About the Unilever Foundation

At Unilever, we aim to double the size of our business while reducing our environmental impact and delivering increased social value.

The Unilever Foundation is a key action we are taking to help meet our ambitious goal of helping more than one billion people improve their health and well-being and, in turn, create a sustainable future - a core commitment of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan.

“We live in a rapidly changing world. One where populations are growing, water is becoming increasingly scarce, and where food security is a growing issue. Unilever is committed to addressing the unmet social needs that our business can play a unique role in helping to solve. This is especially true in developing and emerging markets where we have deep roots,” said Keith Weed, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer.

The Foundation is partnering with five leading global organizations – Oxfam, PSI, Save the Children, UNICEF, and the World Food Programme. By working together, we will be able to expand the delivery of life-saving solutions to drive systemic and scalable social change.

Additionally, these five global partners will serve as our primary beneficiaries in times of disaster and emergency relief so that we are able to provide critical resources expeditiously when there is the greatest need and on longer term projects to help rebuild communities.

Today we are facing significant complex challenges to our quality of life and that of future generations:

• Over one billion people do not have access to safe drinking water.

• More than 3.5 million children under five years old die from diarrhea and acute respiratory infections annually.

• One child dies every four seconds from preventable and treatable causes due to the lack of basic healthcare.

• 2.6 billion people lack access to improved sanitation.

• An estimated 925 million people suffer from chronic hunger.

The Unilever Foundation is taking a targeted approach to its social investments by focusing our support on these critical issues in order to create the type of change that is needed to improve the quality of people’s lives.

While we decided to concentrate our resources on five global partnerships, we recognize that other individual countries have social investment needs based on their unique circumstances. Therefore, the Unilever Foundation is also supporting other organizations in over 50 countries by providing direct funding, expertise, products, and employee support to help address country-specific needs primarily aligned with the Foundation’s mission.

A sustainable future for generations

At Unilever, addressing the social issues of our day have always been a core part of our DNA, dating back to the founding of the company.

Over the past decade alone, our social investments have benefitted an estimated 50 million people a year.

Through the Unilever Foundation, we are investing in the social issues where we believe we can have the greatest impact. Many of our brands such as Domestos, Lifebuoy and Dove are also committed to investing in these critical social issues. As part of our company’s growth strategy, our brands invest in behavior change programs, consumer engagement campaigns and product benefits.

Investing in social issues of the 21st century will help us meet our goal of improving a billion better lives and help create a sustainable future for generations to come.