Looking Back at 2023

ANNUAL REVIEW

Looking Back at 2023

Letter from the Chair & CEO

In 2023 we committed DKK 1,345 million to learning through play around the world.

Thomas Kirk Kristiansen Chair, the LEGO Foundation

Sidsel Marie Kristensen CEO, the LEGO Foundation

But the power of play to help children build skills, resilience, and wellbeing, even in tough circumstances gives us incredible hope.

In 2023 we committed DKK 1,345 million to learning through play worldwide. We’re particularly proud of our commitment of 498 million DKK to learning through play in humanitarian settings. From providing aid to children in Mexico post-hurricane to supporting refugee and displaced children in East Africa, we’re working towards positive change.

In this year’s Annual Review, we share a glimpse of this work in practice.

We see how play is brightening the lives of even the littlest ones in Denmark, with joyful spaces in daycares and kindergartens; how it’s empowering parents and teachers worldwide to foster children’s learning, and its role in nurturing children’s wellbeing. We see how the passion and dedication of the amazing partners we are working with in the local communities around the world make a difference for children even in the most challenging environments, and we want to celebrate those partners who are improving the lives of our

We also celebrate our Play for All Accelerator, this programme is helping organizations use play to address challenges faced by neurodivergent children and their families.

Looking ahead, we will continue our work on humanitarian efforts and children’s wellbeing.

This year’s stories are a reminder of the joy children find in physical classrooms, kindergartens, or spaces where they can learn and play together.

We hope these stories offer hope and inspiration. We have hope and here’s to the power of play!

Thomas Kirk Kristiansen and Sidsel Marie Kristensen

Our Roots and Our Role

We give children the opportunity to learn through play and become creative, engaged, lifelong learners who thrive.

The LEGO Foundation is a Danish corporate foundation set up in 1986 by the founders of the LEGO Group, the Kirk Kristiansen family, to support the continued development and existence of the companies within the LEGO Group. We own 25% of the LEGO Group, meaning a portion of the profit dividend of the company goes to funding the LEGO Foundation’s partnerships, activities and research.

We share a mission with the LEGO Group too: to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow.

We’re here, like all Danish corporate foundations, to make society stronger. We do this by focusing on children’s learning and development. Our aim is to give all children the chance to learn through play.

Today, there are still millions of children around the world who don’t get the chance to learn through

We’re here to

help children:

• become more engaged learners

• develop holistic skills such as creativity and problem solving

• thrive in an everchanging world.

We do it by working with:

• non-government organisations

• not-for-profit organisations

• governments

• research organisations

• members of the LEGO ecosystem, such as Ole Kirk’s Fond and the LEGO Group.

play. This isn’t about not having LEGO® bricks at home. It’s about schools that have always taught with memorisation. Or girls who miss out on school. Busy parents who need support to guide children as they play. For all these reasons and more, we collaborate with partners to develop playful teacher training programmes for early years education. And we invest in research that shows playful learning works – making it even easier for us to advocate it.

We couldn’t do it without our people

We are 81 LEGO Foundation colleagues based in Denmark, Mexico, South Africa, Ukraine and the USA. Our colleagues have 22 different nationalities and share one passion: to make children’s lives better through play.

In 2023 we

... committed 62 grants to 52 partners with a total value of DKK 1,345 million to give children across the world opportunities to play and learn – at home, at school, or in their communities.

... reached millions of children directly through programmes funded by the LEGO Foundation. And we reached millions more indirectly through media.

... supported and partnered with 102 organisations across the world to help children reach their full potential through play.

Check out our charter

Funding Flow

Learning Through Play

Play is at our core. ‘LEGO’ is an abbreviation of two Danish words, LEG GODT, meaning “play well”. It’s our shared ideal with the LEGO Group, that all children can benefit from play.

When a child is guided by a parent, teacher, or other adult who knows how to put learning through play into practice, anything is possible.

By playing well, children flex and find their way.

Instead of only relying on noting down rigid facts and figures, they hone ways of thinking, creating, working together and testing ideas. All holistic skills they’ll need to thrive today - and lay the foundations for a happier, healthier life tomorrow.

