The Lego Group said Thursday it is dispersing $1 million in grant funding to six Richmond-area nonprofits focused on helping children and families.
The grants stem from a pledge from the Danish toymaker made in April to assist local organizations. That announcement was part of the groundbreaking of Lego’s $1 billion factory in Chesterfield County.
The local grant recipients include:
- Blue Sky Fund — The Lego funding will support the nonprofit’s STEM-based outdoor education and play-based opportunities for Richmond public school students through the organization’s Explorers program.
- Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond — The funding will advance the club’s Playful Pathways, a hands-on, skill-based program that empowers underserved youth through activities that inspire a love of learning and self-confidence.
- James River Association — The funding will go toward increasing access to immersive, hands-on outdoor education and play-based learning and bolster organizational capacity to extend programming through new formats.
- Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden — The new funding will expand organizational capacity for youth and family engagement programs to reach early learners and increase access for more children from under-resourced communities to participate in a summer camp program.
- SOAR365 — The grant will go toward a pediatric therapy program offering early intervention and outpatient therapy that incorporates play, literacy and assistive technology to help children reach their potential.
- YMCA of Greater Richmond — The Lego funding will support the Y’s Power Scholars Academy, an enrichment program that reaches at-risk students.
In 2022, Lego provided $300,000 to the Children's Museum of Richmond and the Science Museum of Virginia as part of its Playful Learning Museum Network initiative.
Lego is preparing a 1.7 million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Meadowville Technology Park. It will be the company’s seventh factory across the globe and its only one in the United States, where Legos have been sold since the 1960s. Currently, Legos marketed in the U.S. are primarily made at a company factory in Monterrey, Mexico.
It plans to open the new carbon-neutral facility in the second half of 2025. The facility is expected to create 1,760 area jobs over 10 years, and the company is currently recruiting for its nearby external packing facility.
