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Foundation of the Year: National FFA Foundation
As president and chief marketing officer of the National FFA Foundation, Molly Ball has no trouble asking for money because, “if you believe in the organization and have the passion, then it’s really easy to do.”
And here’s part of her sales pitch: “We’re growing the next generation of leaders who truly are going to change the world. The big issues that we need to solve in the future are food and infrastructure. Everybody needs to eat. I think everybody needs to know what a farmer does, how we produce food in this country. We will have to feed 9 billion people in 2050, and the only way we can do that is through technology and through young people who aspire to change the world.”
The National FFA Foundation (formerly Future Farmers of America), founded in 1944 and located in Indianapolis since 1996, serves as the fundraising arm of the National FFA Organization and its more than 1 million members and more than 9,000 local chapters in all 50 states. Its mission is “to secure and manage resources to support programs that prepare youth for leadership and careers in the science, business and technology of agriculture.”
The FFA Foundation is unlike most foundations in that it gives nearly all its money to the national organization to support FFA programs, scholarships and events that promote agricultural education and leadership development among students. Last year, the foundation raised more than $24 million, Ball said. Most of the money came from corporations—Tractor Supply Co., John Deere and the agricultural cooperative CHS are the biggest donors.
Tractor Supply Co. has partnered with FFA for more than 40 years, Marti Skold-Jordan, executive director of the Tractor Supply Company Foundation and manager of community relations for TSC, said in a letter nominating the FFA Foundation as Foundation of the Year.
In 2022, Tractor Supply partnered with the FFA Foundation to launch the FFA Future Leaders Scholarship, pledging $5 million over five years to establish the largest agricultural scholarship of its kind.
“The National FFA Foundation’s efforts exemplify how strategic educational investment can lead to lifelong career success,” Skold-Jordan said. “Through hands-on learning, leadership training and a commitment to sustainability and innovation, the foundation is helping to build not just better students, but also stronger communities and a more resilient economy.”
And not just in rural areas. Ball, who has been with the FFA Foundation for 12 years, said that while the public tends to think of FFA as rural America, 20 of the 21 largest cities in the United States have FFA chapters, and about two-thirds of those chapters are in urban or suburban schools.
“Kids need to learn where their food comes from everywhere across the country,” she said.•
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