Page 68 - Mellby Gård Yearbook 2018–2019

MELLBY GÅRD IN SOCIETY
STRONG SOCIAL COMMITMENT
Mellby Gård has always had a strong commitment to society. This is expressed, for example, through statements regarding what we consider important for Swedish business, Swedish tax policy or Swedish education. In other instances, it may involve quite different, more mundane things.
“One of the principal objectives of our philanthropic activities is that they should act, in some way, as a catalyst for success”, says Mellby Gård’s CEO, Johan Andersson. “Seeing companies progress from promising to leading. Achieving new, groundbreaking research results. Seeing smaller sports clubs achieve unexpected successes. And, perhaps most importantly, seeing children in exposed parts of the world gain circumstances for a better life and opportunities to fulfil their dreams.”
“First and foremost, we continue to support activities that are linked to Mellby Gård, to our companies or to our family’s priorities. These mainly involve entrepreneurship, research and education. We aim to gradually focus on fewer, but larger, undertakings. This allows us to take a more active role in projects, improving the conditions for success.”
Each year, Mellby Gård aims to earmark approximately two percent of its consolidated profit for various types of support, usually about SEK 20 million a year.
In 2018/2019, Mellby Gård supported Ung Företagsamhet (Young Enterprise), Lärargalan (Teachers’ Gala) and Hjärnfonden (Swedish Brain Foundation) – these three projects are presented in greater detail below. In addition to these, we have contributed in many other
areas, including several research projects, a PhD thesis project at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Alnarp, a PhD thesis project on the Swedish Free School Reform, the Blekingska Nationen student association in Lund, the FC Rosengård women’s football club in Malmö, Global Child Forum, Hungerprojektet (Hunger Project), Project Playground, the Research Institute of Industrial Economics, the Trelleborgs FF football club and the Wilhelm Foundation.
UNG FÖRETAGSAMHET
Ung Företagsamhet (Young Enterprise) is a politically independent, non-profit educational organization providing children and young people with opportunities to train and develop their creativity, business skills and enterprise. This is achieved through teaching materials, teacher guides, programmes of continued education, scholarship opportunities, international exchanges and inspiration for teachers, pupils and school administrators.
Ung Företagsamhet is present throughout Sweden with a national secretariat and 24 regional associations. The organization supports students and teachers with more than 100 dedicated employees, all with a broad expertise in enterprise.
Since 1980, upper-secondary students have been trained in business skills through the UF Enterprise programme and, since 2010, there are also activities at elementary schools. The organization is financed through public funds and support from the business community.
68 | MELLBY GÅRD – YEARBOOK 2018 / 2019