A LEGACY OF GIVING BACK
We believe investing in people and communities helps make our world and company better. By supporting issues such as crisis relief, equality, and overall community well-being, we build resilience in our communities while showcasing Ryder’s dedication, talent, and skills. By capturing the national efforts of our Ryder community, we emphasize our collective commitment to provide contributions of volunteer time, in-kind giving, and financial resources.
Our Approach
Through the Ryder Charitable Foundation, we support our neighbors in times of crisis as well as expand opportunity and diversity by investing in education and training for jobs in our industry. In 1984, the company established the Ryder Charitable Foundation to provide an effective way to support charitable organizations and guide our giving strategy. Ryder’s charitable giving reflects both our business and our values – trust, safety, innovation, expertise, collaboration, and equality. The Foundation’s Executive Director supervises its operations. The Ryder Charitable Foundation’s Board—made up of Ryder’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Legal Officer—oversees the Foundation, including approving its annual budget. Each year, the Foundation Board reports annual charitable giving to the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee. A report is provided to the full Ryder Board as well.
Ryder Foundation Board
Ryder’s charitable giving reflects our expertise as a leader in logistics, transportation, and supply chain management. We provide more than funding—we also share what we do best. Our employees give expertise, time, and resources to charitable organizations that make our communities more resilient. We support our employees’ dedication with collaboration grants for employee-driven charitable partnerships. As a company with a strong culture of giving, we also celebrate the best in us and highlight our important work through digital story-telling on our corporate website.
In 2020, we developed the following goals to drive positive investments in our communities and further demonstrate our commitment to equal opportunity:
• Invest 10% of the Ryder Charitable Foundation’s budget by 2022 for specific initiatives to expand equality and diversity for the Black community.
• Award 75 partial scholarships per year for women and minority students by 2025.
Driven to Give
At Ryder, giving our time to charitable causes in communities where we live and work is embedded in our culture. As part of employee teams or on their own time, our employees give thousands of hours each year to charitable organizations. These volunteer activities range from mentoring, teaching, committee or board meetings for an employee’s charity of choice to walks, runs, clean-ups, building, cleaning, cooking, and everything in between. Employees volunteer for organizations such as Feeding America affiliates, the American Red Cross, and the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Our Make It Count! initiative allows our Charitable Foundation to capture and recognize the collective good we do as a Ryder community. Whether in-person or online, all hours volunteered for charity count.
Our employees also serve as guest lecturers and provide logistics, transportation, and supply chain training and expertise at colleges, universities, and trade schools. They teach financial literacy classes in public schools as volunteers for Junior Achievement.
We established the annual Driven to Give Award in 2019 to honor employees whose volunteer service is both extraordinary and inspiring. The winning employee volunteer is honored by the Ryder Charitable Foundation and Ryder Chairman and CEO, Robert Sanchez, with the Driven to Give Award, while the employee’s charity receives a gift of $5,000.
For more information, visit our Charitable Foundation & Corporate Giving page.
Crisis Response
In 2019 and 2020, our giving reflected extraordinary need and extraordinary times.
Focusing on the growing need for disaster relief and the sharp increase in food insecurity and hunger as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we prioritized our efforts to help charities deliver critical food and supplies to people in need. We provide funding, transportation assistance, and year-round expertise to food banks affiliated with Feeding America. Ryder’s Chief Financial Officer, Scott Parker, represents the company as a member of the Food Supply Chain Coalition, a national effort to increase efficiency in getting food from farm to food bank to people in need. We also continue to support the American Red Cross, a critical partner for more than 30 years.
Highlight Story: Driven to Give Winners
Driven to Give award winners exemplify extraordinary and inspiring volunteer service to help make their community and the world better. Each year a winner is named and the winner’s charity receives a $5,000 contribution from Ryder.
In 2019, our Driven to Give award winner was Michael E. Mahabir, a Senior Rental Manager. Mahabir was selected for his steadfast work of 12 years for feeding the homeless on the streets of Nashville, TN. He and his wife Rana cook and package about 50 meals at a time, including beverages and hygiene products. Members of his team often pitch in to help. Mahabir designated Rise Against Hunger (where he volunteers his time in addition to his own efforts) as the recipient of the donation.
