Who we are

Background

Nordea-fonden was established in 1989 by Sparekassen SDS, a savings bank, when it became a limited company.

As a commercial foundation, Nordea-fonden is the third largest shareholder in the international bank Nordea Abp (publ), following Sampooyi, the Finnish insurance company. 

Although the foundation shares its name and history with the bank, the foundation is an independent and philantrophic foundation. 

How we work

Supporting good living in Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, Nordea-fonden's strategic approach to its four core programmes is engaging, focused and knowledge-based. We give priority to activities of high quality that actively involve many people.

As an independent, private, philanthropic foundation, we are uniquely positioned to take risks on promising ideas that are not yet proven, to act with agility when time-sensitive opportunities for impact emerge and to make commitments to long-term processes of change.

Our core values

• COMMITMENT– creates possibilities
• RESPECT – connects people
• ETHICAL CONDUCT – lays a foundation for trust

Ethical conduct in everything we do and fund

Nordea-fonden and Nordea Bank-fonden aim for ethical conduct in everything we do and are involved in. Ethical conduct is one of our three values and the basis of the public trust in our work and management of the foundations’ funds.

In order to promote and safeguard this core value we have established two whistle-blower programmes: one for issues pertaining to the foundations and one for issues pertaining to the grant recipients.

Read more about our ethical guidelines for investments - ESG - and our whistle-blower programmes.

Sustainability – ESG 

The objective of Nordea-fonden is that our actions are based on the foundation’s values and contribute to increased sustainability. To ensure this, we use the management tool ESG, which is short for Environmental, Social and Governance.  

E is about showing environmental and climate responsibility in the foundation’s choices and decisions. 

S stands for social responsibility – i.e. that everyone’s voice is heard and everyone has the opportunity to participate on equal terms. 

G stands for governance responsibility – i.e. showing transparency and running the foundation in an ethically and financially sound manner. 

The foundation is incorporating ESG in its activities at three levels: 

1. Investments – we invest our assets based on ethical guidelines. For example, we want to promote the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. 

2. Grants – all organisations we support must account for how they promote sustainability by incorporating ESG in their projects. 

3. Organisation – ESG sets a clear direction for our culture and behaviour, our physical surroundings and our cooperation with suppliers of products and services.