What Friends does

Friends (Stiftelsen Friends) is a Swedish non-profit foundation established in 1997 and headquartered in Johanneshov, Stockholm. The organization addresses bullying, harassment, and discrimination among children and youth in Sweden, serving schools (preschool through upper secondary), sports clubs and federations, parents, school staff, and children themselves. Its mission spans bullying prevention, school climate improvement, support services for affected families, and policy advocacy at the national level.

The core offering is organized as a platform-plus-services model. The Kunskapsbanken (knowledge bank) is a free content platform providing advice and guidance on bullying, racism, LGBTQ+ issues, online harassment, and loneliness. Two proprietary assessment and intervention tools anchor the school services portfolio: Friendskollen, a tool for mapping students' experiences of safety and school climate, and HateLess, a classroom climate program for middle and upper secondary levels. The organization also runs the STRIVE Stars initiative for safe sports environments in partnership with Riksidrottsförbundet, Svenska Fotbollförbundet, and Svenska Ridsportförbundet, backed by a 50M SEK commitment from Hugo Stenbecks stiftelse. Annual research outputs include Friendsrapporten (1,000+ student respondents) and Friends idrottsrapport (1,256 respondents). A webshop sells educational publications, and an online petition platform (agera.friends.se) supports public advocacy campaigns.

The revenue model combines donations (one-time gifts, monthly giving, corporate gifts, testamentary bequests), fee-based services to schools and sports organizations under the 'Anlita Friends' program, webshop product sales, and corporate partnerships with Postkodlotteriet and Swedbank as main partners. Friends holds a 90-konto audited by Svensk Insamlingskontroll, is a member of Giva Sverige, and self-attests GDPR compliance. The foundation has 11-50 employees, operates exclusively in Sweden, and is led by Secretary General Maja Frankel with founder Sara Damber as Chairman of the Board.

Name

Friends

Legal name

Stiftelsen Friends

Website

https://friends.se

Company type

Private

Founded year

1997

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Friends is a Swedish non-profit foundation established in 1997 that combats bullying and harassment among children and youth through proprietary school assessment tools (Friendskollen, HateLess), a national sports safety initiative, annual research reports, and policy advocacy, serving schools, sports federations, families, and policymakers across Sweden.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Child welfare and anti-bullying services

NAICS

Child and Youth Services (62411), Child and Youth Services (624110)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Youth Mentoring & Positive Youth Development Nonprofits (BPAGADAD)

akta.pro secondary industry

Youth Mental Health, Counseling & Wellbeing (Education-Linked) Nonprofits (BPAGADAK)

Keywords

• Anti-bullying programs
• School safety consulting
• Child welfare services
• Non-profit fundraising
• Youth advocacy

Headquarters

HQ city

Stockholm

HQ country

Sweden

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations and gifts: Individual donors contribute one-time gifts, monthly donations (bli månadsgivare), commemoration gifts, corporate gifts, and testamentary bequests. Friends operates a 90-konto (Plusgiro: 90 05 27-3, Bankgiro: 900-5273, Swish: 900 5273), indicating a structured donation-based revenue model audited by Svensk Insamlingskontroll.
2. Webshop product sales: Friends operates a web shop selling anti-bullying merchandise including the Anti-rasistisk handbok (Anti-racist Handbook), Agera mera anthology, En bra start (A Good Start - preschool safety guide), Värsta bästa livet, Always take action, and other educational materials.
3. Services to schools and sports organizations (Anlita Friends): Friends provides fee-based services to schools including Friendskollen, HateLess, and advisory/consulting services. Similarly, services are provided to sports clubs and organizations for safe sports environment work. Revenue is generated through service contracts with institutional clients.
4. Corporate partnerships: Friends partners with businesses as corporate partners (foretagsvanner/ företagspartner), receiving corporate gifts and sponsorship support. Main partners include Postkodlotteriet and Swedbank.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Friends (Stiftelsen Friends) is a Swedish non-profit foundation that combats bullying among children and young people. It sells consulting services and proprietary tools (Friendskollen, HateLess) to schools and sports clubs, publishes annual research reports, sells educational books and merchandise through its web shop, and provides free advice, support resources, and a national petition platform. Revenue is generated primarily through donations, corporate partnerships, fee-based institutional services, and web shop product sales.

Product overview

Friends is a Swedish non-profit anti-bullying foundation established in 1997. Its offering is organized as a platform-plus-services model: the core is the Kunskapsbanken (Knowledge Bank), a content and guidance platform covering bullying, racism, LGBTQ+, online bullying, and loneliness, targeted at children/youth, parents, schools, preschools, and sports organizations. Two primary tools sit within the school intervention suite: Friendskollen (a school safety/climate mapping assessment tool) and HateLess (an inclusive classroom climate tool for middle and upper secondary). Friends also offers consulting/contracted interventions for schools and sports clubs, a newsletter for teachers, a youth council, and a public petition platform (agera.friends.se). The organization publishes annual research reports (Friendsrapporten, Friends idrottsrapport) and sells educational books and materials through its web shop. The portfolio does not include a SaaS platform, API product, or any AI-enabled technology.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Friendskollen: A tool for mapping students' experiences of safety, school climate, and exposure to bullying to systematically work with appropriate interventions.
• HateLess

