The New CEO of the LEGO Foundation on Helping Vulnerable Children in Times of Crisis
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Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, CEO, the lego foundation
Over the past few years, institutions have cracked under multiple strains, including disasters that have disrupted the education of a full 90% of the world’s children and displaced legions more. But through it all, the LEGO Foundation has rarely missed a chance to help vulnerable children.
During the COVID pandemic, the foundation has balanced a strategic commitment to the power of play with clear-eyed investments in health and safety measures, totaling more than $200 million. It has also stepped up in crisis situations. When a major earthquake rocked Haiti last fall, the foundation and LEGO’s owners committed $16 million in support. And when war broke out in Ukraine, it came through again, to the tune of $16.5 million.
Last September, amid all the upheaval, the LEGO Foundation brought on a new leader, Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen. A lawyer by training, Albrectsen describes herself on Twitter as a mom, wife, friend, change-maker, advocate for learning through play — and optimist.
Albrectsen wasn’t new to LEGO. She’d been serving on the foundation’s board for about a year. Prior to that, she’d built a 30-year career working on international development in leadership roles with organizations like the global NGO Plan International, the Danish government and the United Nations, including a stretch as U.N. assistant secretary general and deputy executive director of the United Nations Population Fund.
Albrectsen recently shared her thoughts with IP on leading a foundation at such an important juncture, and how bringing a sense of optimism and a background on the other side of the funding table will help her be an effective advocate for some of the world’s most vulnerable children.
Building blocks of resiliency
Established in 1986, the LEGO Foundation has an interesting structure. It owns 25% of the LEGO Group, known for producing the colorful building bricks that have sparked children’s imaginations for more than six decades. Co-owner KIRKBI, the founding family’s private holding and investment company, owns the remaining 75%.
The name LEGO derives from two Danish words, “leg godt,” which taken together mean “play well.” Both the company and foundation firmly believe in the power of play.
For four generations, the company’s founding family has remained actively involved in the foundation’s work. Thomas Kirk Kristiansen has chaired the board since 2016, when he succeeded his father as deputy chairman of the company’s board.
Big picture, the Denmark-based foundation supports global research and initiatives for early childhood and K-12 education, centered on the idea and ideals of the “power of play,” which data and science have shown to build the cognitive, social, emotional, creative and physical skills that build resiliency in kids, whatever the future holds. At the same time, the grantmaker steps up when crisis situations upend children’s lives.
Foundation activity has kept pace with these extraordinary times. Levels have risen from roughly $57 million in 2016 to $214 million in 2020.
Back to the future
Albrectsen said her background working across global organizations has given her a “delight in breaking down silos and helping diverse stakeholders find common ground.”
She also highlighted two other traits she brings to her work. First, the mindset that no one organization can do it all. “There’s no single organization that can do anything on its own without getting the usual suspects in the room to solve wicked problems,” she said. Instead, she’s come to appreciate using “the power of a big brand to connect and convene,” then push through a particular agenda.
Second is a desire to help leverage the voice LEGO has found “slowly over the last five years” to build an advocacy and influencing model. There are “lots of solutions looking for money,” she said, but “we see ourselves as a catalyst” that can help apply “deep political will to finding new solutions to problems.”
Three priorities
When LEGO announced Albrectsen’s appointment six months ago, her responsibilities were defined as overseeing three things: the foundation’s research activities, strategic partnerships and new social ventures.
She gives each competing priority equal footing, saying, “We stand on three legs.” Albrectsen feels the foundation is known for all three alike, and that taken together, they can be transformative, rebuilding systems like those strained by COVID in more inclusive ways.
That often means building on established relationships, she explained, using influence and power to apply muscle, expertise, knowledge, voice and investments — then fully leveraging the brand as partners.
The approach is evident in its support for the children of Ukraine, which builds on a 13-year teacher training partnership in 15,000 schools all over the country. When war broke out, the foundation joined forces on funding with the LEGO Group and Ole Kirk’s Fond, another independent Danish foundation created by the family owners; its sudden-onset emergency funding capability allows it to respond “super-quick” in crisis situations.
Tried-and-true partners received commitments of approximately $16.5 million for immediate needs and mental health supports: UNICEF, Save the Children, and the Danish Red Cross. The backing came with a high degree of built-in trust. Partners are free to change tactics as needs evolve.
Commitment to education
Despite the frequent emergence of new, urgent needs in recent years, the foundation has sustained its commitment to its primary work around Sustainable Development Goal 4, which sees a quality education as the best basis of escaping poverty and gaining socioeconomic ground. The same holds true for its partnerships. It’s a leading supporter of Education Cannot Wait, the U.N.’s global fund for delivering quality education to children in crisis situations, and it recently committed another $5 million to Global Fund for Children to relieve COVID disruption.
Asked to identify a concrete path to restabilizing global education, Albrectsen credited the foresight of U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres for making the topic of this year’s U.N. General Assembly summit all about transforming education.
LEGO is working to make the opportunity “something valuable and special,” she said. “Imagine if we could get more heads of state involved in early child development.”
She also pointed to other “spots of optimism,” like the Global Partnership for Education (GPE)’s successful third replenishment round, which raised donor pledges totaling $2.8 billion. “We in philanthropy can match that,” she said, by finding new ways to back up government investments with private capital.
The other side of the table
Foundation Chair Thomas Kirk Kristiansen said the foundation is actively looking for new collaborations and transformational ideas to help children. One entry point is a $143 million global competition that calls attention to an “early child development emergency” caused by COVID and global disruption.
Asked what advice she’d give to potential partners, Albrectsen said the foundation’s looking for innovation. But they’re also interested in practicality and a willingness to try new things — and ideas that “piggyback on the true and tested.” The deadline for registered applicants is May 17.
The response has been robust. Nearly 2,000 applicants have registered, and Albrectsen said that more than 120 countries heave signed on “to do something really significant.”
“We really do believe in partnerships,” she said. “Philanthropy is incredibly siloed. To really make a difference for birth to six-year-olds, we have to think about the whole child — and the more whole, the more excited we’ll be.”
The years Albrectsen spent sitting on the other side of the table resulted in great empathy for the work going into each entry, and an appreciation of the importance of lifting up the best proposals. “We feel incredibly responsible for 2,000 efforts to submit.”
That includes sharing good ideas across philanthropy. “If you’re very close to being a winner, how do you want to make sure that some of the best proposals get something out of this?” Using Lever for Change for the competition is one answer, she said, citing its capacity to share ideas across their networks of philanthropists, even if they’re not a fit for LEGO.
How the light gets in
Change isn’t easy for any organization, yet the LEGO Foundation has demonstrated real agility in a time of historic change. We asked Albrectsen, as its leader, how she’s helped the organization, and especially its team members, stay grounded. That’s where the optimism comes in.
“Somebody coined a saying about being stubbornly optimistic even in the face of the most outrageous happenings. Leonard Cohen said that is how the light gets in. There is something about always holding on to the opportunities that come with crisis. To never miss an opportunity to do something good.”
Despite all the downsides of COVID, “some good has come of it,” Albrectsen says. She noted that the “parent cohort in the world has never been larger than in the past two years.” Locked-down parents walked a mile in teachers’ shoes, and developed both an understanding of and appreciation for the challenges of the learning process.
“We’ve got to constantly be looking for opportunities,” she said, “and use power and privilege to get closer to decision-makers.”
The lyrics of the Leonard Cohen song she mentioned echo that hopeful take on rebuilding: “Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack… in everything. That is how the light gets in.”
