3M improves lives and builds sustainable communities 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 feel uniquely positioned to support STEM, skilled trades and advanced manufacturing workforce training and development programs. In 2022, 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, reaching over 1,042,167 experiences globally in our first year 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.
In 2022, SPPS created a centralized hub at St. Paul College called the Saint Paul Public Schools 3M Advanced Learning Center. Here students from Saint Paul Public Schools can take classes and earn college credit in multiple skilled trades disciplines through hands-on learning and state-of-the-art equipment. 3M partnered with Heart of America to help transform this hub into an inviting space conducive to learning. 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 2022, GlobalGiving supported the Malala Fund’s STEAM Education for Girls in Pakistan, whose mission is to strengthen STEAM education in 13,000 public high schools in Pakistan, enabling roughly five million girls (in addition to over seven million boys) to have access to improved education. In Japan, 3M welcomed Kidsdoor to our Customer Technical Center and began a new collaboration in 2022 focused on future career conversations and 3M science experiments. These are just a few examples of how our global teams seek to empower youth to leverage science to expand their career opportunities and change the world.
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 2022, through our Visiting Wizards program, we provided 5,467 STEM and skilled trades learning experiences for underrepresented individuals thanks to 3Mers from across the company volunteering – including several of our chief executives.
In 2022, with direction from our Community Coalition, we invested $12 million of our $50 million five-year commitment supporting diverse-serving organizations – with an estimated impact of $35 million in social value returns such as increased wages, additional taxes paid and avoided justice system costs. This analysis will inform future investments as we seek to maximize our social impact.
3M is proud to drive community impact with all of our available resources, including our products. Through our corporate aspiration to improve every life, we strive to make our products available to global nonprofits working to advance education, social justice, humanitarian aid and community well-being. From Post-its to N95s, Packaging Tape to Wound Care, 3M is uniquely positioned to support schools and nonprofit organizations with a diverse array of products that support, sustain and amplify social impact. In 2022, our total product donations were valued at $32 million.
In response to the conflict in Ukraine, 3M invested in the 3M Emergency Relief Fund, empowering our employees globally with direct access to financial resources in times of immense crisis or need. We donated over $2 million in cash and products to the Ukraine relief effort.
In 2022, our total cash giving was $50 million – 39% higher than five years ago in 2017. 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.
In addition to our philanthropic programs led by our Employee Resource Networks (ERN), our ERN leaders also supported diversity, equity and inclusion efforts with our premiere sports sponsorship: the 3M Open PGA Tour event. 3M supported Golf-4-All Day, which gave more than 500 young people access to the event and to engagements with professional athletes like Larry Fitzgerald and Adam Thielen. As part of our ERN engagement, we increased the racial diversity of volunteers at the event from 1% in 2021 to 5% in 2022, a solid start towards driving to a more representative event overall.
Also this past year, we’re thrilled to have relaunched 3M Impact Global – our skills-based volunteer service program that supports 3Mers who want to share their talents to make a positive impact on the world – after two years of COVID delays. 3M Impact convenes teams of 3Mers with a diverse array of skills to collaborate on social challenges with nonprofits, schools and social enterprises.
We also have local activations of 3M Impact around the world – designed to serve local partners with locally-based 3Mers. In 2022, our 3M Impact Local program was held in Mexico, Canada and China – just to name a few countries – and in the U.S., we held 3M Impact Local activations in Utah, Kentucky, South Carolina, Missouri, Minnesota and Texas. In the Twin Cities area, our headquarters market, we also hosted a small business hackathon version of 3M Impact that brought 3Mers together with minority-owned Minnesota small businesses to solve real, tactical challenges.
Additionally, throughout 2022, during large group volunteer events at more than 20 3M sites, 3Mers created over 13,000 socks bundles, each containing a pair of socks, granola bar, bar of soap, comb and a handwritten note to be donated to unhoused people in their local communities.