Chocolonely Foundation

Our mission & vision

Strong, resilient, and prosperous cocoa communities and a responsible chocolate industry, where equality is the norm for all.

The Chocolonely Foundation supports projects and organisations that contribute to prosperous cocoa growing communities in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, facilitate systemic change, and challenge the status quo.

What we do

We focus on funding projects in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire that address these impact areas:

Strong, resilient & inclusive cocoa communties

We want people to have the opportunity to shape their own future. We believe a decent education, good infrastructure and the ability to make a decent living help make this possible. Climate resilience, as well as good health and wellbeing are also vital factors. We concentrate on communities in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire where Tony’s works in partnership with cocoa cooperatives and cocoa farming communities.

Poverty and prosperity

We want to foster a diverse landscape of local organisations and businesses. We want to make alternative and innovative interventions available for responsible cocoa industry actors. That's why we facilitate collaborations between organisations, encourage innovative pilot projects and partners, and provide seed funding to local - Ghanaian and Ivorian - organisations and businesses.

Enabling environments in cocoa-growing communities

We want to empower youth and give unheard and underrepresented voices from Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire a platform. We concentrate on communities in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire where Tony’s works in partnership with cocoa cooperatives and cocoa farming communities.

Project criteria

To be considered for funding, projects must meet the following criteria:

The project must directly contribute to the advancement of our mission and fall within one of our impact categories of action.
The approach must be demonstrably effective and/or innovative.
The results achieved by the project must be freely available.
The initiative's geographic scope must focus on Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire.

Who are we

The Foundation

The Chocolonely Foundation shares a name with Tony’s, yet it is an independent organisation and its board makes its own decisions. The Chocolonely Foundation supports projects and organisations that contribute to decent livelihoods in cocoa growing communities in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, facilitate systemic change, and challenge the status quo.

The Chocolonely Foundation supports Tony’s mission by focussing on activities that fall outside the direct cocoa supply chain. It was founded in 2008 when the bright red Tony’s bars started turning a profit. It’s primarily funded by a dedicated 1% of Tony’s annual turnover. The board meets regularly to assess project proposals and decide on its long-term strategy.

Years of existence: 14

Number of projects: 56

The Foundation has zero overhead costs as all board members are volunteers and the Foundation Officer is paid by Tony's Chocolonely.

Financial statements 21/22 Policy Plan

ANBI documentation ANBI profile

The Board

Anna Laven

joined the Chocolonely Foundation in 2021 and became the head of the board in 2022. As independent researcher (PhD), advisor and entrepreneur she is committed to contributing to sustainable cocoa and chocolate. Over the last 20 years she has become an international cocoa expert with in-depth expertise on a range of topics: from gender and child well-being to value addition, living income, farmer segmentation and price formation. Her favourite Tony’s bar is dark milk (42%).

Liedewij Hentenaar

joined the Chocolonely Foundation as a board member and its secretary in 2015. She is a director for the Dutch Audio industry body and has a background in marketing communications. She strongly believes everyone should have the opportunity to shape their own fair future and be able to have their voices heard, as well as shaping their own economic independence. Her favourite Tony's bar is dark milk pretzel and toffee.

Syro Ronan Ronda

joined the Chocolonely Foundation in 2021 and acts as its treasurer. He has a background in health and development and his favourite flavour of Tony's is Caramel Seasalt.

Anne Sallaerts

joined the board in 2023. She has broad expertise in educational programmes as the co-founder of Designathon Works. She is also a board member of the FEMI Foundation and the Join for Joy Foundation.