Philanthropic Initiatives in

North/Central America

Highlights

• Supporting education nationwide
  Established in 1984, the American Honda Foundation is a non-profit philanthropic organization that makes grants to worthy non-profit organizations for programs with a specific focus on youth education and scientific education. The foundation has provided more than US$20 million in grants to organizations which, like Honda, value imaginative, creative, youthful, forward-thinking, scientific, humanistic and innovative action.
  Recent initiatives supported by the foundation include: scientific research internships for high school students as part of the Harlem Children Society; and design and problem-solving training for youth (grades five to eight) in the Future Engineers Center at the University of Massachusetts.

• National Youth Project Using Minibikes (NYPUM)
  Minibikes can transform lives. That is the power of the National Youth Project Using Minibikes (NYPUM). NYPUM began in 1969 as an innovative way to engage youth and promote their development. That year, Honda donated 10,000 minibikes and program funding as a way to reach children who were not interested in traditional after-school activities and weren’t responding to other youth services, but were excited by the lure of the outdoors and riding minibikes.

• Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center
  Located in the mountain resort community of Estes Park, Colorado, and surrounded by Rocky Mountain National Park, Eagle Rock School is a residential tuition-free school that accepts students who have not experienced success in traditional high school academic programs but are passionate about changing their lives. It is also a professional development center for educators who want to discover how to re-engage students in learning and help them make a difference in the world. It is important for each of the students to record, express and monitor for themselves how they have grown from their experience. Through classes and communal living, students learn the value of visualizing their own dreams and working to realize them.  more

• Ride for Kids® enjoys huge successes
  Ride for Kids® is a charitable motorcycling program that supports the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation’s(PBTF) mission to find the cause of and cure for childhood brain tumors. The Ride for Kids® program was started in 1984, and Honda became its presenting sponsor in 1991. With the help of Honda Rider’s Club of America and thousands of other motorcyclists taking to the roads in rides across the United States, the program has raised more than US$37 million to support pediatric brain tumor research and family support programs. In 2007 it raised a new record of US$4.5 million. With the help of America’s motorcycling community, the PBTF has become the world’s largest non-governmental source of funding for childhood brain tumor research.
• Community Action Teams (Associate volunteer program)
  American Honda Motor provides a program to facilitate individual associates to take active roles in community where they live and work. more

• Civic Reading Circles
  In FY2008, 47 associates of Honda Canada in four locations around the country volunteered their time to participate in Civic Reading Circles, a mentorship program that helps second and third grade students improve their literacy skills and realize the fun of reading. Under the program, associates spend one hour a week for ten weeks reading with the children. Honda Canada treats 30 minutes of each hour an associate spends with the children as work time, thereby further supporting the program. In Quebec, Circle members read in French; elsewhere, they read in English. On the last day of the program, the children take a tour of the Honda location sponsoring their Civic Reading Circle and enjoy a final reading session there. Honda donates books to the children and their school as an additional way to promote literacy and the enjoyment of reading. Participation in Civic Reading Circles is a rewarding experience for Honda associates and reaffirms Honda’s goal of being a company society wants to exist.

• Spring Creek preservation
  Honda of Canada Manufacturing, a division of Honda Canada in Alliston, Ontario, Canada, makes its home along the banks of Spring Creek. The area is also home to a number of environmentally sensitive species, including the brook trout and the bluebird. Due to loss of habitat and competition from introduced bird species, the bluebird population has been in decline. Honda associates have been supporting local plants and wildlife by helping look after the Spring Creek habitat. Spring Creek Clean-up Day, usually held on the first Saturday in May, is the focus of a variety of conservation activities that in 2007 involved 75 Honda associates and their families. more

• Earth Rangers
  Honda Canada provides vehicles (Odyssey) and financial support for Earth Rangers’ school-based action projects that help youth nurture a lifelong commitment to the environment.
• Family Literacy Day
  Joining hands with the ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation, Honda Canada is the founding sponsor of Family Literacy Day. Every year, on January 27, families and communities across Canada celebrate this special day, a key part of an initiative that promotes the importance of reading and learning together as a family.
• The Toronto Marathon and Honda Relay
  In support of the Toronto Marathon, Honda sponsors the Honda Relay, an initiative designed to raise pledges in support of cancer research at the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation.
• Community Volunteer Action Committee(Associate volunteer program)
• Community Partnership (Associate volunteer program)
  Honda Canada provides programs to facilitate individual associates to take active roles in communities where they live and work. more

• ATV touring event and clean-up initiative
  On April 28, 2007, Honda de Mexico held a touring event for ATV fans on 74 routes throughout the country. Associates from 94 Honda dealerships and over 2,000 customers took part in the event, in which riders toured and cleaned up forests, rivers, beaches and many other precious natural environments. With garbage bags in hand, the ATV riders cleaned up at lunch break areas and anywhere else they found litter.
• Sea turtle preservation
  Honda de Mexico supports a program that helps protect critically endangered sea turtles on the west coast of Mexico. Five 4-wheel ATVs were donated to a local university scientific research program that patrols a nature conservation area to prevent turtle eggs from being eaten by predators. As part of the research program, participating scientists bring turtle eggs laid on the beach to be hatched in a field laboratory. So far, this program has rescued about 100,000 sea turtle eggs, 80% of which have been successfully hatched.

• Volunteer Month
  Honda Manufacturing of Alabama held its first Volunteer Month in July 2007. The yearly initiative is designed to spark associates’ interest in giving back to society and encourage participation in Honda Star, the company’s long-standing program to support volunteerism in local communities. During Volunteer Month, when an associate gives five hours of his or her time to a certified non-profit organization, the company donates $100 to the organization. The inaugural Volunteer Month saw extensive participation by associates and their families with 725 persons donating time to the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind, the Boys and Girls Club of Pell City, the Children’s Hospital of Alabama, and other worthy causes. These results demonstrate the drive of associates to make Honda Manufacturing of Alabama a good corporate citizen that improves the lives of people in the local community.
• United Way Campaign
  The company adds financial contributions to the donations made by individual associates to the United Way in support of the United Way’s efforts to assist agencies that provide health and human services to those in need.
• Honda Star (Associate volunteer program)
  Honda Manufacturing of Alabama provides a program to facilitate individual associates to take active roles in communities where they live and work. more

• Big Darby Creek preservation
  In Ohio, Honda is joining hands with The Nature Conservancy to protect the creeks and streams on and around the grounds of its facilities. The sites of the Marysville and East Liberty, Ohio, automobile and motorcycle plants of Honda of America Manufacturing are neighbors to the headwaters of Big Darby Creek, a state and national scenic river and one of The Nature Conservancy’s “Last Great Places.”
• Honda Hero (Associate volunteer program)
  Honda of America Manufacturing provides a program to facilitate individual associates to take active roles in communities where they live and work. more

Foundation

• Honda has established three foundations in North America: the American Honda Foundation, the Honda Canada Foundation and the Honda of America Manufacturing Foundation (HAM Foundation). In 2006 these foundations donated more than US$2.3 million to various nonprofit organizations to support education programs and initiatives for youth. more