Ford's Global Caring Month, One School at a Time

Each September, Ford employees around the world trade their desks for a different kind of workday. It is called Global Caring Month, the volunteering tradition Bill Ford started more than two decades ago. 

A Grant, and a Workforce That Runs With It

Through the Ford Volunteer Corps, employees in more than 30 countries can apply for $10,000 Ford Philanthropy grants to run community projects wherever they live and work. The program is notable for being almost entirely employee-led: the ideas, the organizing, and often the elbow grease come from the workforce itself. 

Two projects from Thailand this year show how far that idea can travel, and how many hands it can eventually pull in. 

Rayong: When Suppliers Show Up Too

In Rayong, near Ford's manufacturing operations, employees and local suppliers spent a day at Ban Huai Prab School alongside the nonprofit Scholars of Sustenance. It marked the first time suppliers had joined a Global Caring Month project in Thailand. 

The turnout was notable in itself: more than two dozen supplier companies contributed to the project.  Together, the group refitted three classrooms with new desks and chairs, installed water filtration dispensers, and stocked the school with rice, dried food, and other staples. 

Volunteers also spent part of the day as guest English teachers, working through lessons and games with students.  

Beyond the Classroom

The visit funded a full academic year of breakfasts for the school's youngest students and supported a local food rescue program with cooler boxes and refrigerated truck parts, extending the day's impact well beyond the event itself. 

Bangkok: A Safer, Brighter Space for the Youngest

A few days later in Bangkok, a group of employees and dealership staff renovated a neighborhood childcare center. They assembled new furniture, repainted the facility, built a reading corner from donated books, and added safety strips to a stairwell.

They were the kind of unglamorous fixes that quietly make a space safer for the children who use it every day. 

Building Together

Together, these projects capture what Ford calls Ford Building Together, the belief that community impact grows when employees, dealers, and suppliers pitch in side by side. 

Every road leads somewhere. This September, for these Ford employees, it led to a classroom. Proof the impact can keep traveling long after the volunteers do. 

Jane Holloway is the senior manager of global programming for Ford Philanthropy. She specializes in supporting global nonprofit organizations in countries such as the Philippines, Thailand, Australia, South Africa and more.