The foundation strengthens its support for social mobility

THE FOUNDATION STRENGTHENS ITS SUPPORT FOR SOCIAL MOBILITY

Creating a chair in Education Policy and Social Mobility at the Paris School of Economics and increasing our focus on early childhood add new dimensions to our philanthropic approach.

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The Ardian Foundation’s central aim has always been to increase social mobility by helping disadvantaged children and young people gain access to education, training and advice.

We see educational opportunities as critical to improving social mobility, and during our first 10 years we have concentrated on supporting charities that address the educational challenges that young people face due to their background and circumstances.

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€2.8m

The Foundation’s budget was €2.3m in 2020 and will rise to €2.8m in 2021.

“We think that supporting early childhood programs will be a particularly effective way to promote social mobility and equal opportunities.”

Yann Bak, President of the Ardian Foundation

EARLY CHILDHOOD

We already fund projects that support the education of young children, for example our work with Agir pour l’Ecole to develop new ways of teaching reading in early-years education. However, we now expect to devote almost half the Foundation’s budget to programs aimed at early childhood within the next two years.

€750,000

The Foundation is providing €750,000 over 3 years to fund research with the aim of producing studies, as well as informing our internal decisions on which projects to support.

NEW RESEARCH CHAIR AT THE PARIS SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

This research chair is being co-funded by La Direction de l’Evaluation, de la Prospective et de la Performance (DEPP), the arm of the French Ministry of Education in charge of measuring the quality of education policies and initiatives. The DEPP will give the PSE’s researchers privileged access to its extensive database for future projects.

Julien Grenet

Co-head, with Luc Behaghel, of the new research chair in Education Policy and Social Mobility at the Paris School of Economics, which is supported by the Ardian Foundation

“This new research chair will bring major opportunities to improve our understanding of the causes of unequal access to education and identify ways to address them. Ultimately, this should promote social mobility. As project leaders, Luc Behaghel and I intend to cover a wide range of topics and look at children from their pre-school years until they leave education and enter the world of work.”

€180,000

The Foundation provided extra support through a dedicated fund of €180,000 to help charities and their beneficiaries withstand the immediate impacts of Covid-19.

THE FIRST PROJECTS SELECTED FOR THE NEW CHAIR

The Paris School of Economics team conducted a call for proposals in early 2021 and has chosen four research papers to begin the program:

The effects of France’s parental education allowance on the educational progress of children in families that receive these payments
The impact of priority urban regeneration projects on social mixing in local schools
The long-term impact of France’s Sourdun boarding schools project for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds
An investigation of how girls perform in scientific preparatory classes.

MORE INTENSIVE SUPPORT FOR CHARITIES

The Foundation is continuing its transition to a smaller group of around a dozen partner organizations that will receive more intensive support – funding but also practical help to strengthen their organizations and infrastructure with a special focus on digital capabilities.

In a nutshell

ARDIAN IN 2020

1,000+

investors

$11 Bn

raised in 2020

$8,7 Bn

distributed to our investors in 2020

$5,7 Bn

invested through our Fund of Funds platform across 44 primary commitments and 7 secondary transactions in 2020

$8,8 Bn

invested across our Direct, Infrastructure, Private Debt and Real Estate activities in 92 transactions, of which 50 were build-ups in 2020

+24,500

employees of 34 portfolio companies have benefited from profit-sharing at exit by Ardian since 2008, receiving the equivalent of 1 to 6 months’ salary

HOW INNOVATION IS TRANSFORMING THE INVESTOR EXPERIENCE

Listen to the podcast with
Vincent Joly, Head of IT & Michaël Brouard, Director & Head of Technological Innovation at Ardian

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