Hempel Foundation

Information

The Hempel Foundation is a commercial foundation with a dual purpose: to ensure the long-term ownership of Hempel A/S and to create positive change in the world. With a strong focus on education, biodiversity, and social responsibility, the Foundation funds and leads initiatives that make a lasting impact. 

Our task was to design and develop a website that effectively communicates their mission, initiatives, and achievements to a global audience. 

A Platform for Storytelling and Transparency

The new website serves as the central hub for the Hempel Foundation’s work. It provides a structured and engaging way for visitors to explore the Foundation’s initiatives, ongoing projects, and the real-world changes they have contributed to. 

Through clear navigation and compelling design, we ensured that the site supports transparency and accessibility, reinforcing the Foundation’s commitment to sharing knowledge and progress.

Connecting Purpose with Ownership

As the owner of Hempel A/S, the Foundation plays a unique role in ensuring responsible business practices while funding impactful initiatives. The website makes this dual role explicit, giving visitors insight into how ownership translates into social responsibility and sustainable impact. 

Through carefully crafted content architecture, we balanced storytelling with factual clarity, making it easy to grasp the Foundation’s structure and purpose. 

Accelerating Change in the browser

Our design approach focused on creating a clean and modern environment that was routed in the purpose line; "Accelerating Change". 

With intuitive user journeys, seamless navigation, and strong editorial flexibility, the site is designed to scale with the Foundation’s evolving needs. 

A Digital Home for Lasting Change

By building a digital experience that is both informative and inspiring, we have helped the Hempel Foundation strengthen its ability to communicate its impact. 

The website is not just a presentation tool - it is a living platform that enables the Foundation to reflect on its progress, engage with stakeholders, and drive meaningful conversations about the future.

What did Spring/Summer create for the Hempel Foundation?

Spring/Summer designed and developed the new digital platform for the Hempel Foundation, launched in 2024/25 on Sanity CMS. We led strategy, structure, design, and development, building an online home for the Foundation's mission, initiatives, and dual role as both a philanthropist and the majority owner of the Hempel Group.

What technology powers the Hempel Foundation platform?

The Hempel Foundation platform runs on Sanity CMS. Sanity gives the Foundation a structured content model that scales as initiatives and projects evolve, with editorial flexibility for the team to publish stories, reports, and progress updates without engineering support.

What was the brief Spring/Summer was given?

The Hempel Foundation has a dual purpose: ensuring the long-term ownership of Hempel A/S, and creating positive change through philanthropy in education, biodiversity, and social responsibility. The brief was to design a platform that communicates this dual role clearly to a global audience, supports transparency around initiatives and progress, and gives the Foundation a digital home worthy of its 75-year history.

What design and strategic decisions shaped the project?

We treated the platform as both a storytelling tool and a governance document. The content architecture balances narrative with factual clarity, so visitors can grasp the Foundation's structure, ownership of Hempel A/S, and the real-world impact of its initiatives. Clear navigation supports transparency. The design language is rooted in the Foundation's purpose line, Accelerating Change, and the editorial system is built to scale with the Foundation's evolving work.

What was the outcome of the Hempel Foundation launch?

The Hempel Foundation now operates from a digital home that communicates impact with the clarity its work deserves. The platform launched in 2024/25, the same period the Foundation reported strong financial results and increased annual donations to EUR 23 million, more than four times the level a decade earlier. It is the digital surface for the Foundation's commitments, including strengthening quality education for over 420,000 children to date, with a goal of one million by 2030, and protecting five million hectares of vital tropical forests by 2030.

Who is this case relevant for?

This case is for foundations, philanthropic organisations, and commercial owners with a dual mandate, where the digital presence has to communicate impact, structure, and purpose to a global audience. We work with institutions that think in decades and need a digital home with the same clarity and care as their work in the world. If you are building or rebuilding a foundation site, this is the work we love.

How can a brand start a similar project with Spring/Summer?

Tell us about your project at contact@springsummer.dk or call +45 32 16 22 22. We're a Copenhagen-based digital design and brand agency, and we like hearing about briefs early, even if you're still figuring out what you need. Let's collaborate and make great stuff.