Giving Tuesday is upon us in the U.S., and I am inspired by our team members’ generosity, both in their giving and their volunteerism as we celebrate achieving a major goal. Volunteers have the power to change lives and communities. I know this firsthand. As a low-income refugee with a passion for science and math, I was inspired by the volunteers who supported my dreams.
Throughout my childhood, I participated in science fairs across the southern Appalachian region of the U.S. These experiences were only possible with the donated time, effort and resources of community and corporate volunteers.
Throughout countless nights and weekends spent simulating oil spill cleanups, testing sound insulation properties and constructing model rockets, volunteers accompanied me, sharing everything from technical advice to computer access for my reports and display materials.
Through my personal journey, I’ve witnessed the incredible impact volunteerism has on an individual level — and when that volunteering spirit scales up via collective action, monumental progress is possible.
That’s why I’m thrilled to announce an incredible milestone on behalf of Micron Technology and the Micron Foundation, and the tens of thousands of employees who volunteer with us — in less than five years, Micron employees have volunteered over one million hours of their own time toward our mission to make a difference.
To reiterate — 1,000,000 volunteer hours and counting since 2020. That’s equivalent to over 114 YEARS spent by team members contributing to their communities and to our culture of giving — from inspiring young minds at science fairs and Chip Camps, to uplifting a myriad of causes important to them in the communities where we live and work across the world.
It’s fitting that this accomplishment was achieved in 2024, which coincides with the upcoming celebration of 25 years of giving for the Micron Foundation. This unprecedented volunteerism deserves a moment of reflection while propelling us to accomplish even more in 2025 and beyond.
From providing mentorship to computer access, volunteers helped me in so many ways with my science fair projects, big and small.
Volunteerism that’s driven by individual choice for collective impact
Giving is part of the personal and professional lives of Micron team members. It’s a company-wide approach when it comes to social impact, serving as a core function of our business model that drives our culture, talent management and business operations.
Our commitment to volunteerism helps us attract values-driven, diverse talent, and it’s at the core of our people strategy — from talent acquisition and retention, career learning and development, to enhanced employee experiences and team building, volunteering helps to maximize innovation and impact at every level.
Micron’s giving culture owes much of its success to the grassroots level, because team members have the freedom to choose how they want to volunteer. As a baseline, every individual has access to $5,000 of matching funds from the Micron Foundation to donate to causes they believe in and gets 16 hours of paid time off to volunteer on their own terms.
Everything from board service, pro-bono support and skills- and time-based volunteering plays a role at Micron — and our volunteer efforts teach us skills that support professional development and build and improve our entire business.
The Star Light Volunteer Month was started by team members at the grassroots level and has become an incredible global initiative that exemplifies Micron’s culture of giving.
The causes we support, from grassroots to global
Micron’s Star Light Volunteer Month is a shining example of employee-driven enthusiasm for volunteerism. It started as a small, team-member-led effort at select Asia sites, and has grown into a global initiative with over 17 sites participating in 2024.
This monthlong initiative resulted in over 88,000 kg of food packed and donated, 14,000 kg of waste and debris picked up, and over 25,000 kg of clothing donated in just one month! As participants in Asia pass the torch to the U.S. to host in 2025, Star Light proves that our team members’ volunteer efforts can spark company-wide movements and achieve measurable social and environmental impact goals.
Star Light, and so many efforts like it, are a testament to the steadfast enthusiasm our colleagues have for giving back — I even hear from retired team members who want to keep volunteering with us and stay involved in a variety of causes.
We also live and breathe STEM, combining STEM education with passion points to reach underserved and underrepresented groups. We support programs like Girls Going Tech and its mission to inspire the next generation of women engineers. We host Chip Camps where team members, educators and engineering students run day camps that provide hands-on STEM education and mentoring for K-12 students in locations across the globe.
STEM is a passion for many Micron employees, like Brenda Krauss, who donate their time to mentor the next generation in programs like Girls Going Tech.
Our passion for STEM also expands to many of our partners, with incredible organizations like STE(A)M Truck, which brings tools and training to underserved students, and STEM for Dance, an organization that empowers girls of color to learn STEM concepts through the power of dance.
We care for our local environment and global footprints, with community cleanup days in localities like Gujarat, India, and tree planting initiatives across multiple regions, growing with our commitments to global sustainability.
We serve and learn from the people in our communities, with letter-writing programs to deployed service members, care basket deliveries for cancer patients, tinkering labs for students in urban and rural areas, mentorship programs for students in India and so much more.
Looking back at what our team members achieved in a few short years naturally leads me to think about what we can accomplish next.
Micron employees choose volunteer causes that connect them to their communities and interests.
Learning from the past to design for the future
As we go beyond our one million hours milestone, we’ll continue to set goals that push us and focus us to make a greater impact with our collective action. We’ll refine how we evaluate and learn from our social impact initiatives.
We can also lean on Micron’s business strengths to better support our causes and nonprofit partners. By supporting “AI-readiness,” for example, we can help improve nonprofit efficiency and understanding of their data, people, operations and direct services.
We aspire to make volunteerism more intersectional for team members and their ERGs, empowering them to mobilize with peers to blend work, community, identity and personal interests together.
Our mission to make a difference, the future of volunteerism at Micron and the innovation and experimentation we embrace while giving back, will always center around the choices of our team members and their dedication to serving their communities. Thank you to all our team members, and congratulations on an accomplishment that has already given so much and will spark an even greater impact to come.
