Giving to The Ray
Our Vision
By 2025, The Ray will create and deploy up to 15 innovative projects through:
- Cultivating private and public partnerships
- building technical capacity with transportation organizations, and
- shaping policy at the state and federal level, to accelerate Zero Carbon, Zero Waste, Zero Deaths mobility on a global scale.
Reality Check
Car and truck crashes are a leading cause of death in the United States. In fact, U.S. roads are the most dangerous they have been in 16 years. Deaths due to crashes increased 10.5% in 2021 – nearly 43,000 lives lost, and families broken.
Transportation is also responsible for 28% of the total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in the U.S. every year. The sixth and most recent report of the International Panel on Climate Change stresses that it is necessary to reduce GHG and “drawdown” carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere this decade to prevent the planet – our oceans, our cities, our forests, and farms – from getting even warmer.
Transportation is key.
Who would think that transportation is a solution? We do. And your tax-deductible contribution to The Ray will fund net-zero solutions in transportation across the country.
The Ray builds projects, we build partnerships, and we are helping communities to make transportation safer, smarter, and cleaner – today. Zero is an ambitious goal, but with your help, we can get this done.
Here are just a few things that The Ray will do with your support:
- Expand and enhance the country’s energy grid so it is capable of supporting a projected 18.7 million electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030
- Install clean energy solar charging infrastructure for EVs and electric trains on the right-of-way (ROW)
- Restore degraded roadside land and protecting our waterways from pollution with native, perennial wildflower meadows
- Save lives through innovative infrastructure that will support autonomous driving, platooning trucks, and connected roadways
- Implement circular solutions for transportation waste, such as upcycling scrap tires into rubber-modified asphalt.
Join us as we engage public, private, and philanthropic leaders in the industry in Mission Zero. The Ray currently partners with 25 states and over 36 transportation agencies to analyze, plan, and take action. All so that we can build net-zero transportation—faster.
There are a variety of ways you can contribute. You can give securely online by:
- using the form on this page
- sending a check addressed to The Ray and to the attention of Allie Kelly
- giving a grant from your Donor Advised Fund
- contributing stock or giving from your IRA
- or making a lasting impact with a planned gift to The Ray.
If you have any questions about how to support The Ray and our mission of transforming transportation infrastructure, contact us.
Partner with The Ray!
The Ray values every partner we engage, and we would not be where we are without the strategic support and shared vision of our partners.
To find out more about how The Ray determines who to expand our work alongside, click here.
If your organization is interested in partnering with The Ray, please reach out to us! Find The Ray at www.TheRay.org and on social media @TheRayHighway. Email us at contactus@theray.org.
Let’s Drive the Future . . . Together!
The Ray is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity and net-zero highway testbed, located on 18 miles of Interstate 85 between Lagrange, Georgia and the Georgia-Alabama state line. The stretch of interstate is named in memory of Ray C. Anderson (1934-2011), a Georgia native recognized as a leader in green business when he challenged his company, Interface, Inc., to pursue a zero environmental footprint. “The Ray Highway” testbed is paving the way for a zero carbon, zero waste, zero death highway system to build a safer and more prosperous future for all. Learn more at www.TheRay.org.