The following contributions are written by Michael Stroik, Vice President of Community Relations at 3M, Asha Varghese, President of Caterpillar Foundation, and Dr. Vivian Greentree, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Corporate Citizenship at Fiserv; President, Fiserv Cares Foundation. These testimonials can be found in our Meridian Corporate Council Highlights portion in our recently launched Corporate Systemic Responsibility Report. To download the report and read other testimonies, click here.
Michael Stroik | Vice President of Community Relations, 3M
“In many ways, the trends we are observing in philanthropy reflect the trends in our broader society. We are pushing ourselves as individuals and as teams to advance equity within our internal systems and external investments. We are working to streamline and digitize our processes to improve efficiency and deliver better data analytics. And we are expanding the depth and breadth of our employee engagement platforms to ensure we are creating opportunities to leverage the time and talent of our employee base and our business enterprise to contribute to positive change in our global operating communities. We have arrived at a moment where corporate social responsibility is more than a buzzword, it is a movement towards true corporate community connection, and we are so proud to be one integrated part of 3M’s broad social commitments.
Asha Varghese | President, Caterpillar Foundation
“For nearly 70 years, the Caterpillar Foundation has been committed to driving sustainable progress through collaborative action, impact-driven investments, and strategic partnerships. We focus on getting to the root cause of problems to provide lasting solutions — like building resiliency in communities by co-creating and investing in data-driven outcomes to ensure our work extends beyond the immediate impact. We know too well the fragility of infrastructure and economies worldwide. We are pushing beyond the status quo to equip communities and regions with the resources necessary to thrive in our changing world. We strongly believe solving disruptive upstream issues and prioritizing capacity building will be a focal point for corporate social responsibility initiatives across the private and public sectors in the years to come. Between the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on economies and workforces, plus the impacts of climate change on our world — collaboration across sectors to identify sustainable solutions will be vital to advancing global development.”
Dr. Vivian Greentree | Senior Vice President, Head of Global Corporate Citizenship, Fiserv and President, Fiserv Cares Foundation
“As Fiserv has matured our culture of inclusion and ‘doing the right thing,’ we have been able to thoughtfully evolve our efforts into a principled, stakeholder-driven strategy for corporate citizenship that drives innovation, associate and client engagement, and our ultimate success as an organization. By engaging associates in meaningful ways while driving a culture of belonging, we derive a variety of benefits — greater engagement and productivity, increased employee and client retention, and expanded impact, creating shared value for all our stakeholders. So, really, we should all think of corporate culture as a strategy, a strategy to create a total employer value proposition and to drive social impact, including diversity, equity, and inclusion. At Fiserv, our corporate citizenship efforts incorporate a broad spectrum of areas: associate and community engagement, strategic philanthropy, and diversity and inclusion. Because we’ve learned that these areas, when coordinated and aligned, create high-performing teams where everyone can say: I am a valued member of a winning team doing meaningful work in an environment of trust. And, increasingly I see recognition across the corporate sector — that employment is more than a job. It’s financial security, but also connectedness. It’s validation and self-worth, economic inclusion, and mobility. We must create workplace cultures that offer access and benefits for everyone — ensuring that we are providing genuine concern and opportunities for engagement, inclusion, and advancement. It’s a global economy and it’s our chance to build inclusivity into our very recovery efforts from COVID so we come back stronger, more resilient, together.”
