Ford Volunteer Corps

In addition to the financial contributions made by Ford and Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services to hundreds of organizations globally, thousands of Ford employees and retirees volunteered to help build stronger communities around the world in 2012. Ford is a leader in community volunteerism. Volunteer efforts help to build the morale of our employees. There’s a strong business case for volunteerism, too: Our volunteer projects help to strengthen the name of Ford and enhance purchase consideration for future buyers. Furthermore, our volunteer efforts help to build stronger communities, which in turn strengthen local economies, enabling more families to consider purchasing a new vehicle.

Volunteerism has been an integral part of Ford Motor Company since its creation in 1903. Today, we help build communities by leveraging the volunteer muscle of Ford employees and retirees around the world. In 2012, Ford’s U.S. hourly workers, who already have a long tradition of volunteering through other channels, had the opportunity to join our Volunteer Corps. The new, four-year UAW/Ford Collective Bargaining Agreement, finalized in late 2011, expanded the Ford Volunteer Corps program to include Ford’s UAW-represented workforce.

The Ford Volunteer Corps operates across six continents to strengthen the communities in which our employees and customers live and work. Ford Motor Company offers its U.S. salaried employees two workdays per year to volunteer in the community. In 2012, more than 25,000 Ford employees and retirees in 28 countries provided more than 115,000 hours of volunteer time for their communities, or the equivalent of slightly under $3 million in in-kind corporate contributions.

In 2012, Ford held four “Accelerated Action Days” – concentrated one-day efforts to meet critical needs identified by our agency partners. Each Accelerated Action Day had a special focus, such as families and children or the environment. For these events, Ford volunteers are mobilized into MODEL Teams that are matched with local social service agencies requesting their help. The daylong service programs benefit shelters and schools, children’s homes, soup kitchens and parks and playgrounds, to name just a few. In 2012, more than 60 community organizations shared $230,000 in mini-grants to support the volunteer projects (e.g., for purchasing the paint and lumber needed to complete a project). We also include a collection or drive on each action day. For example:

• On our “Children and Families” action day we collected diapers and formula
• On our “Better World” action day we collected electronic waste such as phones and printers
• On our “Giving and Sharing” day we collected coats and jackets for the Salvation Army

Software designed and launched by the Ford Volunteer Corps aligns our volunteer projects with the needs of nonprofit organizations. Using this system, employees can go online to sign up for volunteer projects based on their interests and availability. Before launching this software system, Ford volunteers would essentially tell the nonprofit organizations when we would provide hands-on assistance, without fully assessing when would be the best time for our partners to receive assistance. Now, our nonprofit partners can tell us when they need help and what manner of assistance they need. We are continuing to expand the system to strengthen data-collection capabilities – especially in our non-U.S. operating regions – and to enhance the employee user experience.

In 2012, Ford held its seventh annual Global Week of Caring, a weeklong series of volunteer events around the world that is coordinated by the Ford Volunteer Corps. During one week in September, more than 10,000 Ford employees worked in 28 countries to complete over 268 volunteer projects, 25 more projects than last year. Ford contributed more than $100,000 in grants for the tools and supplies needed by volunteers to complete their projects in the Asia Pacific countries of Australia, China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as South Africa. Another $140,000 in grants was shared by nonprofits in the U.S. During this week, participants repaired schools in Australia and South Africa, created water projects in China and Indonesia, worked on environmental conservation in the U.K., helped at orphanages in India and served meals at a homeless shelter in Canada, to name just some of the efforts. In many locations, Ford retirees participate side by side with current employees on these volunteer projects.