Our Story
2013 Creation of the Ardian Foundation
2017 First homegrown project
2023 Creation of Act4Change
The threads that run through our story
Our first donations in 2010 and 2011, totalled €480,000. They went to three causes:
- Frateli (now Article 1), a French charity that pairs young people from disadvantaged backgrounds with mentors from the business world, including Ardian employees.
- Couleurs de Chine, which sponsors children from remote areas of Guangxi Province in China through high school and university.
- Réunion des musées nationaux – Grand Palais, a public arts, cultural and educational venue in Paris.
These organizations embody many of the ideas and values that drove the Foundation at the beginning and still drive us today:
- Improving the life chances of children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds
- Using education and personal development as the keys to a better future
- Reminding us that giving time is just as important as giving money
- Acting globally with the same values wherever Ardian does business.
2013 – Ardian is born along with The Foundation
In 2013, AXA Private Equity became Ardian, an independent company and the Ardian Foundation was created. The Foundation’s main activity during this period was its mentoring program.
2015 – Expanding our reach
By the end of 2015, more than 120 young people were taking part in our mentoring program, with 100 Ardian employees as mentors.
The Foundation was then funding 13 organizations in four countries – France, Italy, China and the US. These partners were working with schoolchildren and young adults ranging in age from seven to 25. Around 250 of Ardian’s 450 employees made donations to the Foundation in 2015, and more than 40 raised sponsorships by taking part in the annual 10km race at the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. Ardian matches all employee donations.
2016 – Donation matching
We started a fund to support charities put forward by Ardian employees. Once a charity is accepted by the Employee charities committee, we match the sums our employees raise for their chosen causes with a simple rule: €1 for €1, subject to a geographical cap.
The Foundation’s support boosts engagement by Ardian employees in charitable work and increases the impact of their giving.
2017 – Our first homegrown project
During 2017 we developed the Foundation’s first homegrown project. 3,2,1 provided six-month programs of business coaching for people from Seine-Saint-Denis, a deprived district on the outskirts of Paris. At the end of each program, the candidates pitched their business ideas and received grants to help them get started.
2018-2019 – the Foundation’s growth accelerates
Our budget and charity partnerships continued to expand – we donated €1.3m to 29 charities in 2018. This rose to €1.7m for 36 charities in 2019. We also began supporting charities in three more countries, Germany, Luxembourg and the UK.
Reflecting our international growth, we began empowering local teams in our international office network to decide the charities they wanted the Foundation to partner with. We also began working with consultants to measure our impact.
2020 – Our 10th anniversary year
In early 2020, as the pandemic took hold, we set up an emergency fund representing 10% of our 2019 annual budget to support our partner charities through the crisis. Including this emergency fund, our budget reached a record €2.3m in 2020.
Following the pandemic, we began two major new projects with the Foundation:
- We launched our early childhood program. This targets parents and children from birth to school age who are poor and often socially marginalized. Our rationale is simple: academic research shows that providing help as early as possible has the biggest impact on long-term outcomes.
- We sponsored a research chair in Education Policy and Social Mobility at the Paris School of Economics. Our aim is to gain a better understanding of what measures work and why. We hope the research we sponsor will shape government policy and make our early-childhood programs more effective.
2023 – Act4Change – a drive to involve more Ardian employees in our work
Making sure as many of Ardian’s employees as possible get involved in our work is a major part of our mission. And from the start, many have given their time and money to support us. But as Ardian’s business and the Foundation’s ambitions keep growing, we need more people to step up – to drive our projects forward and to strengthen the culture of social solidarity and ‘giving back’ that led to our creation back in 2010.
Our answer is Act4Change. This program gives every Ardian employee three days of paid time off every year that they can use for charitable work. They can either support their personal causes or donate their time and professional expertise to the Foundation’s partner charities.
2026 and beyond – A new strategic pillar: Scientific Research
In response to the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and the broader technological revolution, the Ardian Foundation is adding Scientific Research as a new strategic pillar. This new focus will address the profound paradigm shifts driven by AI and other emerging technologies, with initiatives such as the ENS research chairs on carbon capture exemplifying our commitment to tackling urgent sustainability challenges.
From 2026 onwards, scientific research will receive a growing share of our budget, reaching €2.8 million by 2028. This bold move reflects our belief that research is key to addressing the challenges and opportunities of tomorrow, supporting national scientific sovereignty, and ensuring that innovation serves the greater good.
How we encourage everyone at Ardian to get involved
Whether they are supporting our charity partners or their personal causes, we encourage everyone at Ardian to find their own ways of giving back.