DEI Report

Our Communities

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.

STEM & skilled trades

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.

Graphic representing 5 million STEM learning experiences for underrepresented individuals goal.

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.

Two 3M volunteers work on assembling tables in newly renovated classroom.

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.

How our COC Members Engaged with their Communities to Advance STEM Equity

In 2022, our COC members were committed to advancing equity in the communities we serve. Here are some of their stories:

Zoe Dickson, executive vice president and chief human resources officer, promoted STEM and skilled trades education for students. This fall, she visited Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Minneapolis and met with some of the robotics team students to see their robots in action. The day was a treat for Zoe – a former engineer – and she loved seeing the students in their element working in a skilled trades lab that offers so many advanced pieces of equipment for them to work with.

Zoe, along with other 3Mers, gave a presentation to the junior class on STEM and skilled trades careers, highlighting what 3M is doing to advance these vital careers as part of our continued investment to drive equity in these fields. During the visit Zoe also chatted with three students to learn about their experience with corporate work life as part of their one day/week work study requirement. Since 2020, 3M has hosted 18 work-study students from Cristo Rey High Jesuit High School.

Mike Vale, group president of 3M Safety and Industry Business Group (SIBG), attended the National Coalition of Certification Centers (NC3) National Career and Technical Education Letter of Intent Signing Day, where he was delighted to present 50 students with $1,000 scholarships on behalf of 3M. Created by NC3 in 2014, this event mirrors the NCAA’s National Signing Day for athletes who commit to play sports in college. It is designed to honor students who are entering a technical field and to celebrate the dignity of work.

3M is proud to sponsor this scholarship, as it reflects our company’s commitment to lifting diverse perspectives and developing the next generation of leaders. Both are important elements in SIBG’s mission of transforming the way work gets done today and into the future.

Multiplying Our Impact

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.

Social Impact of 3M Racial Equity Community Commitment infographic.

Responding to global crises

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.

Our Commitment to Helping Ukraine

At the outset of the war in Ukraine, the need for help was clearly immense. In response, 3Mgives, in coordination with its humanitarian partners, made a $2 million commitment in March. While the work to help isn’t over, that milestone has been met.

On top of $1 million in immediate financial aid to EMEA-based nonprofits and our humanitarian aid partners Direct Relief and MAP International, EMEA-led product donations surpassed $1 million, with another $377,900 coming in the form of U.S.-sourced product donations. Plus, more than $940,000 was raised by 3Mers through cash donations and the 3M match program. In total, more than $3.3 million has been raised and committed to ongoing support in Ukraine.

“We knew that we had to act, and that a relief effort of this size required 3Mers from around the globe to respond. And they have,” said Michael Stroik, vice president of 3Mgives. “With Poland and other EMEA countries stepping up to lead product donation efforts and employees donating cash to help, we met and exceeded our $2 million goal – again, thanks to 3Mers.”

One 3Mer, Eric Hammes, executive vice president & chief country governance & services officer, got to see 3M’s impact first hand. While traveling to 3M Center in Poland, Eric stopped by the Lifelong Learning Center in Wroclaw to meet the people working daily on welcoming and supporting Ukrainian refugees. The Lifelong Learning Center helps Ukrainian refugees learn the Polish language, provides needed services like medical help and childcare and assists with integrating them into the local community.

3M proudly donated $150,000 to the Lifelong Learning Center in May of 2022, as part of our pledge to support those affected by the war in Ukraine.

Giving & volunteerism

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.

3M Open PGA Tour event.

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.

3M Impact Global team members.

Read about the 3Mers who helped bring this powerful program back to life.

3M Impact Returns

After a two-year pause due to the pandemic, 3M Impact Global has returned. 3M Impact Global is a skills-based volunteer service program that supports 3Mers who want to share their talents to make a positive impact on the world and be a part of something bigger. Teams of 3M participants travel to a different country for two weeks, where they work with host community organizations that focus on 3M priority challenges aligned with our sustainability framework.

One such project took place this August in Lima, Peru. Eight volunteers were selected and put into three cohorts to tackle projects aimed at helping families in urban areas with economic vulnerability. Each host community organization felt the projects were extremely successful and that the recommendations made by the 3M teams provided a path forward to helping the communities they serve even more.

3M Impact Global teams also traveled to Vietnam this October. For two weeks, one team of 3Mers had the unique opportunity to support the disability community on behalf of Imagtor, a photo editing company that provides training and employment opportunities for people living with disabilities in Vietnam.

For Matt Zabel, designer and 2022 Diverse Abilities Network chair elect, who participated in the project, the trip helped him form an understanding of the country, the people the company was helping and his own personal purpose.

“As I slip back into my life and career, I feel re-energized and refreshed,” Matt said. “Not too much has changed on the surface, but I've discovered new purpose in what it means to be a designer, and what impact means to me.”

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.

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