Play is something every child, everywhere in the world, can do – whether they’re opening a box of LEGO® bricks or turning a simple cardboard box into a time machine. We’re here to help children learn through play using any materials that are meaningful to them. Because meaningful play fuels curiosity, sparks creativity and inspires a lifelong love of learning.

When a child is guided by a parent, teacher, or other adult who knows how to put learning through play into practice, anything is possible.

Over decades, we’ve discovered so much about the benefits of play for children everywhere. Today we have an extensive body of research and experience that proves play’s power to transform children’s lives. It’s what motivates our work every day.

More reasons to play

TOTAL NR. OF NEW GRANTS COMMITTED IN 2023

TOTAL NR. OF ACTIVE GRANTS

TOTAL VALUE OF NEW GRANTS COMMITTED IN 2023

2023 Grant Highlights

All 62 grants committed in 2023 are important. We asked our colleagues what made 2023 great. Here are their highlights: Humanitarian

BRINGING EDUCATION AND LEARNING THROUGH PLAY…

to children, caregivers and teachers in emergencies, refugee camps and host communities to improve wellbeing and teaching.

WHERE

Ethiopia, Kenya, Jordan, Lebanon, Mexico, Sierra Leone, Syria, Türkiye, Uganda and Ukraine

GRANTS

12 grants totalling DKK 498 million

PARTNERS

International Rescue Committee, Global Partnership for Education, The LEGO Group Emergency Relief Fund, Grand Challenges Canada, Save the Children, Olena Zelenska Foundation, UNICEF, Right to Play, Harvard University, Fundación Mexicana de Apoyo Infantil.

Play for All Accelerator

ACCELERATING INNOVATION TO INCLUDE EVERYONE…

and support neurodivergent children to thrive by recognising their strengths and nurturing their skills.

WHERE

Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Dubai/UAE, India, Indonesia, Malawi, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, USA, Vietnam and across Sub-Saharan Africa

GRANTS

5 grants totalling DKK 80 million

PARTNERS

Kokoro Kids, Little Journey, Mom’s Belief, onebillion, Social Cipher

Rwanda and Sierra Leone Early Childhood Education Outcomes Fund

BOOSTING EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT... for children in rural, underserved areas through early childhood centres. Each one is supported by government subsidies, private funders and our own outcomes funding.

WHERE

Rwanda and Sierra Leone

GRANT

2 grants totalling DKK 136 million

PARTNER

Education Outcomes Fund

Creating Playful Spaces in Museums

BRINGING LEARNING THROUGH PLAY...

…to the 16 museums that make up the National Museum of Denmark over the next three years. Each one is about to become a laboratory – conducting playful experiments for children and grown-ups to try.

WHERE

Denmark

GRANT

DKK 25 million

PARTNER

Danish National Museum

Country Highlight

Children can learn through play no matter where in the world they are.

With the help of our partners, we brought learning through play to millions of children, caregivers and teachers in classrooms, homes and communities across Denmark, Mexico and South Africa. Here’s how.

Denmark

We supported the social and emotional development of infants by creating a toolbox for home health visitors.

We funded playful spaces in Danish museums, kindergartens and daycare centres. And our partners trained teachers to use learning through play in primary schools.

South Africa

We’re still helping the Department of Basic Education collect information about early childhood centres across the country. The data improves how they plan and resource early childhood development, so they can do even more to support young children.

Mexico

We worked with partners to introduce teacher training courses on learning through play to the national teacher development curriculum.

And we worked with Save the Children to support children whose homes and schools were destroyed by Hurricane Otis – creating child-friendly spaces for children to come together, create and play.

Making a Lasting Impact

It is wonderful to keep helping our partners get children into physical classrooms, kindergartens and spaces where they can learn and play together.

This year’s stories are also a great reminder of the joy children feel when they do. We hope you’ll be as inspired as us when you read them.

Co-creating learning through play environments with children

Creating kindergartens with learning through play built in

GRANT

DKK 5 million

PARTNER

Dansk Center for Undervisningsmiljø (DCUM)

Danish Centre for Educational Environment

Kindergartens are meant to be playful. But back in 2020, a survey from the Danish Evaluation Institute showed that only a quarter of Danish daycare centres were designed for quality play.

