Community

Ford Motor Company has a long legacy of compassion. More than 100 years after the company began, we continue to touch lives. Our commitment to supporting local communities through charitable contributions and volunteer efforts has remained unwavering.

As we continue to expand our business in new markets across the globe, we are also expanding our community investment and volunteering efforts internationally. In 2013, we continued to expand our global reach through our Operation Better World program. Launched in 2012, Operation Better World is a coordinated, strategic approach to how Ford engages with communities everywhere that we do business. In 2013, we expanded the program from India and China to South America, Mexico and Europe. Through this program, the Ford Fund cooperates with nongovernmental organization partners in four key areas: education, auto safety, community needs and sustainability (with a focus on water). The Ford Fund works to ensure that programs meet local community needs, align with the One Ford business plan, have a measurable impact and, where possible, can be replicated in other markets. This grassroots engagement in the community is implemented and led by the local Ford teams in each region.

Throughout the Asia Pacific Africa region, Ford has made a positive impact on communities and the environment through Operation Better World initiatives such as the annual Conservation and Environmental Grants China program, Level Up!, the Global Week of Caring and the Ford Driving Skills for Life program, which teaches drivers about fuel efficiency as well as safety (as discussed in the Vehicle Safety section).

Conservation and Environment Grants, China (CEGC) is the company’s flagship philanthropic program in China, focused on supporting grassroots environmental/sustainability nongovernmental organization (NGO) leaders and their organizations. Over the past 14 years, Ford of China has awarded RMB 16.1 million (U.S. $2.6 million) in grants to 325 grassroots environmental leaders and NGOs. In 2013, Ford Fund investment allowed Ford of China to expand the CEGC program, linking it to employee volunteerism and to rewarding environmental NGOs that bring environmental protection and participation into the everyday lives of people in communities, allowing communities to become leaders in their own environmental protection.

In 2012, Ford Fund with Ford of China launched the Level Up! initiative, designed to build the organizational capacity of over 100 grassroots environmental NGOs in China. Through this program, over 70 percent of environmental groups in Beijing, Shanghai and Kunming are undergoing significant organizational change and development. Efforts include workshops and training for grassroots environmental leaders, coaching and mentoring projects, capacity-building, training and development, and assistance in building grassroots support networks for more than 100 NGOs.

Ford’s Global Week of Caring is one of the cornerstone programs of the Ford Volunteer Corps. It includes a week of volunteer events across all of Ford’s operating regions. Activities in 2013, our eighth year, included building temporary shelters for homeless children in China, providing clean drinking water facilities in disadvantaged parts of India and South Africa, participating in environmental restoration activities in Australia, as well as a range of community, education and environmental projects around the world. While it is difficult to measure the larger positive impact of these actions, we know, for example, that by building wells in India and South Africa through our Global Week of Caring projects, we have enabled girls in local villages, who would otherwise have to walk miles to gather water for their families, to attend school instead. Our People: Investing in Communities section contains a full list of our Global Week of Caring and other volunteerism efforts in the Asia Pacific Africa region and elsewhere.

In early 2014, we also announced the Happy Schools program at the Jaipur Literature Festival in India. The Happy Schools program aims to improve access to holistic education in primary schools by addressing gaps in academic support, health and nutrition. Ford will partner with NGOs working in the field of education to collectively conceptualize and design a social intervention model that will address the identified gaps. In the initial phase, a pilot model will be created and implemented in select government primary schools in close proximity to Ford’s areas of operations — Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Haryana.

For a discussion of our global commitment to our stakeholders, please see the People section.