Last weekend, I witnessed a car company giving back to the community. They weren’t giving away cars to the needy – they were contributing real money to a high school fundraiser in support of the school’s rugby team.
Ford exercised the altruism under the auspices of their Drive One 4 UR School program. This unique project partners a Ford dealership with local high school for a day of test drives, in which Ford Canada contributes $20 to the sponsoring school for every parent, relative, friend or qualified driver that test drives a Ford product. I dropped by my son’s high school and took an F150 pickup out for a 10-minute test drive.
The Drive One 4 UR School arrangements are simple: The participating school selects a suitable date and promotes the test drive event through the student body or the sports team engaged in fundraising. A list of vehicles and corresponding 10-minute test-drive slots is circulated by email to parents and others that may be interested in participating.
The assigned Ford dealership arrives at the school on the planned date with their support staff and the pre-determined test vehicles. There’s no pressure to buy a vehicle in this program; in fact, the customer agents accompanying the test-drives aren’t sales people. Their role is simply to answer questions.
After the test drive, the only obligation on the part of the driver is to answer a few survey-like questions about Ford and the product tested. That’s it – finito. The sponsoring school gets twenty bucks toward their fundraising for every test drive.
My son’s school augmented the event with a silent auction and a $5 burger lunch. A local radio station was also in attendance handing out trinkets and goodies. So bravo Ford! The school’s team raised some decent coin and a lot of parents, relatives and friends got to take a spin in a new Ford product. Everyone had fun and came out a winner.
Ford exercised the altruism under the auspices of their Drive One 4 UR School program. This unique project partners a Ford dealership with local high school for a day of test drives, in which Ford Canada contributes $20 to the sponsoring school for every parent, relative, friend or qualified driver that test drives a Ford product. I dropped by my son’s high school and took an F150 pickup out for a 10-minute test drive.
The Drive One 4 UR School arrangements are simple: The participating school selects a suitable date and promotes the test drive event through the student body or the sports team engaged in fundraising. A list of vehicles and corresponding 10-minute test-drive slots is circulated by email to parents and others that may be interested in participating.
The assigned Ford dealership arrives at the school on the planned date with their support staff and the pre-determined test vehicles. There’s no pressure to buy a vehicle in this program; in fact, the customer agents accompanying the test-drives aren’t sales people. Their role is simply to answer questions.
After the test drive, the only obligation on the part of the driver is to answer a few survey-like questions about Ford and the product tested. That’s it – finito. The sponsoring school gets twenty bucks toward their fundraising for every test drive.
My son’s school augmented the event with a silent auction and a $5 burger lunch. A local radio station was also in attendance handing out trinkets and goodies. So bravo Ford! The school’s team raised some decent coin and a lot of parents, relatives and friends got to take a spin in a new Ford product. Everyone had fun and came out a winner.