The DCUM wanted to turn those results around by giving children a say in their play, and helping kindergartens build play spaces that work for children and teachers alike.

To do it, teachers were curious and open and listened to children. Together with the children they investigated the possibilities – should the walls be painted? What kind of materials and remedies would upgrade the play area? They

welcomed children’s ideas. Then they worked with the children to create the perfect places to learn and play.

DCUM developed the approach with 10 kindergartens initially to create inspirational material and a design guide for all daycare centres to try. Then they piloted it again with six more. Each group completed a self-evaluation to measure the difference.

The teachers agreed: children were more joyful and engaged when pedagogues gave them the agency to co-create their play areas.

Now DCUM is sharing material in every municipality in Denmark.

Understanding the impact of LEGO Braille Bricks on learners with significant visual impairment

Building holistic skills with LEGO® Braille Bricks

GRANT

DKK 3 million

PARTNER

University of Edinburgh

Every child should have the chance to learn through play. Thanks to LEGO® Braille Bricks, visual impairment is no barrier.

In 2020 we launched LEGO Braille Bricks in 20 countries. And we partnered with researchers at the University of Edinburgh to measure the results. In 2023, the researchers surveyed over 500 experienced teachers in Europe, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA. They wanted to know how teachers used the bricks with blind, visually impaired, and sighted children. We’ll publish the full report in 2024, but here are a few highlights:

• 76% of practitioners agreed that LEGO Braille Bricks support children’s creative skills.

• 75% of practitioners agreed that LEGO Braille Bricks support children’s cognitive skills.

• 78% of practitioners perceived LEGO Braille Bricks as improving children’s early literacy skills.

• 47% of the children agreed that using LEGO Braille Bricks had enhanced their emotional skills.

Teachers told us how much the LEGO Braille Bricks brought students together. Sighted children enjoyed learning braille and their blind or visually impaired playmates learned with them as equals. It’s an example of inclusive learning at its best.

PlayMatters: Sparking lifelong learning

Playful learning especially in crisis

GRANT

DKK 628 million

PARTNER

PlayMatters*

800,000 children under the age of 12 live in refugee and host communities in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda.

But how can children cope when they are a long way from home? Learn during conflict and crisis where classes are over 100 students? Or cope with being separated from friends and family?

Playful teachers, safe schools and supportive communities make a huge difference.

PlayMatters has been delivering all three since 2020. It focuses on strengthening children’s resilience and wellbeing and helping them develop holistic skills with play.

In 2023, they brought learning through play to the active crisis in Ethiopia. And found that it can help children feel a sense of normalcy, have better social connections, and create healthy bonds with teachers.

PlayMatters also used Six Bricks to help teachers with very large class sizes deliver better lessons (29,730 sets were shared to schools in Uganda alone in 2023). And in Tanzania learning through play was expanded to even more refugee schools, while enrolment drives and back-toschool campaigns kept children in class.

PlayMatters is a consortium led by the International Rescue Committee. It includes Plan International, War Child Holland, Innovations for Poverty Action and the Behavioural Insights Team.

“Learning through play has improved interaction with my learners”

Mohammed, a teacher in Ethiopia

Putting play at the heart of Vietnam’s new curriculum

GRANT

DKK 25 million

PARTNER

VVOB in Vietnam

In 2018, Vietnam’s Ministry of Education launched a new competency-based school curriculum. By swapping rote learning for applied learning and discovery, the change would set up children to adapt and thrive. But it called for a new way of teaching. And a new way of thinking from parents who thought their children needed ‘traditional’ learning to get high grades. That’s where VVOB’s Play-based Learning Activities for Young Learners project came in.

In 2023, VVOB trained 30,000 primary teachers with an e-course backed by the Ministry of Education and Training. And they hosted Play Days to help over 4,400 parents see the power of learning through play for themselves.

Today teachers, families and children feel a difference. Lessons are more joyful. Students are more engaged. And families who try playful learning at home say they feel more connected, too.