Statement by the Chair

WE ARE A PIECE OF THE JIGSAW THAT MAKES IDEAS POSSIBLE

The Persson family is keen to contribute to change in society. Non-profit organisations and the research community work tirelessly to develop the world into a better place – and philanthropy enables this work to step up a gear.

The Erling-Persson Foundation has its origin in the Persson family’s interest in entrepreneurship and how entrepreneurship can contribute to social change. Supporting research, education and initiatives for children and young people via the Foundation is a further way to try to influence society in a positive direction. The Foundation’s work also gives us as a family an opportunity to come together in our community engagement and in our firm belief that knowledge is one of our most important shared resources.

The Foundation’s purpose provides a framework for its activities, but how these are achieved is more open. This means that very different types of activities can be considered for support. There is also an acceptance that the effects or actual end results of a project idea can rarely be entirely controlled. Only by trying and exploring things can the boundaries of our knowledge be shifted.

The projects we support may tackle problems that have arisen suddenly, test a new activity or methodically investigate a particular issue. There is therefore great flexibility concerning what ideas can be implemented and how, and with what degree of risk. Short decision paths and the ability to reprioritise in response to events in the world around us also mean that the Foundation can act quickly when required. We see philanthropy as complementing public efforts, enabling society to step up a gear.

No one has a single solution to all society’s challenges and problems. Often we also need more than one idea and more than one approach to sort out a problem. That is why we constantly need a variety of initiatives, with multiple people putting ideas into practice. As a Foundation we see ourselves as one piece of the jigsaw that makes ideas possible. Looking at the world responsively and inquisitively, and seeing more than one perspective, are therefore essential if the Foundation is to be able to contribute funding.

The Persson family’s community engagement is reflected in the Foundation’s focus areas. During the pandemic the importance of efforts in these areas has become even clearer. We have been able to see almost in real time how important research and development are for society’s ability to come up with new solutions to problems, but also how we need to pool our strengths and work together to get there. Studies of the importance of entrepreneurship for society have received confirmation from many places. Without thriving businesses, the expansion of testing capacity and the production of vaccines, diagnostics and drugs would have been an even greater challenge.

Turning to children and young people, we have seen that those who were most vulnerable at the outset were also those who felt the consequences of the pandemic most. Different groups of young people are in very different positions when it comes to accessing remote learning, for example. We already know that good schooling is one of the strongest protective factors for a young person’s ability to engage in further training or education, get a job and participate in society. Through the Foundation’s activities we hope to contribute to giving more young people a good start in life.

In the just over 20 years since the Foundation was established we have had the benefit of following many activities that through their good results are contributing to increasing our collective knowledge. Support for education that promotes the area of entrepre-

neurship has coincided in time with an expansion of how entrepreneurship is viewed. Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship and Stockholm School of Economics are two organisations that have contributed to this development with support from the Foundation.

The existence of fashion opens up many opportunities for entrepreneurship, but fashion also reflects society in a broader perspective. Fashion as a social phenomenon is studied at Stockholm University, where Fashion Studies was established as an academic subject 15 years ago with the support of the Foundation.

The Foundation’s engagement for children and young people is partly about enabling individual youngsters to find their place in society, and partly about providing society with knowledge about young people’s needs in a changing world. Fryshuset is an organisation we have been following for quite some time; through its many activities it has helped innumerable young people to believe in themselves and find their path. Along the way we have gained valuable insights – for example, into how young people are affected by growing up as outsiders.

In the area of science and research the Foundation has been involved in many important matters. One core area right from the start has been research into diabetes, but various other areas are also followed with great interest. How can cancer treatment be personalised, for example, and what effects do environment and lifestyle have on health? Modern research takes place in an international arena. By supporting Swedish research we want to contribute both to increasing knowledge and to strengthening Swedish competitiveness.

Initiatives that received support from the Foundation in 2021 represent both methodical research aimed at tackling acute problems that have arisen and investigations testing out new ways of responding to a need.

The project ‘Futureproofing against COVID19’ shows how methodical research, in this case into RNA virus, laid a foundation on which researchers were quickly able to build when the pandemic caused by the SARSCoV2 virus suddenly arose.

The Scouts’ inclusive activities are wellproven in Sweden, yet still more or less unknown in certain areas. ‘Scouting for all’ is a project trying new ways to reach new groups of young people, using different approaches to build further on the old values and to create new values.

With an everincreasing flow of information around us, the importance of access to reliable data and being critical of sources is often mentioned. This has been made particularly clear by the ‘infodemic’ that followed in the wake of the pandemic. The Gapminder Foundation represents a counterbalance, providing factbased perspectives on the world around us through clearly illustrated qualityassured data. For a number of years Gapminder, supported by the ErlingPersson Foundation among others, has made knowledge freely available to us all through its web tools.

In this annual review the individuals behind these projects and various others tell us more about what they are working on and what drives them.

At the Foundation we endeavour to be a small part of the journey that, through the tireless work of nonprofit organisations and the research community, can make our world a better place.

At the time of writing the world is being shaken by the war in Ukraine, and the need to help people fleeing the war is increasing every day. As an initial step, in March the Foundation donated SEK 150 million in humanitarian aid, of which SEK 75 million went to Save the Children and SEK 75 million to the Red Cross. Many organisations are involved in the humanitarian relief efforts in this very difficult situation. We chose Save the Children and the Red Cross because their efforts focus on children and on medical efforts, which are two of the Foundation’s focus areas.

Stefan Persson, Chair of the Board

“During the pandemic the importance of initiatives became particularly clear. We saw almost in real time how important research and development are for society’s ability to come up with new solutions to problems – but also how we need to pool our strengths and work together to get there.”