News

On 27 November, the board meeting was held as a Teams meeting, with Lars Bohlbro from VELUX A/S participating as an observer.

Year-to-Date Development 2024
Costs are in line with the budget, and the financial markets have been volatile but positive.

Grants
The board approved 239 grants: about 3.5 million DKK for employee purposes (99 grants for unfortunate events, 64 educational grants and 13 grants for Senior clubs) and about 6.3 million DKK (63 grants) for local non-profit projects.

Strategy and Projects
There is an increased understanding of the importance of the Employee Foundation with more applications being received. The foundation will focus on health screenings in 2025 and pilot projects for shelters in May 2025.

Live a dream – volunteer work
18 employees participated in a construction project in Romania, where they built six homes in five days. During the building period, 697 employees donated steps, resulting in a donation of 2 million DKK to Habitat for Humanity.

Awards
Preparations for the Villum Kann Rasmussen Award and the Lars Kann-Rasmussen Safety Award are underway with local ceremonies scheduled for 23 January 2025.

The next meeting will be held on 19-20 March 2025.

On behalf of the board, we wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The board meeting of Employee Foundation of the VKR Group took place in Berlin on 17-18 September 2024.

Grants
The board approved 264 grants, including DKK 4.1 million for employee purposes and DKK 1.1 million for 51 local non-profit projects. The foundation is also providing support for employees affected by extreme rainfalls in Central and Eastern Europe.

Strategy
The board discussed the progress of the new strategy, “Let’s work it out together”, which aims to increase visibility, engagement, relevance, and proactivity. Pilot projects under the Reconnect with Human Nature program, such as skin cancer screening, have been launched. The Green Areas and Outdoor Life program is also progressing, with several projects now open to the public.

Summer campaign, ambassador program
The Employee Foundation summer photo competition received 87 entries from 20 countries, with 40 photos awarded prizes. An ambassador program, called Scouts, has been launched to increase the foundation’s visibility.

Live a dream
Eighteen employees will participate in the “Live a dream” building project in Romania, in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity. During this period, an employee campaign will be launched to “donate their steps”, with the foundation pledging to donate up to DKK 2 million based on the total number of steps.

Awards
The recipients of the Villum Kann Rasmussen Award and the Lars Kann-Rasmussen Safety Award 2025 were selected.

The next board meeting is scheduled for 27 November 2024.

The Employee Foundation board meeting was held online on 13 June.

The meeting granted about DKK 4.3 million (more than EUR 0.5 million) for employee purposes (140 grants related to unfortunate situations, and 62 educational grants for employees’ children), and about DKK 1.1 million (more than EUR 0.14 million) for 54 local non-profit projects.

Several companies in the Group have seen extreme weather conditions with serious consequences for the employees and their homes. Our allocated emergency funding is there to help in such situations.

For the Live a dream program 2024, the Board selected 18 employees from among the applications received. The building project will be held in Berceni, Romania in September-October 2024. All applicants have be notified directly.

Healthy Habits, photo contest
In July and August, the Employee Foundation will run a photo contest with a focus on staying healthy during the summer time.

At the annual meeting held in Denmark, at the VKR Holding A/S head office in Hørsholm, the Board of Directors made 310 grants: about DKK 4.7 million. for employee purposes (146 grants for unfortunate situations, 107 educational grants, and two grants for other employee purposes), and almost DKK 1 million for 55 local non-profit projects.

Yearbook 2023/24
In early April, our annual report in Danish and English will be distributed to VKR Group companies at home and abroad together with an abridged digital and printable version in eight languages. All versions will be made available on the site under publications & downloads.

We are pleased to announce this year’s award recipients, who were honoured on 23 January 2024, on Villum Kann Rasmussen’s birthday.

The Employee Foundation presents the Villum Kann Rasmussen Award to honour and celebrate employees who, with their personal contribution, do something special to realise the VKR Group’s Model Company Objective.

Likewise, the Employee Foundation presents the Lars Kann-Rasmussen Safety Award to employees who, at work or in their private lives, exhibit inspiring and proactive behaviour in the field of safety and have courageous attitudes that break with conventional thinking and prevent accidents.

This year, the Employee Foundation’s Board of Directors elected a total of 13 recipients of the Villum Kann Rasmussen Award and 5 recipients of the Lars Kann-Rasmussen Safety Award.

The awards ceremonies take place locally in the companies where the recipients work. It is the individual company that is responsible for the local celebration and ensures that the day is festive for both the award recipient and colleagues.

We warmly congratulate the laureates.

The board meeting on 30 November 2023 was held online.

The meeting approved 209 applications for a total of DKK 10.2 million.

149 grants totalling DKK 3.4 million go to employee purposes, including 90 grants for unfortunate events, 47 educational grants and 12 grants for senior clubs within the VKR Group.

DKK 6.8 million was granted to 60 local non-profit projects, including DKK 5.6 million for three major projects within the Green Areas and Outdoor Life programme.

Since the last meeting in September, the Live a dream volunteering programme has been run with the participation of 15 employees from the VKR Group’s companies. Together with the NGO Habitat for Humanity and other volunteers, housing for six families was built in one week. The board thanked them for their great work and decided to continue the programme.

As the year draws to a close, the Board of Directors wishes to thank all applicants, all recommendation committees and the secretariat for their great contributions throughout the year, and wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The board meeting 13-14 September 2023 was held in Horsens and Østbirk.

The visit to A/S Østbirk Bygningsindustri included the LKR Innovation House and the funded project of the foundation within the programme Green Areas and Outdoor Life.

The meeting approved 197 grants as follows: About DKK 3.1 million for employee purposes (106 grants related to unfortunate situations and 48 educational grants), and about DKK 0.9 million for 43 local, non-profit projects.

The board of directors thanks the applicants.

The board meeting of the Employee Foundation was held online on 28 June.

The meeting granted about DKK 3.2 million (about EUR 0.4 million) for employee purposes (119 grants for unfortunate events and 60 educational grants for employees’ children), and about DKK 4 million (about EUR 0.5 million) for 52 local, non-profit projects.

In addition, the Board selected 15 participants from among the applications received for the Live a dream programme, which will be held in Romania on 23-27 October 2023. All applicants have be notified directly.

We had received a total of 19 applications for this year’s Healthy Habits programme with a total value of about DKK 0.5 million (about EUR 67,000) to coincide with the World Cleanup Day on 16 September. All applications were accepted.

Among the projects in the Green Areas & Outdoor Life programme, the Croatian project has been inaugurated. It took place on 30 June with the participation of the chair of the foundation, Michel Langrand, programme manager Henrik Øvlisen and Lotte Kragelund from the secretariat.