6
		21,718

9. Associated Undertaking

On 1 December 2020 an interest in AKO Capital LLP was donated to the Foundation and AKO Capital LLP became an associated undertaking of the Foundation. This interest in AKO Capital LLP is now held via AKO Subsidiary 2020 Limited and is included in the financial information in respect of AKO Subsidiary 2020 Limited set out in the table above.

Financial StatementsAKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023 Section Marker

10. Sensitivity to risks

Market risk

The Group is exposed to market risk through its investments in investment funds and venture capital type investments as the value of those investments is affected by movements in the underlying financial markets. The nature of these investments is such that changes in their value should not be directly related to these market movements. The impact on the statement of financial position of a 5% fall in the value of these investments would be a £31,750,000 fall in the assets of the Group.

Foreign exchange risk

Several of the Foundation’s investments and parts of the Foundation’s current assets and liabilities are denominated in foreign currencies. At 31 December 2023 the sensitivity of the profit for the financial year to a 2% movement in the exchange rate of the British Pound against the US Dollar, Euro and NOK was, respectively, £6,786,000, £4,000,000 and £4,416,000.

Liquidity risk

The investments in the AKO funds are redeemable at Net Asset Value on their dealing days with between one month’s and 90 days’ notice. The investments in the money market and short dated fixed income funds have daily liquidity. The investments in the other investment funds and venture capital type investments are generally not redeemable with distributions from these investments being dependent upon the realisation of the underlying assets within these funds and the decisions of their investment managers.

Credit risk

The credit risk relating to investments arises from the default of a counterparty, with a maximum exposure equal to the carrying amount of these investments. The trustees believe the credit risk is mitigated as:

all AKO funds are invested in liquid investments;
the money market and short dated fixed income funds utilised seek to maintain AAA ratings, which is the highest fund rating available;
cash is held with Handelsbanken plc (credit rating AA- (S&P)) or Santander UK plc (credit rating A1 (Moody’s) / A (S&P)); and
there are no amounts due to the Group that are either past due or impaired.

Financial StatementsSection Marker 53

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

11. Debtors

*Group* Accrued income Other debtors *The Foundation* Other debtors	2023 £’000 48,170 897 49,067 2023 £’000 897	2022 £’000 20,248 -
		20,248
		2022 £’000 -

12. Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

*Group* Accruals Grants payable *The Foundation* Accruals Grants payable	2023 £’000 28 22,295 22,323 2023 £’000 23 22,295 22,318	2022 £’000 27 17,890
		17,917
		2022 £’000 21 17,890
		17,911

13. Creditors: amounts falling due in more than one year

*Group and the Foundation*	2023	2022
	£’000	£’000
Grants payable	6,474	8,086

Financial StatementsAKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023 Section Marker

14. Contingent liabilities and commitments

At 31 December 2022 the Group and Foundation had contingent grant liabilities of NOK 7,000,000 (approximately £591,000) where grant agreements had been entered into, but the ultimate liability was dependent upon future conditions being met. These amounts were recognised as creditors in 2023 and therefore as of 31 December 2023 contingent grant liabilities were £Nil.

At the year end the Group and Foundation had unfunded commitments under the venture capital type investments and other investment funds of £15,475,000 (2022: £22,598,000). These amounts will be payable when called over the next 8 years and will be funded from unrestricted funds.

As part of the terms of the donation by DSHN Philanthropy LLP of an interest in AKO Capital LLP to the Foundation, as referenced in note 9 above, the Foundation gave DSHN Philanthropy LLP and its individual Members an indemnity in respect of the donation.

15. Analysis of group net assets between funds

*2023* Investments Net current assets less longer-term creditors Net assets at the end of the year *2022* Investments Net current assets less longer-term creditors Net assets at the end of the year	Fair Value Reserve £’000 205,781 - 205,781 Fair Value Reserve £’000 173,742 - 173,742	Income Funds £’000 825,037 147,253 972,290 Income Funds £’000 795,114 105,440 900,554	Total Fund £’000 1,030,818 147,253
			1,178,071
			Total Fund £’000 968,856 105,440
			1,074,296

