Everyone who gets involved on behalf of a charitableorganization has that one story in which their efforts were broughtinto sharp, human focus—that transformative moment in which theysaw a life changed, even if just for a little while.

Kim Saccaro remembers hers. It involves a little boy and a dozenbooks.

An event hosted at the Harold WashingtonLibrary Center, the main branch of Chicago's Public Library, sawnearly 300 kids between the ages of 3 and 5 bussed in to take partin sessions tied to the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation's“Every Day is a Reading and Writing Day” initiative, a partnershipwith Sesame Workshop that provides tools for early literacydevelopment. Some 300 volunteers representing various companies inthe business of property & casualty insurance were on hand,paired up with the children for activity sessions designed tofoster, among other things, a love of reading.

One of the children, says Saccaro, executive director of theIICF's Midwest Division, was on his way out with hisindustry-volunteer “buddy” when he reached the last station of theday—a stop at the mobile unit of Bernie's Book Bank, a localcharity that provides free books to schools and other organizationsthat serve large populations of at-risk children. Upon leaving thelibrary, each child was given a dozen books to take home.

“There was one little boy in particular,” Saccaro recalls. “Hesaid, 'Thank you, when do I have to bring them back?'

“You don't,” she and the other volunteers told him. “Those arefor you.”

“All of them? For me. Just for me?”

“Just for you,” they said.

“He had the hugest smile on his face, he was jumping up anddown,” says Saccaro, savoring the emotional impact of that moment.“It was representational of how many of the kids reacted. I wasoverwhelmed, to be honest, and immediately proud we were doing thisfor so many kids in our community. It was one child, at one event,in one city, and it just showed what this program can do—that theindustry can come together on something like this.”

It is this spirit of “coming together” that defines theInsurance Industry Charitable Foundation, which is positioned asthe P&C insurance business' focal point for a great deal of itscollective philanthropy. Its member companies, which spend theentire year competing for business, come together in a unitedeffort to benefit local charities via its Northeast,Texas/Southeast, Midwest and Western divisions, and also assistothers on a national scale—most recently, by spearheading itsliteracy effort in 2013 through a three-year partnership with theminds behind “Sesame Street.” The initiative provides Sesame-themedlearning tools for both children and their guardians, free ofcharge.

When acting on IICF business, all the standard demarcationsdrawn among executives at various insurers vanish in the spirit ofgoodwill. Saccaro recalls looking around the table during theMidwest Division's inaugural meeting in May 2011 in a boardroom atWillis Tower and being amazed by what she saw: “So many people inthe room who knew each other as obvious competitors, seniorexecutives, all were willing to sit down and take a leap of faithon something brand new and work together for something better.”

“That's rewarding,” she adds. “There's no better wordfor it than that.”

An Industry of Giving

The IICF's role, according to its CEO, Bill Ross, is to providecompanies with the opportunity to elevate the image of the P&Cinsurance industry by promoting its efforts that might not bereported otherwise, such as volunteering in schools as mentors,aiding the homeless or providing food distribution in underservedareas following a disaster. The IICF, as he explains it, has threeprimary goals: to bestow grants (such as the nationwide literacyinitiative); to support regional volunteer opportunities; and toutilize the industry's leadership expertise.

Jillian Walsh, community investment director forZurich North America, left; Insurance Industry CharitableFoundation CEO Bill Ross; and Marlene Ibsen, vice president ofcommunity relations & CEO and president of the TravelersFoundation.

Additionally, during its annual eight-day “Week of Giving” inOctober, IICF member companies industrywide volunteer their time incommunity service. This year, more than 5,000 volunteers logged20,000 hours helping local charities throughout the U.S.

“Our effort is focused on highlighting the work that theinsurance industry's members do, and acknowledge its work as aunited industry,” says Ross. “We can highlight bringing thoseefforts together, and leverage our collective strength.”

In the case of the “Every Day is a Reading and Writing Day”project, he explains, the IICF's national board identified a commongoal: closing America's early childhood literacy gap, somethingthat had likewise been cited by the Pew Foundation as an essentialelement for American competitiveness in a global economy. “Itstruck us as a great opportunity to move the needle on a socialneed.”

