The VELUX FOUNDATIONS Yearbook 2019 – good news and progressive philanthropy

In 2019, VILLUM FONDEN and VELUX FONDEN made a total of DKK 1.3 billion in grants to talented and inspiring people in Denmark and abroad.

Last year, the two foundations received 2,686 grant applications for projects related to research, social welfare, children and young adults, culture and society, the environment, and active senior citizens. This is reflected in the broad range of topics covered in the latest issue of the yearbook, which includes articles about algorithms, electrons, rainforests, and a food lab that brings seniors and children together.

• Excellent research is helping to come up with climate solutions. Read about rising research talent Maria Maria Escudero-Escribano and how she is working to find ways to replace fossil fuels with a new system based on clean, sustainable energy sources.
• How researchers and communications professionals are working together to tell the story of the Vikings of Kertinge Fjord, what it was like to live at an orphanage in Denmark, and the development of the modern industrial society.
• A profile of Sergey I. Bozhevolnyi, whose research into quantum and nanotechnologies earned him the 2019 Villum Kann Rasmussen Annual Award and given him the nickname “master of light”.
• An after-school initiative that helps kids build up their science capital.

The VKR Group was founded by Villum Kann Rasmussen, inventor of the roof window. Motivated by a desire to give back to the society that had given him so much, he established two philanthropic foundations, VILLUM FONDEN and VELUX FONDEN. Since their founding in 1971 and 1981, they have been honouring his wish by donating money to the people and the projects that can improve our lives and the society we live in.

The companies of the VKR Group employ 16,000 people in 41 countries. Their hard work, day-in and day-out, makes it possible to generate the profits that, over time, have formed the basis for the foundations’ philanthropic work. A portion of the VKR Group’s annual profits are turned over to the foundations, which invests the money into a diversified portfolio in order to achieve the highest possible returns, and in so doing enabling us to maximise our philanthropic grants.