Macy’s Mission Every One turned one year old this spring.
Last year, Macy’s launched the enterprise-wide social purpose platform focused on creating positive societal change by announcing that $5 billion of the company’s spend through 2025 would be directed toward partners, products, people and programs that help create a more equitable and sustainable future. The commitments of the mission focus on three pillars of impact: people, communities and planet. Macy’s said that the company has made progress on this journey and directed $1.4 billion of its spend toward this goal in 2022, with the majority supporting retail and non-retail diverse-owned businesses, investments in diverse retail development programs and the expansion of certified sustainable products.
“Our social purpose platform, Mission Every One, builds on our heritage of corporate citizenship, fueling a more equitable and sustainable future for our people, communities and planet,” Jeff Gennette, chairman and CEO of Macy’s Inc., said. “Over the past year, our business has infused this work enterprise-wide, transforming how we operate and make decisions. Through our $1.4 billion of our spend in 2022, we see the effect both our corporate and individual contributions can have. Mission Every One has galvanized our brands and our people and led to the creation of programs like S.P.U.R. Pathways, aimed at shattering systemic barriers for underrepresented businesses, and contributed more than $34 million to our community partners. We remain committed to Mission Every One’s ongoing evolution and goal of driving positive societal change.”
People
In 2022, Macy’s said it continued to prioritize building an environment of inclusivity and opportunity for its employees to reflect its customers more closely. Through programming designed to strengthen leadership skills for top ethnically diverse talent and focusing on hiring, retention and promotions, the company said it’s on track to achieve its 30 percent ethnically diverse representation target by 2025, with 29 percent completed at the end of 2022.
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Last February, the department store chain partnered with Guild Education to provide an education program to eligible colleagues. Since the launch, more than 3,000 have completed at least one course.
“The Human Rights Campaign is able to work towards [sic] lived equality for every LGBTQ+ person because of support from initiatives like Mission Every One,” Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said. “For more than a decade, Macy’s Inc. has supported our work while ensuring LGBTQ+ equality is reflected in policies and practice. This has earned Macy’s Inc. a perfect score on our Corporate Equity Index every year since 2015. We look forward to continuing our work with Macy’s to promote equality as a reality for all, from the workplace to everyday life.”
The Workshop at Macy’s is a developmental program for underrepresented suppliers that has helped support and grow more than 195 diverse and women-owned businesses since 2011. Last year, $250,000 in grants were awarded to program participants. All first-time participants received a $5,000 business grant upon completing the program and the opportunity to enter a vendor pitch competition. The winning brand, Black Paper Party, received a $100,000 business grant, a partnership with Macy’s sourcing team and additional prizes aimed at continuing education, experience and growth opportunities. In 2022, 10 Workshop alums were onboarded as Macy’s suppliers.
Last November, Macy’s announced S.P.U.R. Pathways, a multiyear, multifaceted funding program designed to advance entrepreneurial growth, close wealth gaps and break systemic barriers faced by diverse-owned and underrepresented businesses. Through a $30 million investment over five years by the company, S.P.U.R. Pathways will ultimately represent up to $200 million in access to funding in partnership with Momentus Capital.
Through the company’s efforts to include diverse suppliers in its supply chain and sourcing practices, nearly 70 percent of Macy’s procurement team bids had underrepresented groups. The company said those businesses were onboarded as suppliers half of the time. And last fall, Macy’s rolled out its digital marketplace, which, by the end of the year, had diverse sellers and brands representing 30 percent of total enterprises on the platform.
Under Mission Every One, the company deployed $1 million in corporate grant funding and dedicated support toward social justice causes and organizations, including Human Rights Campaign, National Urban League and CEO Action for Racial Equity.
Communities
In 2022, Macy’s customers, communities and colleagues came together under Mission Every One through round-up campaigns, corporate grants and colleague donations to dedicate more than $34 million and 54,000 volunteer hours to empower young people on their journey to become leaders of tomorrow.
“The collective impact Macy’s and Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) has made in our first year is transformational,” said Artis Stevens, president and CEO of BBBSA. “We’ve rallied communities across the country and raised more than $4.8 million to amplify the power of mentorship. Together, we are breaking down barriers for young people and empowering them on a path to a brighter future.”
With a commitment to organizations that support education and mentoring, mental health and environmental stewardship, Macy’s raised more than $25 million to impact organizations that support this work, including BBBSA, The Jed Foundation, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Hispanic Federation, UNCF, The Trevor Project and more. These funds created nearly 2,000 scholarships, provided access to educational programming for more than 5,000 students, provided mental health services and resources for 400,000 young people and revitalized schoolyards for students and communities.
Macy’s “Future of Style Fund” committed $500,000 to create student scholarships and funding for programming promoting representation in design, styling and sustainability. In 2022, the retailer partnered with organizations including City College of San Francisco, Clark Atlanta University, Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and Fashion Scholarship Fund to provide grants promoting the next generation of leaders through access to learning opportunities and industry leaders, programming support, technology and scholarships. Last year, Macy’s also launched the Divine Nine Sorority Dress Collection in partnership with The Kasper Group. It aimed to help members of historically Black sororities find styles in their signature colors for conferences, community service events and ceremonies. This January, the company donated $1 million, split evenly, to fund the education and research of three different sororities.
Through Bloomingdales’ expression of Mission Every One, B the Change, the nameplate launched the Bloomingdales x FIT Sustainable Innovation Fund, which provides funding for student-led projects and sustainability innovation at FIT.
Planet
Macy’s said it is committed to ensuring its private brand products managed by its sourcing team are both sourced and created with sustainable materials and production practices to achieve 100 percent preferred materials in those private brand products by 2030. In 2022, cotton and wood policies were published outlining the company’s commitment to its private brand products and to work with suppliers to develop sustainable sourcing strategies and foster transparency and certification compliance. In the last year, Macy’s continued this work, supported by partnerships including Better Cotton. By the end of 2023, the company said it expects more than half of cotton products within private brands to be sustainably sourced.
Human rights, women’s equality and family well-being are priorities throughout the company’s global value chain, Macy’s said. In 2022, the company provided increased transparency into its private brand practices that ensure adherence to third-party audits, identification of issues and drive for remediations if violations occur. Last year, through a partnership with RISE: Reimagining Industry to Support Equality, the company said it supported thousands of women across its global workforce through workplace initiatives that aim to advance equality for women workers in global garment supply chains.
“When companies like Macy’s, Inc. help lead the critical effort to support women workers in global garment supply chains, we empower change and create opportunities toward greater gender equality,” Christine Svarer, executive director at RISE, said.