“The motivation is simple: When parents and caregivers introducechildren to reading and writing at an early age, they experiencegreater success in school and later in life,” says Eden Kratchman,vice president of ACE Global Corporate Giving and the chair of theIICF's Steering Committee. The ACE Charitable Foundation has beeninvolved with the early literacy initiative from the beginning, sheadds, when the IICF developed a national grant platform to fund theprogram's creation. “Alarmingly, U.S. students are falling behindother countries in literacy skills, and within the U.S., childrenin underserved communities are falling even farther behind,” sheadds.

An evaluation study by research and development firm PlaySciencereported in May that parents' exposure to the “Every Day is aReading and Writing Day” website and materials enhanced theirinterest and confidence in talking, reading and writing with theirchildren, and greatly extended the amount of time spent readingtogether. For Spanish-speaking participants, the impact was evengreater: They reported that the time they spent in talking, readingand writing activities with their kids had increased significantly,particularly when it came to writing-focused behaviors.

Why is this important to those who work in the business ofinsurance? Because it's good news for the P&C industry as awhole when a united charitable effort can yield real results and apositive story. In many instances pertaining to the industry'scharitable efforts, that's not always the case. Those stories ofthe way its philanthropy affects lives in a measurable way all toofrequently go unshared or unheard outside company walls.

If they saw the numbers, few could accuse the P&C insuranceindustry of being stingy when it comes to charity. A study twoyears ago by McKinsey and Co. analyzing the P&C insurancebusiness' charitable giving showed that the industry gave more than$500 million to those in need in 2010, but suggested that much morework remained to be done to increase the impact of thatphilanthropy.

Many insurance executives told McKinsey and Co. they believe theindustry's charitable efforts are underappreciated and do notreceive the appropriate recognition. It should be noted that thisis a common sentiment among execs at two-thirds of companies acrossall industries, who feel the same about the public response totheir charity work.

McKinsey and Co. said the insurance industry could maximize itscharitable work by more closely aligning its social and businessgoals; identifying and committing to a limited number of causesthat leverage its unique skills; and managing its charitable givinglike any other major business investment—through continueddiligence and measured goals. According to the report, nearly halfof all P&C insurers said they did not systematically measurethe performance of their charitable efforts.

“The IICF is a great way of raising our profile” as an industry,says Hank Watkins, president of Lloyd's North America and a memberof the IICF Northeast Division's executive committee. “Our industryhas not done a good job of presenting ourselves as favorably asother industries have, but through the IICF's efforts we are doinga much better job than ever before.

“I think historically, we weren't as proud as we might havebeen,” he adds. “The general public perceived insurance as theindustry you gave money to because you have to buy their products.We weren't recognized as helpful unless there was a major disaster.But because of the IICF and organizations in our industry doingsimilar good work, we're being perceived more favorably as peoplewho want to give back to our communities every day.”

Tales of Compassion

The most important thing about charity, however, isn't aboutnumbers. It's about people—people who need help, and an industrythat recognizes that need and does something about it. Once that isaccomplished, widely sharing those stories is a critical part ofthe process that can be overlooked.

Stories like one shared by Sarah Pang, senior vice president ofcorporate communications at CNA insurance, one of the IICF'sfoundation partners. She relates how one child participating in aworkshop teaching financial skills—hosted by Operation HOPE, whichprovides financial-literacy empowerment for the working poor, theunderserved and struggling middle class—left a lasting impressionon her.

Operation HOPE reps visit schools, reaching out to students asyoung as 4th graders to teach them how to manage their money—or toprovide, as she puts it, “an empowering exercise in making choicesin your life.” During one such classroom session that she witnessedtwo years ago, a group of youngsters were asked, “If you had $100,what would you do with it?”

At first, Pang says, many kids responded that they'd spend ittoward an Xbox, an iPad or other excesses. By the lesson's end,however, when asked the same question, one little boy said, “Iwould save it to buy a car for my mom, because she has to takethree buses to work and she leaves in the dark.”

“All the kids had a very different story to tell at theend of the session, one that was far more meaningful,” she says.“It's an incredible thing to be a part of that.”

At IICF foundation partner Travelers, Marlene Ibsen has anotherstory to tell. As vice president, community relations, andpresident and CEO of the Travelers Foundation (which providesfunding and support for education, community development and arts& culture in Saint Paul, Minn., Hartford, Conn., and otherregions), she was able to witness a young single mom in Bay St.Louis, Miss., put a roof over her family's heads as a result of theinsurer's partnership with Habitat for Humanity.

