CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb 24, 2026--
The Motorola Solutions Foundation, the charitable and philanthropic arm of Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI), today announced its significant 2025 impact, including over $10 million in strategic grants and a new company record of more than 125,000 employee volunteer hours. These milestones reflect the Foundation's three core pillars: uplifting the first responder community, empowering the next generation of innovators and inspiring a global employee culture of volunteerism.
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Uplifting the First Responder Community
A 2025 report revealed that police officers are 54% more likely to die by suicide than the average civilian, and firefighters remain more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty.
This crisis is more than a statistic; it is a personal battle for those on the front lines. To help address this urgent need, the Foundation supports programs like First Responders’Bridge, which provides a lifeline to individuals like Sgt. Brandon Qualls, a police officer in Muncie, Indiana.
“I'd decided that I was going to take my life ... it was very soon after that when my wife came to me about the Bridge,” said Sgt. Qualls. “A speaker was talking about the symptoms of PTSD, and I remember thinking that described a lot of what was going on with me. The Bridge, without a doubt, saved my life.”
In 2025, the Foundation awarded over $5 million to first responder programs, including $1.9 million for mental health and wellness, $1.5 million to support the families of the fallen and $1.3 million to programs focused on recruitment and leadership development to counter staffing shortages.
Empowering the Next Generation of Innovators
The Foundation's commitment to innovation directly confronts a critical challenge: students from under-resourced high schools are less than half as likely to complete STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) degrees compared to their peers from higher-resourced schools, according to a 2025 report. To help dismantle this barrier, the Foundation committed more than $5 million to programs providing technology and engineering education.
“This scholarship not only eases the financial burden of college but also motivates me to keep striving for excellence,” said Kang, a recipient of William Rainey Harper College’s Motorola Solutions Foundation Engineering Pathways and Award for Excellence Scholarship. “[The Foundation’s] generosity has made a real impact on my journey, and I hope to one day pay it forward.”
This targeted investment supports students at every stage of their academic journey. From hands-on technology activities and vocational skills to teacher development and scholarships, the Foundation helps convert students’ interests into careers, cultivating a robust pipeline of innovators for the future.
Inspiring a Global Culture of Giving Back
The impact of the Foundation’s strategic grants is amplified by employee commitment. In 2025, Motorola Solutions employees logged over 125,000 volunteer hours in 40 countries, and the Foundation issued over $1.3 million in employee matching donations.
"Giving back is a deeply personal journey, and we are committed to helping our employees translate their passions into lasting legacies,” said Wesley Barden Touhy, executive director of the Motorola Solutions Foundation. “From matching their volunteer hours to connecting them with non-profits that are personally meaningful, we're proud to empower our people in all they do as a positive force for change."
Through the Motorola Matches program, the Foundation amplifies employee engagement by matching both volunteer hours ('Donations for Doers') and financial contributions ('Donations for Donors').
About the Motorola Solutions Foundation
As the charitable and philanthropic arm of Motorola Solutions, the Motorola Solutions Foundation partners with organizations around the world to create safer cities and thriving communities. We focus on giving back through strategic grants, employee volunteerism and other community investment initiatives, and our strategic grants program supports organizations that offer first responder programming and technology and engineering education. The Foundation is one of the many ways in which the company is helping to create safer communities. For more information on Motorola Solutions corporate and foundation giving, visit our website: www.motorolasolutions.com/foundation
Motorola Solutions Foundation Invests Over $10 Million to Support First Responders and Future Innovators
NEW YORK (AP) — Neighbors, government workers and a powerful railroad snow-clearing machine nicknamed “Darth Vader” scrambled to dig out much of the northeastern United States from a brutal and — in some areas — record-breaking storm that blanketed the region with snow and resulted in thousands of flight cancellations.
But as the snow moved northward and tapered off in other areas Tuesday, forecasters warned that another storm could be right around the corner.
