3M was one of the first companies in the country to establish a charitable foundation in 1953. But in 2022, the Maplewood-based company quietly closed its foundation.
While 3M says their public generosity won't shrink without a foundation, some nonprofit leaders worry the closures will decrease transparency and could result in less funding to local nonprofits, especially at a time when foundation grants and corporate giving is declining nationwide.
8 replies (most recent on top)
I'm confident 3M will continue to fund the same programs as before. This is just a change on paper to eliminate the 3M Foundation. Part of spin. Nothing to see here.
We recovered a bit under Buckley, yes, but Inge did nothing but acquisitions and cuts. Plus of course he ran up the stock price so he could cash out. Since McNerney started, it has been 1 for 4 on CEOs doing anything to grow the place. And that is why we are in such a hole now.
That’s a great way to express it.
Yes, a good game strategy does not rely on catching every Hail Mary pass.
Jimbo may have done some damage, but 3M recovered sufficiently under the next two ceos. Innovation really suffered under the Roman Empire. The idea that we’d do fewer but bigger projects was a d-mb idea. It’s hard to predict the future. The old way was successful. We see the bad results from the second.
There will not be much left of the old 3M, as one large company, once Bill breaks it apart into several smaller entities. What happened with the foundation two years ago simply confirms that the company will be broken up. Perhaps the 3M name stays alive at one of the entities, like Post It Notes, but goodbye to a great company that was mortally wounded some 20 years ago by the same person who managed to crash Boeing.
Got lawyers and consultants to pay for.
There was a Health and Human Services committee of volunteers who helped reviews proposals for donations to East Metro organizations. The 3M foundation allocated significant amounts of money to this. This funding made a significant difference in the ability of those organizations to provide much-needed services to the local community. It was a big list of meaningful services….too many to mention here. They improved lives in our local areas. I was proud to be on the committee and proud to be part of a company that quietly did this. Complain as you will about 3M now but this was one of the best things I saw at 3M, and made a real impact.