Jaguar Land Rover announces charitable foundation
Howard Lake | 4 March 2025 | News
Automobile manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has established the JLR Foundation, a charitable foundation “dedicated to empowering children and young people to reach their full potential and catalyse positive social and environmental change”.
The business has pledged to donate up to £2.5 million to support the foundation it its first year, and “plans to increase funding annually as the Foundation grows”.
The foundation will award grants to charitable organisations and NGOs “that benefit children and young people through initiatives that further their skills, knowledge and abilities, and reduce inequalities by providing opportunities to those who are disadvantaged”.
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The formal launch of the foundation will take place later this year. It will operate at first only in the UK, but there are plans to expand it globally.
JLF Foundation leadership team
The JLR Foundation’s Director is Laura Brown, previously CEO of PEAS, a charity dedicated to expanding access to education in Africa. She will take up her role next month.
The Board of Trustees consists of:
- Andrea Debbane, Chief Sustainability Officer, JLR
- Chris Thorp, Chief of Staff, JRL
- Phoebe Leet, Global HR Director, JLR
- François Dossa, Head of Sustainability Latin America, TCS.
Additional JLR and independent trustees will be appointed over time.
Andrea Debbane explained that at the heart of the foundation is the aim “to help unlock aspiration and potential in all children and young people, many of whom miss out because they don’t know opportunities exist, or they don’t have the self‑belief or means to try.
“By removing barriers and providing access to the right skills, knowledge and opportunities, they can all play their part in building an exceptional and sustainable future”.
JLR’s international charitable activity
The Foundation builds on JLR’s track record of engaging directly with schools and communities to support youth and education.
For example, JLR China recently marked ten years of its flagship youth programme, the Dream Fund, China’s first automotive charity fund dedicated to youth, in partnership with the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation. Launched in 2014, JLR has invested almost £12 million in the fund, benefitting over 700,000 young people in China’s most underprivileged areas, including rebuilding a rural school destroyed by an earthquake ‑ now the JLR Hope School.
JLR also promotes science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to the younger generation. In the UK, its STEM Ambassador Programme has reached over 100,000 students, with support from hundreds of JLR employees, including members of the JLR Board. JLR’s ambition is to grow its ambassador base to 5,000 in partnership with 2,500 schools globally by the end of 2029.
In Brazil, a new socio‑environmental educational programme will launch this year, providing immersive science classes for school students aged 4 to 14 in the rural communities near JLR’s Itatiaia plant, to stimulate their interest in science as a potential future career prospect.
JLR’s Schools Partnerships Programme helps develop future skills and capabilities of students and open their minds to possibilities of a career in the automotive industry by raising aspirations and tackling stereotypes. Reaching over 40, 000 students in the UK and Ireland annually, JLR’s ambition is to reach 1 million students a year globally by the end of the decade.
A global education programme will also launch in 2025 to build transferable skills and support students in finding their unique place in the future of work.
- Land Rover ‘journey of discovery’ raises £1 million for British Red Cross (1 July 2012)
- Land Rover G4 Challenge to raise funds for Red Cross (26 September 2007)
- Land Rover bursary offers loan vehicle and funding to expedition (9 January 2012)
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.