Products and services

• Friendskollen A proprietary assessment tool sold to schools that maps students' experiences of safety, school climate, and bullying exposure, enabling systematic work with targeted interventions.
• HateLess A proprietary classroom program for middle and upper secondary schools that strengthens students' ability to identify and respond to hateful, exclusionary, or harmful behavior online and in the classroom.
• Insatser för skolan (School Interventions) Fee-based consulting, training, and methodological support delivered to Swedish schools to build systematic anti-bullying work, including deployment of Friendskollen and HateLess.
• Insatser för idrotten (Sports Interventions) Fee-based consulting, training, and methodological support delivered to Swedish sports clubs and federations to create safe and inclusive sports environments for children and youth.
• Friends Webbshop (Web Shop) An online store selling Friends-branded anti-bullying and anti-racism books and educational materials to consumers in Sweden and internationally, including the Anti-Racist Handbook (an international bestseller).

Quantifiable outcome

• Satsningar på ett positivt skolklimat kan minska risken att utsättas för mobbning med nära 40 procent (Research from Friendsrapporten 2025)
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Riksidrottsförbundet (Swedish Sports Confederation)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 27 March 2026Riksidrottsförbundet (Swedish Sports Confederation) is a core partner in the STRIVE Stars initiative alongside Hugo Stenbecks stiftelse and Friends. The partnership aims to strengthen safe and inclusive sports environments for children and youth through knowledge development, structural improvements, and cross-organizational collaboration.
• Svenska Fotbollförbundet (Swedish Football Association)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSvenska Fotbollförbundet (SvFF) is the first partner in the STRIVE Stars initiative. An initial needs and baseline analysis was conducted, identifying what works well and what needs further development. Based on this analysis, SvFF and Friends selected key areas to work on going forward, with the goal of strengthening existing safety work within Swedish football.
• Svenska Ridsportförbundet (Swedish Equestrian Federation)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSvenska Ridsportförbundet has a long-standing relationship with Friends through the 'Trygga ledare' (Safe Leaders) initiative, a collaboration that provides a strong foundation for continued partnership. This relationship predates and complements the newer STRIVE Stars initiative.
• Giva SverigeminorOthersFriends is a member of Giva Sverige, the Swedish trade association for fundraising organizations. Giva Sverige works to increase trust in the fundraising industry through quality assurance, competence development, and structural work. Membership indicates adherence to industry codes of conduct.
• Svensk InsamlingskontrollminorOthersSvensk Insamlingskontroll is the Swedish fundraising control body that audits organizations with a 90-konto annually. It ensures that at least 75% of revenues go to the organization's purpose and no more than 25% to fundraising and administration costs. Friends holds a 90-konto and is audited annually.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center: US-based non-profit providing school toolkits, educator resources, and parent guidance on bullying prevention. Comparable: same educator/parent/youth audience, similar content-platform-plus-resources structure, parallel school-program focus.
• The Diana Award: UK charity running the Anti-Bullying Ambassador Programme in schools, plus youth-led mentoring. Directly comparable as a school-focused anti-bullying organization combining peer-mentoring, training, and youth leadership development.
• Anti-Bullying Alliance: UK coalition of anti-bullying organizations providing school resources, policy advocacy, and annual Anti-Bullying Week. Comparable: shares Friends' hybrid model combining school-facing content/tools, research-driven campaigns, and national-level policy engagement.
• BRIS (Barnombudsmannen): Sweden's leading children's rights organization, providing support and advocacy for children and young people. Highly comparable: same Swedish geography, same children/youth target, overlapping anti-bullying and child-rights mission, and similar GTM through helpline + policy advocacy.
• Ditch the Label: UK-based digital anti-bullying charity providing advice, research, and educational programs to young people, schools, and parents. Comparable: identical anti-bullying mission, similar digital-first content platform, and parallel school/parent/youth audience targeting.
• Stomp Out Bullying: US national non-profit dedicated to bullying and cyberbullying prevention, offering school programs, parent toolkits, and youth engagement. Comparable as a national anti-bullying nonprofit with parallel multi-stakeholder GTM and educational toolkits.

Emerging players

• Cyberbullying Research Center: US-based research organization producing data-driven resources on cyberbullying for educators, parents, and youth. Comparable as a research-grounded anti-bullying resource provider; narrower scope (cyberbullying focus) than Friends but complementary.

Broad incumbents

• Rädda Barnen (Save the Children Sweden): Sweden's largest child-rights NGO with national reach and broad programming on child welfare, including school safety. Comparable as a national children's-rights nonprofit operating in the same Swedish policy space, but with a much wider mandate beyond bullying.
• UNICEF Sweden: Sweden office of the global UN children's agency, working on child rights including school safety, with strong donor fundraising infrastructure. Comparable as a Swedish national child-rights organization with policy advocacy and individual-donor funding, though much broader mandate.

Regional players

• Children's Rights Alliance (Barnrättsbyrån): Sweden-based child-rights organization providing legal advocacy and support for children. Comparable in Swedish children's-rights scope and policy/advocacy approach, but with a stronger legal-advocacy emphasis versus Friends' prevention-program emphasis.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/stiftelsen-friends

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Friends