More than one million older adults stop driving every year, and more than fifty percent of them stay home on any given day—partially because they lack transportation options. Moreover, three out of four older adults live in rural and suburban areas that lack a mass transit system.
Because older people often own their cars past the point of being able to drive them safely, Katherine Freund (pictured, below), the founder of Independent Transportation Network (ITN), saw an opportunity to create a ride service through a mix of volunteers and staff drivers. The award-winning, self-sustaining program requires members to pay a nominal rate for rides, but also gives them the option to trade their vehicles to ITN in return for a bank of ride credits with the organization. 
The Atlantic Philanthropies' Aging Program, which seeks to address the structural and systemic factors that threaten the health and economic security of older adults, awarded ITN a four-year multi-million dollar grant in 2006, describing ITN’s model as “creative and replicable.”
Atlantic supported ITN’s development of a long-term business plan to become a national resource. Their model addressed several key issues related to aging: it would help frail older adults achieve mobility and vitality; enable opportunities for active older adults interested in volunteering; and, perhaps most importantly, provide access for older adults to critical services they might not otherwise receive, including health care services.
Atlantic’s support for ITN is an example of how grantmaking in aging can address a multitude of issues affecting the quality of life, safety, and social activity of older Americans.