Bill & Lisa Ford start campaign to help 10 youth groups in Detroit

Ford Motor Co. Executive Chair Bill Ford and his wife, Lisa Ford, have launched a campaign to raise at least $10 million by the end of June to establish permanent endowments for 10 youth-serving nonprofits in metro Detroit.

The Michigan Central Station Children’s Endowment Campaign was organized to celebrate the planned June 6 grand reopening of Ford’s newly restored Michigan Central Station in Detroit. The campaign has already raised about $7.5 million since last year, a representative said, and Bill and Lisa Ford made a personal contribution of an undisclosed amount to jump-start the effort.

The campaign is in partnership with Detroit-based The Children’s Foundation, which will hold the new endowments for the 10 beneficiary organizations.

In addition to endowment seed money, the organizations will receive two years of technical support to help with future fundraising and also gain access to “drop-in” space in the newly rehabbed Michigan Central Station building.

Details about the application and selection process for the youth-serving nonprofits will be released closer to the June 6 grand opening, a news release said.

“The station is a symbol of opportunity and progress, and its reopening is a celebration of possibilities,” Bill and Lisa Ford, chairs of the Michigan Central Station Children’s Endowment Campaign, said in a statement.

“The best investment we can make for the future is in our children. We have long supported youth organizations because we believe in the power of next generations. This endowment campaign, in partnership with the Children’s Foundation, will bring us together in new and unique ways, creating a sustainable commitment to serving the children of Detroit.”