The Enterprise Mobility ROAD Forward initiative is awarding grants for the fourth consecutive year to more than 600 local nonprofit organizations — as part of a five-year, $55 million commitment announced in 2020. This year’s round of grants, totaling more than $7 million, will be distributed across Enterprise Mobility’s 70-plus operating groups in the United States, Canada and Europe. The initiative aims to advance social and racial equity by focusing on Respect, Opportunity, Achievement and Diversity (ROAD).
Since the launch of the ROAD Forward initiative, $44 million has been distributed to more than 1,000 nonprofits across over 400 communities, helping drive meaningful progress to advance social and racial equity in the places where Enterprise Mobility’s team members live and work.
More than half of the nonprofits have received ROAD Forward grants for four consecutive years. The funds aim to help young people in communities by addressing social and racial equity gaps in three key areas: early childhood development, youth health and wellness, and career and college preparation.
"The launch of ROAD Forward in 2020 allowed us to expand our philanthropic efforts, building upon a strong foundation of support and an unwavering commitment to empowering organizations dedicated to social and racial equity," Enterprise Mobility Foundation President Carolyn Kindle said. "Witnessing the meaningful and impactful progress that our grant donations have enabled over the last four years has been truly inspiring."
Enterprise Mobility operating groups play a key role in supporting the initiative’s success by helping select and submit organizations to receive grants. The local grant recipients are chosen from an outstanding slate of local nonprofits. Notable 2024 recipients include:
- In Europe: Recipients included the Second Chance Schools (E2C), an organization in France that offers training programs for young people who leave school early, and Fundación MAPFRE in Spain, which focuses on improving health and well-being of people through multinational programs and activities. In Germany, SOS Children's Villages offer daycare centers, career and family counseling, meeting places for families and young people living in poverty and Eine Welt der Vielfalt e.V. is an educational and advisory organization that has been actively working to create a society of equal treatment since 1996. The Girls’ Network in the U.K. empowers girls from the least advantaged communities by connecting them with mentors and a network of professional role models who are women. In Ireland, ROAD Forward grants benefit Children’s Books Ireland, which donates books to children in support of child literacy.
"ROAD Forward reflects our promise to empower the organizations and people best equipped to bridge the social and racial equity gaps within the neighborhoods where our employees and customers live and work," Enterprise Mobility Chief Diversity Officer Errin Braddock said. "This initiative, alongside our internal strategy, signifies our dedication to fostering significant and lasting change in the communities we serve."
Of the $55 million commitment, $20 million is allotted to four national, U.S.-based organizations — Girls Inc., My Brother's Keeper Alliance (a program of the Obama Foundation), Parents as Teachers and UNCF. Each organization has now received a total of $4 million, enabling progress in the following areas:
- Girls Inc. implemented a five-year strategic plan that made diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and social and emotional learning (SEL) core pillars of its programs. By embedding these components into its network, Girls Inc. has integrated DEI in professional development opportunities, diversified the employee base and included SEL in programs and toolkits. These efforts enabled Girls, Inc. to increase its reach and support 114,000 girls in 2023 — a 45% increase from 2021.
- My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) Alliance identified four MBK Model Communities in 2023 that demonstrated a positive track record of improving outcomes for boys and young men of color. The impact of each of these model communities has been notable, with Newark, N.J. seeing a 55% decrease in homicides, Yonkers, N.Y. reaching a 91% graduation rate for students of color, Tulsa increasing access in pre-school attendance by 33% and Omaha seeing a 30% decrease in homicides. In 2023, the MBK Alliance also provided 33 Chicago-based nonprofits with funding through its two-year Freedom Summer initiative, a $1 million grant program designed to support organizations as they create safe spaces for boys and young men of color during the summer months.
- Parents as Teachers (PAT) expanded its program by increasing field resources, including 100% of PAT materials that have been made available in Spanish and a new app — PAT Engage! — that provides easy access to resources and supports parent and educator communications. Technology enhancements and studies have improved PAT data, enabling the organization to capture quantifiable program outcomes that help increase funding access and identify and address programming gaps, such as robust support for pregnant mothers. PAT also increased diversity throughout the organization, including board leadership, national staff, national trainers and parent educators.
- UNCF launched the ROAD Forward Scholarship Program, which provides renewable need-based scholarships for 72 first-generation college students attending UNCF member institutions. These scholarships have helped meet more than 60% of unmet financial need for awardees such as Sha’Nyla Wilson, who graduated this year from Tougaloo College Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in political science and minor in pre-law and public policy and administration.
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