Get Better and Better

Prior to his recent retirement, Mike Goss, served two critical roles within Toyota: first, he was general manager of Social Innovation, overseeing strategic community engagement opportunities, and he served as president of the Toyota USA Foundation, a $100 million charitable endowment started in 1987 that, among other things, supports innovative programs for students and teachers in science, technology, engineering, and math programs during all phases of education – from preschool through post-secondary education. In these roles at Toyota, Goss left a legacy, helping to transform Toyota’s approach to making an impact on the communities where Toyota operates.

Over his 26-year tenure at the company, Goss has been instrumental in refining Toyota’s philanthropic strategy and bringing to it a sharper, more focused lens. According to Goss, Toyota’s j10ourney to greater impact was fueled by one of the most significant transformations in the company’s history: the establishment of the new Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) headquarters in Plano, Texas.

“In 2014 we announced the TMNA HQ, which would bring team members from four different Toyota companies together at one campus for the first time,” Goss recalls. “Having everyone together in one place gave us a huge opportunity to strengthen our philanthropy and community engagement, and to pool our vast resources and work together in a more strategic fashion.”

Before the move to Plano, each of the four companies had its own philanthropic division. These divisions were all working on different priorities, which made it difficult to understand the true impact Toyota was making on communities.

“We were more like checkbook philanthropists. It made us feel good, but it wasn’t strategic,” Goss says.

Sharing the Vision

Although corporate social responsibilities were still handled by some of these independent groups within Toyota, bringing them to one campus was critical for a shared vision of how to make bigger impact.

To do this, Goss drew inspiration from “shared value,” a term coined by Harvard business and economics professor Michael Porter. Shared value is the idea that when companies and communities work together to solve key social challenges, everyone does better.  

“At Toyota, we had to ask ourselves: what can we do that not only impacts our society, but companies like Toyota, as well?” Goss says.

The answer soon became clear.

To best support the communities where Toyota operates and foster greater innovation, the company decided to focus on improving education, especially in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields, which would benefit companies across several industries. On the community side of the equation, the people living near Toyota’s operating sites were consistently voicing a desire for good education that leads to good careers.

The light bulb went off: supporting education and workforce development would be a way to create shared value.

With a unified team and a clear direction, Goss and the Toyota USA Foundation next set out to determine how Toyota could support these goals. But to achieve this, Toyota knew that it also needed to strengthen the communities where its people live, work and play.

Learning Opportunity for All

In relocating to North Texas, Toyota began building relationships with local educators and schools, including Southern Methodist University (SMU) and the Dallas Independent School District (ISD). Talking with these experts, Goss and his team learned that schools in the nearby West Dallas area were failing, and that students were often leaving their home communities to attend other schools.   

In brainstorming what Toyota could do to help strengthen the community, Goss asked the ISD superintendent, “What about a STEM school?” That conversation paved the way for a major collaboration with the Toyota USA Foundation to establish the West Dallas STEM School, a preK-8 center of STEM learning that opened its doors in 2021.

The West Dallas STEM School was inspired by the Ignite Institute, a STEM school in Northern Kentucky seeded by a significant contribution from Toyota. When it first opened, the West Dallas STEM School served only seventh- and eighth-grade students. The remaining grades are being added each year going forward as the school, formerly known as Pinkston High School, undergoes renovations.

To support the school’s success, the Toyota USA Foundation also provided grant to SMU for teacher and curriculum development, plus project coordination. Additionally, Toyota began working with area nonprofits to address broader issues that impact learning, ranging from mobility to literacy and food insecurity, allocating several employees, as well as more than $9 million to date, to the effort.

The decision to support student learning at the elementary level was an intentional one. As Goss puts it, the effort is “…a long-term play. If you don’t take care of the needs of these kids at an early age, they are almost too far behind to effect change by the time they get to middle and high school. So being able to intervene early is so important.”

The Toyota USA Foundation’s program is about seeking to expand opportunities for all.

The West Dallas STEM School provided a platform for Toyota USA Foundation to put it all together and show how the company can make meaningful impact through strategic thinking supported by resources that included things beyond just monetary donations. The program infuses mentorship and outside-of-the-box thinking in collaboration with those in the community to determine the best way forward.

Expanding Nationwide

What Toyota USA Foundation began in and learned from West Dallas is now spreading to 15 communities where Toyota has facilities across the country. Bringing it all together is Driving Possibilities – an initiative of the Toyota USA Foundation – supported in part by TMNA and Toyota Financial Services, to support STEM education and essential needs of students and families.

In just 10 years, thanks to the establishment of TMNA HQ in Plano, Toyota has moved from disparate philanthropic efforts to a cohesive, unified strategy that seeks to make an exponential impact for communities and Toyota alike. Goss recognizes it will take many years to truly understand the benefits of both Toyota’s Social Innovation and the Foundation’s efforts, and he looks forward to seeing them come to fruition in the years ahead.