What 2025 Taught Ford Philanthropy About Moving Forward

For more than 76 years, Ford Philanthropy’s mission has remained constant: Help move people forward and upward. And in 2025, we leaned into this mission like never before, innovating our strategy and marshalling our strengths to better support our nonprofit partners and the communities they serve, all around the world. 

From connecting families with food and other essentials, to helping communities become more resilient, to equipping students with skills for the future, our annual impact report celebrates the programs, partnerships, and people who defined our year. It also offers insight into how we’ve continued to adapt to meet the ever-evolving challenges that today’s communities face. 

As we look back, five key lessons are shining a light on our path ahead: 

Uniting Ford’s core strengths helps our partners do more. 

Making a greater impact often means moving beyond traditional approaches. That’s why we helped launch a new company-wide initiative in June 2025: Ford Building Together. It unites the full power of Ford — our philanthropy, employees, vehicles, expertise, and vast dealer network — behind a dream team of expert nonprofit parters with the goal of building stronger, more resilient communities. This is more than writing checks. This is Ford loaning vehicles and mobilizing volunteers after a disaster strikes. Dealers hosting food collections, preparedness sessions, and blood drives. Our employees lending specialized expertise. Essentially, we’re rallying all our strengths to help our partners scale their operations and expand their reach. 

We saw the power of this coordinated approach last year following disasters in Central Texas and the Philippines. Thanks to the relationships we had put in place through Ford Building Together, we were able to quicky align funding, vehicle loans, logistics, and on-the-ground support from our dealers and volunteers, empowering our partners in these areas to quickly move into action when their communities needed it most. 

Volunteering is more impactful when employees activate their skills and expertise. 

Last year marked the 20th Anniversary of the Ford Volunteer Corps, founded by our Executive Chair Bill Ford. As we celebrated Ford volunteers’ long legacy of showing up for their communities, we also looked toward the future and for new ways to empower our people to make an impact. 

We’ve learned that volunteering goes further when employees lend their professional talents to our partners, from accounting and legal know-how to marketing, logistics, and technical expertise. To support this, we’re encouraging our people to raise their hands when they have a practical skill to share and have also extended PTO for volunteering to up to 56 hours for salaried employees. We see the results in employees like Shanikia Little, who used her engineering expertise to design a mobile conveyor belt system for Gleaners Community Food Bank that streamlined their meal kit packing process. The result? Gleaners — a longtime Ford Philanthropy partner — was able to double its distribution.  

When it comes to connecting people with essentials, the “last mile” matters. 

Here’s an eye-opening statistic: 2.3 million U.S households — that’s 5.9 million people — live over a mile from a grocery store and don’t have a way to get there. 

Beyond scholarships we’re also helping to cover “hidden costs” like tools, credentialing fees, and transportation. To inspire these future professionals, the Ford Auto Tech Scholarship program even brought students to NASCAR races to get a thrilling, first-hand look at potential jobs in auto tech. It’s all part of a comprehensive approach to opening doors and showing young people that the skilled trades offer a viable path to a rewarding career. 

Partnership is key. 

In a world facing natural disasters, food insecurity, and a growing epidemic of loneliness, community matters more than ever. Our Ford Community Centers have always served as local hubs that bring people, resources, and partners together, instilling a sense of belonging and support. But we know that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach—every location has its own unique rhythm, history, and needs. In 2025, we began an expansion of our Center in Bangkok, Thailand, which houses a local café that doubles as a youth job training program while also supporting partners who connect people with food and other essential services. In our Detroit Center, Ford Finance volunteers worked in collaboration with the Accounting Aid Society to help thousands of people file their taxes and access much-needed refunds. The key to making these spaces work is simple: We always seek input from our nonprofit partners and other local stakeholders, ​​who know the needs and aspirations of their local communities best. 

The Path Ahead 

We are immensely proud of all we were able to accomplish together with our partners in 2025, but the work is also deeply humbling. Progress doesn’t always happen in a straight line. We know that we can’t solve every problem, and that the challenges facing our communities are complex. But we also know that when we bring our best to our partnerships and to the people we serve, we’re on the right path.