Insurers' Fund To Honor Volunteers, Lloyd's

NU Online News Service, April 19, 11:21 a.m. EST?Members of the insurance industry will meet on May 3 in San Francisco to celebrate a $1 million fund raising effort, as well as present awards to Lloyd's and to an assistance program for young women.

The Insurance Industry Charitable Fund in San Francisco said that its "Community Hero Award" recipients will go to the "Insuring Our Future" program of Richstone Family Center of Hawthorne, Calif. Richstone provides transitional residential living and counseling for teenage women who have been emancipated from foster care.

IICF said the program works to prepare young women to become self-sufficient by requiring them to finish high school, have a job, and to learn budgeting and other responsibilities. It also provides a personal program of long-term abuse counseling and treatment, mentoring and job preparation.

IICF said it developed the program with Richstone as part of its focus on awareness and prevention of child abuse.

IICF will also honor Lloyd's Chairman Saxon Riley and Lloyd's "for their long history of charitable support in both England and the United States."

IICF said it will salute Lloyd's long history of charitable support, and is proud of a shared mission that similarly values children, education and the elderly. IICF noted that Lloyd's established its reputation in the United States as far back as 1906, when Lloyd's underwriters met San Francisco earthquake claims.

IICF said that since its inception in 1994, its annual donations have grown from $100,000 to $1.5 million. Last year, more than 112 not-for-profits across the state of California and beyond benefited from these donations, the charity said.

The IICF said its goal is to annually cross the $1 million threshold in support of its mission to make a significant difference in philanthropies involving awareness and prevention of child abuse, targeted educational programs, disaster preparedness, and health and quality of life.

Last year, grants ranging from $1,000 to $60,000 per year were awarded to such organizations as the Wilderness Finders (which uses trained search dogs to locate lost or trapped disaster victims), the Boys & Girls Club of Venice, the Center for Youth Leadership, Richstone Family Center, and the Environmental Leadership Program of the College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley, IICF said.

The IICF activities also include "IICF Bridge Week"--a statewide, nine-day event where thousands of insurance industry employee volunteers provide three hours or more of volunteer service at neighborhood nonprofit organizations.

In 2001, 110 insurance industry companies committed to nearly 200 service projects across California and over 3,000 employees and their families contributed over 13,000 hours of service to 82 agencies in local communities across the state, IICF said.

IICF was created by insurance industry executives, agents and others to be a vehicle to focus and coordinate the insurance industry's charitable efforts. Donor companies are encouraged to recommend not-for-profit organizations in these areas. However, "recommended agencies and programs must stand on their own merit under a careful IICF evaluation process," the organization said.

IICF said that during its eight years of operation it has given to hundreds of causes and, in the past four years, it has donated at least $1 million each year.

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Insurers' Fund To Honor Volunteers, Lloyd's

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