Please join the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF) on December 9, at 6 p.m. ET, for their annual benefit event highlighting the insurance industry’s charitable work in communities and honoring the philanthropic leadership of Gallagher Global.
To view details about the virtual program click on this link. On the evening of the program, you will click on the same page to view the event.
Speakers include John K. Mara, President and CEO of the New York Giants.
By Loretta Worters, Vice President, Media
Relations, Insurance Information Institute
Millennials – the generation born between 1980 and 2000 – have begun to
influence charitable giving. They prefer
to work for companies that are involved in charitable causes, seeking a greater
desire to make a social impact through their work, compared with previous
generations. In addition, they tend to
share these values on social media.
These are some philanthropic trends in insurance industry Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR), identified in “Charitable Giving in the Insurance
Industry,” a report by the Insurance Industry Charitable
Foundation (IICF),
released in partnership with McKinsey & Company. The report, along with
IICF’s 2019 Philanthropic Showcase, highlight each of its Key Partner
Company’s charitable endeavors in 2019.
The McKinsey
report found that the level of giving has remained consistent, with a focus on
education, health and social services, and community. One key factor behind
this finding is industry consolidation, which has lowered the number of
companies engaged in corporate giving. Insurers are also orienting philanthropy
more around volunteerism. As a result, industry-wide giving has held steady
between $560 million and $600 million in cash, grants, and other donations
since 2015.
In addition to
the influence of millennials on the types of charitable engagements companies
pursue within their communities, the report offers a glimpse of the industry’s
philanthropic commitment and highlights opportunities to expand programs and
fuel community engagement. Charitable giving in the insurance industry
continues to be an important focus.
Some of the report’s key findings, based upon responses
from property and casualty companies and for the first time since 2011 life
insurance and wealth management segments of the industry, include:
• The industry’s desire to work toward a single cause has
increased to 33 percent in 2019 from 17 percent in 2015.
• The importance of giving within their own communities was
evident as about 30 percent of respondents in 2019 prioritize contributions
where employees live and work and where significant business is already done.
• Insurers have shifted their charitable focus toward
increased volunteering opportunities, recognizing millennials prefer to work
with companies directly involved in charitable efforts and activities, rather
than those making only monetary donations.
• Measurement of charitable giving has increased, to 41
percent in 2019 from 26 percent in 2015, as more companies use key performance
indicators to evaluate the impact of their philanthropy.
For organizations looking to amplify either the impact of
their philanthropic efforts or the range of causes, the findings point to a few
key opportunities including planning for greater employee engagement, with a
special focus on millennials to further employee-focused giving strategies; to measure the impact of philanthropy to
identify and build on charitable successes and refine metrics and giving
standards; to rethink roles across the giving organization as CSR leadership
and employee-driven engagement become increasingly common and CEOs continue to
set broad direction; and finally to consider the value and benefits of a
united, collaborative industry approach to CSR.
