Our Communities
3M seeks to advance human progress and deliver a bright future through social investments and thoughtful engagement of 3Mers worldwide. Through STEM and skilled trades education, environmental programs and hometown giving, we support initiatives that impact communities and provide solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
As a science-based company, we are uniquely positioned to support STEM, skilled trades and advanced manufacturing workforce training and development programs. In 2023, we continued to move the needle toward our goal of 5 million STEM and skilled trades learning experiences for underrepresented individuals by the end of 2025, having now driven more than 2.2 million learning experiences globally after 2 years of reporting.
While our investments span globally, our longest standing commitments lie in our headquarters market for expanding career pathway options for underrepresented students. 3M has long supported STEM programming in Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS), helping students receive college credit for STEM classes before they begin their two- or four-year STEM degree programs.
3M is a supporter of the SPPS 3M Advanced Learning Center, a centralized hub at St. Paul College. Here, students from SPPS can take classes and earn college credit in multiple skilled trades disciplines through hands-on learning and use of state-of-the-art equipment. This hub, in addition to ongoing scholarship and support programs, will help local students pursue their dreams in STEM and skilled trades.
In addition to the investments in our headquarters market, 3M contributes to innovative and research-based STEM and skilled trades programs in communities where we operate all over the world. This includes global partnerships spanning across borders, like our sponsorship of FIRST Robotics competition teams in various countries, and also includes local partnerships with schools and nonprofits. For example, with funding provided by 3M in 2023, GlobalGiving supported the Perspektywy Educational Foundation – a Polish organization that promotes the development of women in STEM fields. Our investments supported the Women in Tech Summit, one of the largest events in Poland that inspires young women to pursue careers in STEM.
Science Encouragement Programs
We take great pride in our Science Encouragement Programs (SEPs), which help students take steps toward careers in STEM. We pique curiosity with fun, hands-on demonstrations and classroom visits, and we nourish that curiosity in programs for older students and educators. In 2023, through our volunteerism programs like Visiting Wizards, we provided 5,988 STEM and skilled trades learning experiences for underrepresented individuals thanks to 3Mers from across the company volunteering.
National Collaboration to Advance Equity in STEM Education
3M partners with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), in collaboration with the White House Office of Science and Technology (OSTP), in a nation-wide effort to help eliminate systemic barriers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM). The historic collaboration includes over 150 organizations across multiple sectors and combines more than $1.8 billion in work and investment initiatives.
3M is a member of the STEMM Opportunity Alliance (SOA), a new landmark initiative tasked with driving transformative change across the American STEMM ecosystem by dramatically expanding access and opportunities and bolstering America’s global competitiveness.
In August 2023, 3M hosted SOA’s Building an Equitable and Excellent STEMM Workforce Summit at the company’s Innovation Center at its corporate headquarters in St Paul, MN. This summit brought together more than 200 leaders from federal, state and local governments, federal decision makers, industry, higher education institutions, education organizations, community organizations and research institutions. This cross-sector initiative helped craft new strategies for driving greater equity, opportunity and innovation in the science and technology ecosystem regionally and nationally.
In 2023, with direction from our Community Coalition, we invested $13 million of our $50 million five-year commitment supporting diverse-serving organizations, bringing our total cumulative investment to more than $39 million since announcing the pledge in 2020. We leveraged our Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis to project an estimated $3 for every $1 invested in social value returns such as increased wages, additional taxes paid and avoided justice systems costs. This analysis continues informing future investments as we seek to maximize our social impact.
3M is proud to drive community impact with available resources, including our products. We strive to make our products available to global nonprofits working to advance education, humanitarian aid and overarching community well-being. From Post-it® Notes to N95 respirators, packaging tape to wound care, 3M supported schools and nonprofit organizations with a diverse array of products that support, sustain and amplify social impact. In 2023, our total product donations were valued at $29.8 million.
3M and Hourcar have partnered since 2021 to help communicate Hourcar’s mission through 3M’s state of the art vehicle wrap technology. Hourcar is a local shared-mobility nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect people to their communities with convenient, equitable and sustainable multimodal transportation.
In 2023, our total cash giving was more than $40 million. Our core focus areas for social impact include STEM and skilled trades education, climate change and circular economy and hometown needs, including community giving in 3M plant and site communities.
Bringing the wonders of science to students, through golf.
In addition to service as the named sponsor for the 3M Open PGA Tour event, 3Mgives also supported diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the event. As part of this, we invested in Golf-4-All Day, which provided access to the event for more than 500 youth, and we leveraged the event to inspire students about the wonders of science through our Visiting Wizards volunteer initiative. With intentional recruiting and engagement opportunities, 3M Open helped to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of volunteers at the event in 2023 and our goal is to continue building more representation at the event in the future with an inclusive, welcoming environment for all.
3M Impact Local
In 2023, 3M led local activations of 3M Impact, our skills-based service program, around the world - designed to serve area partners with locally-based 3Mers who want to share their talents to make a positive impact on their community. Our 3M Impact Local program was held in eight countries globally. In the U.S., we held 3M Impact Local activations in Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri and Texas. In the Twin Cities area, our headquarters location, we also hosted a small business hackathon version of 3M Impact that brought 3Mers together with eleven minority-owned Minnesota small businesses to solve real life, tactical challenges.