Ibsen tells of how Heather Adams and her son were living in aconverted barn on her aunt's property when Katrina struck nineyears ago. They tried to ride out the storm, but fast-risingfloodwaters forced them to flee straight into hurricane-force windsthat Adams says very nearly tore her baby boy from her arms.

With the help of Travelers, Habitat for Humanity and theInsurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS), inSeptember 2013 Adams and her two children moved into a new homebuilt to fortified standards that will better protect them fromfuture storms. The house is one of eight pilot Habitat for Humanitybuilds in Alabama and Mississippi made possible by grants providedby the Travelers Foundation. The program has since expanded to NewYork and Connecticut.

“The simple idea that they could have their own home was almostmagical to her,” says Ibsen. “But the idea that she was getting notjust a home but a fortified home was just amazing.”

Jillian Walsh, community investment director for Zurich NorthAmerica, relates how Zurich, yet another of the IICF's foundationpartners, created an unforgettable experience for a young cancerpatient named Eric.

Through its partnership with Make-a-Wish, one of the sixcharities with which it works (the American Cancer Society, theAmerican Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, the United Way and St.Jude Children's Research Hospital are its additional corecharities), Zurich invited the 11-year-old boy and his family tovisit its offices in June during its Global Community Week, duringwhich its employees volunteer with various community projects andcharities in 43 countries worldwide.

When Eric, his sisters Karen and Audrey—his twin—and his parentsvisited Zurich's offices in Schamburg, Ill., employees spared noeffort in making every moment a memorable one. The boy, who hadrecently completed another exhausting round of treatments and wouldsoon embark on an African safari thanks to Make-a-Wish, was greetedby nearly 400 applauding employees; its corporate choir launchedinto renditions of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and othersafari-themed numbers.

The family then boarded a specially decorated “plane”—anelevator—manned by a “pilot” and “flight attendant” who guided Ericon an extensive journey through six themed floors of activities allcompletely catered to his interests, including a “Minecraft” floorof puzzles to solve; a “concert” floor where the young Led Zeppelinfan could show off his best John Bonham licks on the drums andattendees received a T-shirt commemorating the performance; and an“Avengers”-themed floor on which the youth was enlisted to save hishero, Captain America, from Marvel villains and received apersonalized video message from actor Chris Evans, offering the boyencouragement. The family received gifts from employees along theway, and the seemingly endless activities ended with a Green BayPacker-themed lunch of Wisconsin delicacies, Eric's favorite.

“At the end of the day, he said, 'It's crazy that you guys haveput so much effort into just one kid.' It was tremendous,” saysWalsh. “There was so much employee interest in this, a lot ofemotional investment.” The insurer's enthusiastic coordinatingcommittee and several spirited floor committees, she adds, “justbanded together, and helped to make it happen.”

Charity Works

The challenge is this: If the P&C insurance industry is totruly maximize its philanthropy, if it is determined to not onlyreceive its due credit for the amazing work it does and the livesit changes but also to inspire others in the process, those effortsmust receive more recognition.

That starts with sharing stories of how individuals were helped.How people were helped, often in profound ways.

The generosity exhibited by insurance professionals toward thosein need, whether performed as part of a national initiative or intheir own backyard, knows no end. Agents, brokers, carriers and allthose who work in the P&C insurance space need a forum in whichthey can tell us—and you, our readers—humanized stories about howtheir efforts changed someone's life.

That's why this month, National Underwriter Property &Casualty will launch a special landing page onPropertyCasualty360.com titled “Charity Works” that will serve as adestination for those stories, which will be written andcontributed by those who can surely tell them best: you. Our hopeis that this will provide a national platform on which the P&Cindustry's good work can be celebrated.

If a rising tide does indeed lift all boats, those who are seento do good will inspire us all.

“We're so fortunate in this country, and people can forget theyhave an obligation to give back,” says Pang at CNA. When it comesto considering the plight of those who need help, she notes, it'simportant to realize that when it comes down to it, money and otherassistance are often the only things truly separating thecharitable and the desperate.

“If you don't have a safety net,” she adds, “it could happen toany of us.”