From the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry to the world of journalism, businesses, organizations and publications of every size rely on Meta technologies to connect with people who support them. It’s important for our teams and our suppliers to reflect this broad diversity. Some of our teams take this dedication to diversity a step further, building programs to support small businesses, expand the diversity of our suppliers and helping other companies and organizations understand the impact of and grow their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.

The employees profiled below all share a commitment to DEI—and to supporting small businesses and other organizations in their communities.

Jason T. helped launch Meta’s supplier diversity program back in 2016, and his leadership has allowed Meta to steadily expand our commitment to diverse suppliers in the years since.

For example, in 2021 Meta planned to spend $1 billion with diverse suppliers and at least $100 million with Black-owned businesses in the US. By the end of that year, the Global Supplier Diversity team announced spending of $1.26 billion with US diverse suppliers, and $306 million with US Black-owned businesses—nearly double the previous year’s amount.

Outside the US, Meta’s diverse suppliers program works across many regions from Europe to Latin America. One example is Progeny Coffee. Its founder, Maria Palacio, was raised on a coffee farm in Colombia. Now a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, she is devoted to helping Colombian farmers become and remain profitable by paying them premium prices to grow specialty coffees.

As a major global company, Meta has the opportunity to support and promote diversity within the business community—especially at times like now, when so many small and medium businesses (SMBs) continue to face challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic and other macroeconomic factors. One such challenge is the fact that in the US, on any given day, SMBs are owed $3.1 trillion from their customers.

Recognizing this trade credit gap, Jason and his team developed the Meta Invoice Fast Track program, which provides certified diverse-owned businesses in the US with affordable, immediate cash as they wait to be paid by customers.

“By supporting our diverse suppliers,” says Jason T., “we are leveling the playing field in a big way and fueling their immediate growth and opportunity.”

“Diversity and inclusion in advertising is not only a good way to do business. It’s also good for business.

That’s what Suellen M. and her Ads for Equality team demonstrated in partnership with some of Latin America’s biggest brands, in an effort that has now been expanded into a global program, Inclusion in Advertising.

In 2020 and 2021, Meta engaged a social research firm to conduct public-opinion surveys in Latin America. The surveys found that women, Black people, LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities felt underrepresented in much of the advertising they encountered.

That led to an Ads for Equality program in Latin America that engaged with dozens of big brands—including Jeep, Unilever and Johnson & Johnson—to conduct a real-world test in the region. For each of their new ads, Meta asked the brands to create a second version in which the protagonist was someone from a traditionally underrepresented group.

The results, based on consumer testing of 60 ad campaigns across a wide breadth of industries, were impossible to ignore. Campaigns that added an element of diversity registered a 7 percent higher level of messaging association, and a full 28 percent higher level of ad recall. The program elicited more than a quarter-million click-throughs and 1.23 million video views.

The efforts weren’t limited to those test ads. Suellen’s team hosted an Ads for Equality Summit in December 2021, delivering more than 150 training sessions, reaching 700,000 Latin American advertising professionals.

“Working with brands, we can build advertising that is more diverse and inclusive,” Suellen says. “It’s good for the world—and it’s good for business.”

Around the world, DEI is important in news reporting—and inside newsrooms. And yet, the types of diversity that receive the most focus may differ by region and culture. Just ask Chiman N.

Meta collaborated with the Asian American Journalists Association’s Asia Chapter (AAJA-Asia), to survey more than 1,200 journalists to gain a snapshot in the news industry across Asia. The study aims to provide an Asia perspective into DEI in the news industry: how DEI is reported in the news, and how diversity impacts newsroom staffing.

One key finding of this work: DEI must be approached with a different lens in Asia than in the West. “In the West, ethnicity is a major diversity issue,” Chiman says. “But in Asia, socioeconomic status and gender are considered highly important issues that must be addressed in the near term.”

The vast majority of the journalists surveyed said DEI was important in news coverage—to reflect their audiences’ interests, to draw in more readers and viewers, and to attract advertisers and improve the quality of news. Still, many also said that other editorial priorities, as well as tight news deadlines, make it difficult to cover DEI as much as the topics warrant—something Chiman knows well from her own experience as an anchor for several broadcast stations in Hong Kong.

Based on the findings, Meta and AAJA-Asia see a need to provide training and to facilitate mentoring by journalists experienced in DEI reporting.

“We have enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with journalists on diversity, equity and inclusion, which are central values for Meta,” Chiman said. “These findings show that different DEI issues are priorities for Asia’s journalists, and that there’s work to be done in this area. We’re looking forward to further collaborating with the industry—and building on this work—to support a more inclusive journalism community and news coverage."

“We want to support a news community that is as diverse as the communities we serve at Meta.”