What is it like working in communications for a philanthropic organisation? Well glad you asked!
In short: it’s an inspiring work environment with passionate people who wish to help less privileged communities by providing aids for sustainable living and economic and social growth.
The IKEA Foundation welcomed me and my lack of work experience with open arms and, I have to admit, it did take me a while to understand ten role of the communications department at their organisation. The foundation is actually a sub-branch of INGKA Group, along with other structures that are responsible for the stores we all know and love!
The first things that should be mentioned about the IKEA Foundation is that they do not work for or with IKEA, they do not organise public fundraising projects, nor do they try to help communities and the planet for financial gain of any kind. Some of the very interesting divisions I got to work in are Climate Action and Renewable Energy (so, as you can tell, environmental issues are one of their main focus points), but I mostly worked on external communications, which addressed projects from all divisions and thus also helped me gain a wide variety of knowledge in the department.
So how does communication, especially externally, work for them then? Well I arrived at the foundation in times where the whole team was redefining their external communications plan and I would say they are now progressing quickly towards a very effective and inspiring comms plan, which is reaching out to IKEA store workers and offering them a chance to experience the humanitarian projects that get implemented under their brand name. Since the foundation has the commercial part of the company as its funding source, they would love to inspire the public by informing them about the work they are doing in India and Africa mainly, but they do not ask for anything from the public, aside from a symbolic recognition of the invested effort and achieved progress maybe! This is specifically what makes the foundation a pleasant and genuinely inspiring organisation to work for, as you can feel the care and thought getting put into everyday work! Even when you spend long hours in an office, at a desk, having passionate people around who have a compassionate goal in mind with every project they are completing, that is key for a motivated work life in my opinion.
Because there is a lot of independent work involved in the job description, it was especially helpful that my colleagues were very interested in the research projects I was entrusted with. Even when they weren’t collaborating with me on these projects, they were still excitedly inquiring about my progress, how my academic experience so far is contributing to these projects and how scientific research can benefit their communication department.
I also got to take part in exciting events and conferences that were still in development at the time and the great news about this, besides the event planning experience gained form it, is that my coworkers were more than willing to listen to my opinions on what they can improve or which other aspects they can explore in the future. Sometimes these opinions were not specific to the communication science knowledge I have acquired so far, so it was all the more surprising that they took the time to consult with me. That just goes to show that employees at the foundation are generally open-minded people, who enjoy exploring new perspectives on their work and another aspect that is extremely relevant for all future interns: they believe in the young generation, in our competency and empathy and our ability to help better our society in the years to come!