The InsuranceIndustry Charitable Foundation reported that arecord-breaking 8,577 insurance industry volunteers from 76 citiesacross 30 states provided over 25,000 hours of service tononprofits during the foundation's Week of Giving.

The foundation's program, held this year from Oct. 10-17, bringsinsurance industry professionals together for a week-long series ofvolunteer projects and events. The projects are designed to allowindustry volunteers the opportunity to give back to the localcommunities in which they live and work.

“It is in the nature of the insurance industry to help,” saidBill Ross, the foundation's CEO. “By volunteering, I think we put aface to the industry. You get a chance to meet those individualswho represent the industry directly and by giving back, I think inthe collective effort, we’re able to kind of raise our visibilityof the industry and of the individuals who make up theindustry.”

“I can’t say that we get every single person in the industry toparticipate but every year we seem to be able to involve more and Ithink that speaks well of the industry itself, in that it generatesachievement by giving back to the community,” he added.

A range of causes

Since 2001, insurance industry volunteers have dedicated 218,722hours to local nonprofits through the program. The volunteerprojects include youth and children services; health and diseaseissues; women’s issues; elderly care; food service and donation;and disaster preparedness.

“The one that stood out for me this year is a program that isfocused on nothing more than writing postcards to servicemen thathe or she will receive at the holidays — wishing them a wonderfulholiday and thanking them for their service,” Ross told PC360. Theprogram is called “A Million Thanks.” He said one insurance companysaw an opportunity to reach out to servicemen overseas.Professionals from the organization took the time to writepostcards and thank servicemen for their service.

“I think that it was pretty tremendous to know that hundreds andthousands of cards are going to individuals that are away fromtheir homes and families but receive the note from someone in theinsurance industry saying, “Thanks for your service.”

Focus on literacy for children

This year, the Week of Giving placed a strong focus on earlyliteracy programs for underserved youths. Seven early literacyevents were hosted nationwide, which featured hands-on interactionwith materials from IICF’s "Every Day isa Reading and Writing Day," a free online bilingual programproduced with Sesame Workshop. IICF and industry volunteers ledhundreds of children through interactive reading and writingactivities during these events.

“In the Midwest, over 100 children were hosted under 100volunteers for a program that focused on early literacy. There werea thousand winter-ready gift packs for homeless veterans in theIllinois area,” said Ross.

During the month of October, IICF ran its "#5forELI" socialmedia-focused fundraising campaign, where people used the hashtagto share their stories of support for early literacy efforts— and direct donations to IICF’s Early Literacy Initiative. Allproceeds from this campaign and the Week of Giving were donated toSesame Workshop and the ELI program.

'An architecture of giving'

“The Week of Giving represents some of the best that theinsurance industry has to offer, with insurance professionals fromcoast to coast rolling up their sleeves to lend a helping hand totheir communities and neighbors in need,” noted Ross. “It is trulyheart-warming to see vast numbers of industry volunteers across thenation uniting to support such great causes.”

“It is an opportunity that allows us to establish anarchitecture of giving and volunteering. What’s important toremember is that companies of the industry, already give; some runa volunteer program, many of them do things in their localcommunity. The uniqueness of this program is that we all cometogether and do it collectively, at once, during that one week ofgiving, and it’s just that architecture of allowing 6,000volunteers to touch 87 cities all during the same time period, thatis really unique and quite special,” Ross said.

Related: P&C industry’s charitable giving increased by15% since 2011

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