Monday’s storm that meteorologists are calling the strongest in a decade dumped more than 2 feet (61 centimeters) of snow in parts of the Northeast. By Tuesday, roads were beginning to reopen, mass transportation was coming back online in some cities and power had returned for some of the hundreds of thousands who had lost electricity in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware and Rhode Island.
In New York City, which canceled classed Monday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that schools would reopen for in person learning on Tuesday, raising questions about how feasible that is with snow still piled along sidewalks.
Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella said school should remain closed, while Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, described the situation as “a big mess.”
“There's going to be low attendance of students. You're going to have low attendance of staff because people don't know if they can travel, if they can get to schools," he said.
Spokespersons for Mamdani didn’t respond to an email seeking comment but his schools chief, Chancellor Kamar Samuels, said in a post on X, that they were "confident in our decision to reopen."
Philadelphia switched to online learning Monday and Tuesday. Districts on Long Island and elsewhere in the New York suburbs said they would cancel school again Tuesday.
The National Weather Service said it's tracking another storm that could bring more snow to the region later this week.
While the new storm is not expected to be as strong, even a few extra inches of snow on top of hard-hit areas could make cleanup more difficult, said Frank Pereira, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.
“Any additional snow at this point is probably not going to be welcome,” he said.
The weather service referred to Monday’s storm as a “classic bomb cyclone/nor’easter off the Northeast coast.” A bomb cyclone happens when a storm’s pressure falls by a certain amount within a 24-hour period, occurring mainly in the fall and winter when frigid Arctic air can reach the south and clash with warmer temperatures.
More than 2,000 flights in and out of the United States were canceled Tuesday, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. Most of the cancellations involved airports in New York, New Jersey and Boston.
Rhode Island’s T.F. Green International Airport paused its airport operations Monday as it dealt with nearly 38 inches (97 centimeters) of snow, according to the Weather Service, breaking a record set in 1978.
Central Park in New York City recorded 19 inches (48 centimeters) of snow. Warwick, Rhode Island, exceeded 3 feet (91 centimeters), topping the nation so far. The highest wind gust of 83 mph (134 kph) was recorded in Nantucket, with hurricane-force gusts seen all over Cape Cod.
New York, Philadelphia and other cities, as well as several states, declared emergencies.
The Boston Globe management called off printing its daily newspaper for the first time in its more than 150-year history because snow and winds kept staff from safely getting to its printing plant, the newspaper said in an article on its website.
In the New York City-area, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said Monday evening that subway lines are mostly operational after earlier delays, with the exception of the hard-hit borough of Staten Island, where rail service remained suspended.
Commuter rail service to suburbs to the north and east of the city were expected to resume limited service ahead of the Tuesday morning commute, the MTA said.
Christa Prince and two others were out in Brooklyn on Monday afternoon with shovels and an electric snowblower.
“We’re just making a path for this car," Prince said. "It’s not our car but you know, we’re just doing our neighbor a kind deed."
Izaguirre reported from Albany, New York. Associated Press writers Mike Catalini in Morrisville, Pennsylvania; Mark Kennedy and Mike Sisak in New York; Darlene Superville in Washington; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; Philip Marcelo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.
Key Lim, 55, of Quincy, removes snow from a sidewalk lined with trash bags in front of the laundromat that he manages on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Sophie Park)
A woman clears snow from a walk outside a preschool, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
A man walks a boy to school, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
A woman carries a child over piles of plowed snow as she walks a girl to school, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
Neighbors team up to clear a driveway, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in North Attleborough, Mass. Over two feet of snow fell on the area after a blizzard passed through. (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell)
A man walks through Times Square during a snow storm, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Louise Jordan, 3, eats snow while building a snowman near her home in Media, Pa. on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026. (Jose F. Moreno/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
A man walks along the Hudson River Greenway in lower Manhattan during a snow storm, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
A piece of the New York skyline rises above a pile of snow on the Weekhawken, N.J. waterfront, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Hannah and Astrid Grimskog play in Times Square during a snow storm, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
A pedestrian walks along 42nd Street near Bryant Park during a snow storm, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
