IKEA Holiday Gifts Support Global UNICEF and Save the Children Educational Programs

This holiday season, the softest, sweetest and cuddliest IKEA soft toys--amazingly priced--are available at IKEA Tempe. These soft toys range in price from $0.49 to only $19.99. With each purchase, between Nov. 1 and Dec. 24, approximately $1.47 ($1 Euro dollar) will go to IKEA’s partners UNICEF and Save the Children’s educational programs.

Proceeds from the IKEA Soft Toys campaign have or will benefit projects in more than 30 countries including India, Uganda, China and many others.

Since the start of the Soft Toy program in 2003, IKEA has raised over $22 million dollars ($16.7 Euros) to help improve the lives of millions of children in Asia, Africa and Central and Eastern Europe.

This year’s campaign will enable UNICEF and Save the Children to extend or start up new projects in nine countries, as well as finance ongoing projects. Donations focus on improving children’s educational needs which includes books and good school facilities.

One Euro dollar ($1.47 American dollars) is enough to provide five children with school books for one year. It’s a program with a big heart; one that makes it possible to join efforts to ensure all children have access to education. This program helps to build the knowledge necessary to combat disease and eradicate poverty and hunger for millions of children around the world.

Last year, the IKEA U.S. stores helped lead the IKEA global effort with the second highest soft toy sales. The result was almost $500,000. These funds will go a long way toward helping children reach their full potential.

"The IKEA Soft Toy promotion will provide valuable resources to help us reach the world’s most vulnerable children with life-changing opportunities,” said Charlie MacCormack, President and CEO of Save the Children. “This program can help us ensure that children in marginalized and remote communities have access to education and are able to learn.”

“Continuing a long tradition of leadership as a socially responsible company, IKEA, through its soft toy initiative is helping UNICEF to ensure that children can attend school in a safe and protective environment,” said Caryl M. Stern, President and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. “A quality environment is a vital element in helping us in our goal of reducing the number of children dying from preventable causes from 24,000 a day to zero.”

This year also marks the 21st Anniversary for IKEA and the UNICEF holiday greeting card sales partnership. When you purchase UNICEF holiday cards at any IKEA U.S. store, 100 percent of the proceeds from the sales of the cards go directly to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, with IKEA donating an additional $1 per pack sold. The cards come in boxed choices, from 10 up to 20 cards per box and range in price from $10 to $20. IKEA customers have helped to generate over $3 million in support of UNICEF’s life-saving programs through greeting card purchases since the partnership began in 1988.