The family-owned yarn shop Knitting for Olive in Frederiksberg has donated DKK 5.3 million (€710,000) to UNICEF’s emergency relief for children in Gaza. The unprecedented sum, raised in just 24 hours, comes from the entire day’s sales on 9 August 2025 and will provide food, vitamins and clean water to thousands of malnourished children.
Record-breaking fundraiser from one day’s sales
On the fundraising day, Knitting for Olive received over 7,500 orders from customers in Denmark and abroad, compared with the usual 250 daily orders. The store had announced in advance that all proceeds would go directly to UNICEF’s work in Gaza, prompting an immediate surge in purchases through its physical shop and online store.
According to UNICEF, the donation will fund emergency nutrition paste for 10,000 children for two weeks, daily vitamin supplements for over 700,000 children, one million high-energy biscuits, and 108 million litres of clean drinking water.
A long-standing tradition of charitable giving
Founded in 2015 by Caroline Larsen and her mother Pernille Larsen, the business has grown from a small maternity project into an international yarn brand co-owned by Caroline’s brother Alexander Larsen. Since 2020, the company has made eight major one-day fundraising campaigns, donating nearly DKK 9.6 million (€1.28 million) to causes ranging from war relief in Ukraine to cancer research and support for Danish families in need.
Previous donations include over DKK 1 million to the Red Cross for Ukraine in 2023 and DKK 626,000 to UNICEF’s Kabul relief in 2021. However, the August 2025 initiative is by far the largest in the company’s history.
“We do it because we can”
Co-owner Caroline Larsen stressed that the decision to donate an entire day’s revenue comes at significant cost to the business, as the yarn has already been purchased and must be shipped without profit.
“We are neither Mærsk nor Lego, but we try to make a difference in ways we can manage,” she said, adding that while the company has received positive publicity, this was not the motivation.
UNICEF Denmark’s Director of Private Fundraising, Kristina Boldt, described the donation as “extraordinary” and emphasised the severity of the situation in Gaza, where acute malnutrition among children is rising and the population faces shortages of food, medicine and water.
While many orders came from Danish customers, Knitting for Olive also shipped to a large number of international buyers, including in the United States. For the Larsen family, the scale of the response was unexpected but moving. “It’s touching to pack each order knowing someone has chosen to help children in Gaza,” said Caroline Larsen.