Financial StatementsSection Marker 55

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

16. Movements in funds

Group

*Group*
General funds Income funds at start of the year Incoming resources Outgoing resources Foreign exchange gain/(loss) Realised gain/(loss) on investments Tax payable Income funds at the end of the year Revaluation reserve at start of year Net unrealised gain/(loss) on investments Revaluation reserve at the end of year Total funds at the end of year *The Foundation* General funds Income funds at start of the year Incoming resources Outgoing resources Foreign exchange gain/(loss) Realised gain/(loss) on investments Tax payable Income funds at the end of the year Revaluation reserve at start of year Net unrealised gain/(loss) on investments Revaluation reserve at the end of year Total funds at the end of year	2023 £’000 900,554 117,443 (46,747) (1,194) 2,234 - 972,290 173,742 32,039 205,781 1,178,071 2023 £’000 886,092 89,250 (46,744) (1,194) 2,234 - 929,638 167,789 32,039 199,828 1,129,466	2022 £’000 799,519 79,111 (34,800) (234) 56,958 -
		900,554
		272,143 (98,401)
		173,742
		1,074,296
		2022 £’000 622,164 241,999 (34,795) (234) 56,958 -
		886,092
		266,189 (98,400)
		167,789
		1,053,881

Financial StatementsAKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023 Section Marker

17. Related party transactions

The Foundation has taken advantage of the exemption available under Section 33 of FRS 102 not to disclose transactions with its wholly owned subsidiary undertakings.

David Woodburn, a trustee, is a partner in AKO Capital LLP which is the investment manager of the AKO funds in which assets from the Foundation are invested. The investment by the Foundation is in the Management Shares of these AKO funds and these shares are non-fee paying. Therefore, AKO Capital LLP receives no benefit from these investments by the Foundation.

During 2023 AKO Capital Management Limited, a company which is part of the AKO Capital group, made donations of £4,000 (2022: £4,000) to the Foundation.

In the normal course of its charitable granting there may be instances where the Foundation makes donations to charities with common trustees with the Foundation. Although in these instances the relevant Foundation trustee is part of a collective of non-related trustees and is normally not considered to be in a significant position of influence over those other charities disclosure of such situations is included below:

• No such in 2023 or 2022.

Details of grants made to such entities are included in note 6 and any amounts payable at the year-end are included in the grants payable disclosed in notes 12 and 13.

Financial StatementsSection Marker 57

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023

==> picture [596 x 842] intentionally omitted <==

----- Start of picture text -----
AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023 Section Marker 58
----- End of picture text -----

AKO Foundation Report and Financial Statements 2023 Section Marker 59

Foundation www.akofoundation.or

2023-12-31-accounts

AKO Foundation

AKO Foundation

Trustees

Auditor

Bankers

Registered Office

About the AKO Foundation

Education

Developing Countries

Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED)

Educate Girls

Educate Girls

Global Schools Forum

Little Sun Foundation

Lively Minds

MM Foundation

Partnership for Change

Social Finance

AKO Foundation support since 2021

Pratham

Strømme Foundation

Educational work in Uganda

Educational work in West Africa

SAMVAD programme

Strømme Foundation

Teach for India

World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts

Brightside

Brilliant Club

Generating Genius

IntoUniversity

Ark

AKO Foundation support since 2015

Get Further

ImpactEd

London School of Economics

Place2Be

Royal National Children’s Springboard Foundation

Now Teach

Teach First

Careers Leaders

Leading Together

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Work experience

University of the Arts

Wellbeing of young people

Babyzone

Bite Back 2030

Frontline

Institutt for Spiseforstyrrelser

AKO Foundation support since 2022

OnSide Youth Zones

Arts

AKO Kunststiftelse

British Museum

CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art Denmark

The Courtauld Institute of Art

Courtauld Institute

Kilden

Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

National Portrait Gallery

Kunstsilo (formerly SKMU Sørlandets Kunstmuseum)

Climate

Coal to-Clean

ClientEarth

Foundation for International Law for the Environment

Global Methane Hub

Energy Foundation China

European Climate Foundation

Carbon Disclosure

CDP

Climate Arc

Natural Solutions

Basecamp Explorer Foundation

Cool Earth

Conservation International

Global Greengrants Fund

Live Ocean

The Nature Conservancy