Over 48,000 plush toys from IKEABucharest, helping funding educational projects from UNICEF and Save the Children

Over 48,000 plush toys were bought from IKEA Bucharest during the campaign that ran between November 4th – December 29th. For each bought toy, IKEA foundation donated Euro 1 to fund educational projects made by UNICEF and Save the Children.

IKEA’s Romanian store ranked 5th in the world based on average sales per store and 27th among the stores with the highest plush toys sales.

Through the annual Plush Toys campaign, aimed to improve education and ran by IKEA, IKEA’s clients and employees from all over the world gathered Euro 9.3M. The amount will contribute to a better education for kids in Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and Asia. The donation will be made by IKEA Foundation and is directed towards UNICEF and Save the Children projects.

From the beginning of the campaign, in 2003, IKEA Foundation gathered almost Euro 57M, that contributed to giving a better education for over 10M kids in over 45 countries. The donations were directed towards UNICEF and Save the Children that form teachers in what concerns teaching methods, improve kids’ protection sistem, insure educational materials and increase the rate of attendance in schools.

In Romania, IKEA’s clients had the chance to also get involved in “Donate Twice” initiative, by offering the plush toys they bought to local charity programs; over 1,244 toys were donated this way towards Save the Children Romania.