For the 2020 Driven to Give award, Jerry LaFemina, a National Account Field Maintenance Manager, was named the winner. LaFemina was determined to continue to help others when COVID-19 struck our country and his community. In April 2020, he approached the American Red Cross to volunteer his services as a transportation specialist. He delivered recently collected blood to be manufactured, labeled, tested, and distributed to patients in need, logging more than 130 volunteer hours. Jerry truly stepped up and set a selfless example for his community and all of us at Ryder.
Equality and Opportunity
In 2020, in response to the important national conversation about systemic inequality, we underscored our ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion with the addition of equality as one of the core values guiding our giving strategy – along with safety, expertise, innovation, and collaboration. We continued to focus time and resources on increasing opportunity through strong giving partnerships with organizations and institutions, such as Howard University, Hiring Our Heroes, Women in Trucking, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Girl Scouts, and the University of Tennessee’s NeXxus Initiative.
By supporting the next generation of leaders in logistics and supply chain management and logistics, we aim to expand opportunity and diversity in our industry. We provide funding, scholarships, and expertise, including curriculum development and training, to enhance supply chain, data analytics, transportation, and engineering programs at top colleges, universities, and vocational technical schools.
University of Tennessee Funding & Scholarships
In 2019, Ryder funded research focused on gender equity in supply chain fields. In 2019 and 2020, the Ryder Charitable Foundation awarded scholarships to top women students of the NeXxus Initiative, an effort to increase the number of women in supply chain management. The University of Tennessee’s graduate supply chain program is ranked second in the nation by Gartner.
Howard University Center for Excellence in Supply Chain Management
In 2020, Ryder celebrated a 17-year partnership with Howard University’s School of Business by expanding its commitment to the Center for Excellence in Supply Chain Management (CESCM). Howard is ranked 13th among all undergraduate and graduate university supply chain programs in the nation by Gartner, the leading research and advisory company. The $250,000 multi-year gift includes support for the program, Ryder internships, and expansion of data analytics within the supply chain program.
As a member of the CESCM Advisory Board for 10 years and a partner with the School of Business since 2003, Ryder has contributed to the success of Howard’s supply chain management students and the supply chain program by providing funding, time, and talent. Through internships and working with Ryder executives on real world corporate challenges, students gain experiences to help prepare for successful careers in the industry.
Community Collaboration Grants
Forgotten Harvest in Novi, Michigan
Ryder contributes funding for transportation-related costs at Forgotten Harvest, a Feeding America affiliate in metropolitan Detroit, where nearly half of people are food insecure. A team of Ryder employees in our Novi location have been committed volunteers and advocates for more than a decade. During 2020, in the early days of COVID-19, Forgotten Harvest set up mobile units to address the skyrocketing numbers of the hungry and food insecure. These services have continued throughout 2020 and into 2021, as the need persisted, delivering 138,000 pounds of surplus food per day to local charities.
Highlight Story: Supporting Goodwill South Florida
In 2019, we partnered with Goodwill South Florida, supporting the Ryder Apparel Manufacturing Program with a multi-year gift. The program trains and employs more than 1,000 people with disabilities and other barriers to work. Employees manufacture military uniforms for active duty personnel. The partnership continues a legacy established by our founder Jim Ryder, who helped bring Goodwill to Miami in 1959.
Highlight Story: Girl Scouts Collaboration
In 2020, the Ryder Charitable Foundation worked with the Girl Scouts of Tropical Florida, the University of Tennessee’s Global Supply Chain Institute, and the NeXxus Initiative to create the first supply chain patch and curriculum for Girl Scouts. It is exciting to be partnering with the Girls Scouts, who are also pioneers in the field of supply chain with production, sales, and distribution of millions of boxes of cookies each year. As part of an effort to increase the number of women in supply chain fields, Ryder is working with Girl Scouts to encourage girls to see themselves as future leaders in the industry.
GIVING BY THE NUMBERS
In 2019 and 2020, we donated more than $5.5 million to support charitable organizations and initiatives. We have provided more than $25 million to charitable organizations over the past 10 years, including disaster relief, health, social services, community, and safety initiatives, plus more than $5 million for student scholarships and support for college and vocational students and K-12 programs.