Intel invested $113 million to help businesses that are women-owned, minority-owned and veteran-owned.
With COVID-19’s toll being felt in multiple ways, Intel spent 2021 helping New Mexico get back on its feet and elevate itself.
Intel announced Wednesday as part of its annual RISE report that it assisted some nonprofits to help close educational gaps made more apparent during the pandemic, as well as local suppliers and other New Mexico-based organizations.
Intel donated 150 personal computers to New Mexico nonprofits in 2021 to help keep students engaged in learning, plus 250 science, technology, engineering and mathematics education kits to students within five Indigenous communities. Intel also contributed $115,900 to New Mexico schools and nonprofits as a result of employee volunteer hours, plus $765,250 in charitable contributions to New Mexico-based organizations.
Intel’s New Mexico site has over 1,900 employees. Whenever they do volunteer work at a school or nonprofit, they log their hours into the system. Eligible organizations can receive a match from the Intel Foundation at $10 an hour.
“It’s just one of the ways that we amplify our employees’ commitment to the community, by extending the reach of their time that they donate,” Intel spokeswoman Linda Qian said.
Intel also invested $113 million to help businesses that are women-owned, minority-owned and veteran-owned.
“It is a global goal obviously, but it’s one that we focus on here in New Mexico,” Qian said. “We are extremely proud of the work that we’ve been able to accomplish in the diversity space. We depend on these businesses for our business to be successful, which I think is very important to note.”
Hiring local
The company also announced that 63 percent of its 173 new hires in 2021 are New Mexico residents. That local employee ratio was Intel’s highest since 2017, when 23 of 53 hires that year hailed from New Mexico.
“We always have a preference to hire locally if we can. We have existing partnerships with CNM and other existing organizations to help develop that workforce,” Qian said.
And because Intel didn’t hit its local hiring goal in 2020, it paid $100,000 back to Sandoval County inder an industrial revenue bond agreement.
Intel invests in third water restoration project
As part of reaching a company goal of net-positive water by 2030, Intel is funding its third project in the last several years. For this latest one, led by the National Forest Foundation, Intel plans to help restore water in the upper Rio Grande at the Rito Pena Negras tributary to its original state. Restoration is expected to begin in 2023.
“The benefits that associate with that project are typically long term,” Qian said.
Intel, she added, expects to publish its report on water restoration efforts within the next two to three weeks.
