Development Co‑operation Profiles: LEGO Foundation
Table of contents
The LEGO Foundation is a Danish corporate foundation established in 1986 by the Kirk Kristiansen family.
The LEGO Foundation works with partners around the world to support children’s needs and champion the dignity of childhood. The LEGO Foundation exists to build the conditions - and create the space - for every child, everywhere, to thrive and grow.
This profile presents verified data on development assistance allocations. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.
The LEGO Foundation provided USD 183.2 million for development in 2024 through its cross-border funding. Compared to 2023, this amount represents an increase of 1.8% in real terms. Grants represented 100% of the LEGO Foundation’s gross disbursements.
The LEGO Foundation provided all of its development finance bilaterally in 2024, while 11.9% was channelled through multilateral organisations (earmarked contributions).
In 2024, the LEGO Foundation channelled its bilateral development finance mostly through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) (USD 129.9 million), multilateral organisations (USD 21.8 million) and universities, research institutes or think tanks (USD 17.5 million).
In 2024, the LEGO Foundation provided USD 21.8 million to the multilateral system, all of which represented non-core contributions earmarked for a specific country, region, theme or purpose. 99% of total development finance was channelled through the World Bank, United Nations (UN) funds and programmes and other UN organisations.
The UN system received USD 11.5 million from the LEGO Foundation in 2024. The most significant UN recipients were the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) (USD 7 million), other UN agencies or funds (USD 2.8 million) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) (USD 1.7 million).
In 2024, civil society organisations (CSOs) received USD 129.9 million of the LEGO Foundation’s gross bilateral finance, of which 18.8% was directed to developing country-based CSOs. Overall, 70.9% of total bilateral development finance was earmarked to specific projects or programmes. From 2023 to 2024, the combined core and earmarked contributions for CSOs increased as a share of bilateral philanthropic development finance, from 67.9% to 70.9%.
Learn more about the DAC Recommendation on Enabling Civil Society in Development Co-operation and Humanitarian Aid.
In 2024, the LEGO Foundation’s development finance was primarily focused on Africa and Asia (excluding the Middle East). USD 104.8 million was allocated to Africa and USD 20.4 million to Asia (excluding the Middle East), accounting respectively for 57.2% and 11.2% of gross bilateral development finance. A total of USD 25 million (13.6%) was unallocated by region, mainly including multi-regional programmes and research grants.
In 2024, 61.4% of gross development finance went to the top 10 recipients, most notably South Africa (10%), Uganda (8.4%), and Sierra Leone (8.2%).
Least developed countries (LDCs) and other low-income countries (LICs) received respectively USD 74.7 million (40.8%) and USD 500 thousand (0.2%) of the LEGO Foundation’s gross disbursements in 2024. The LEGO Foundation allocated the highest share (40.8%) of its bilateral development finance to LDCs in 2024, followed by upper middle-income countries (23.9%), noting that USD 25 million (13.6%) was unallocated by income group.
LEGO Foundation allocated USD 44 million of its development finance to land-locked developing countries in 2024, and USD 200 thousand to small island developing states (SIDS) in 2024. Its main SIDS recipient was Jamaica.
In 2024, the LEGO Foundation provided USD 6.4 million of gross development finance to Ukraine to respond to the impacts of Russia’s full-scale invasion, a 100.8% increase from 2023 in real terms. USD 2.7 million of the amount was humanitarian assistance in 2024, the same level as in 2023.
Support to contexts with high and extreme fragility reached USD 96.4 million in 2024, representing 52.6% of the LEGO Foundation’s bilateral development finance. Of this, contexts with extremely fragility received a sum of USD 4.1 million.
Learn more about the OECD States of Fragility platform.
In 2024, the largest allocations (52.3% of bilateral contributions) by the LEGO Foundation went to social infrastructure and services, with a strong focus on support to education (USD 57.2 million). The second largest sector was humanitarian assistance (USD 52 million), focusing on emergency response (USD 52 million).
Access the full list of providers at this link: Development Co-operation Profiles.
Official website: https://learningthroughplay.com.
The methodological notes provide further details on the definitions and statistical methodologies applied, including core and earmarked contributions to multilateral organisations, channels of delivery, bilateral unspecified/unallocated/allocable development finance, the gender equality policy marker, and the environment markers.
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