Volunteer Week, the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation’s (IICF) event, will be held October 15-22, 2011 in the New York tri-state area and New England.
During the eight-day industrywide event, teams of insurance volunteers will fan out into local communities to donate three or more hours of service at neighborhood and community nonprofit organizations. Volunteers can register online at www.icf.org.
Volunteer Week, begun by the IICF’s West Coast region in 1997, has contributed more than 140,000 hours of volunteer service to local communities across the country. More than 2,000 participants were active in the tri-state area during Volunteer Week 2010, volunteering more than 13,000 hours in nearly 200 different projects.
The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation facilitates Volunteer Week activities by soliciting and organizing volunteer projects with community organizations, schools, and other nonprofit entities. IICF provides online signup for volunteer teams and provides team leaders with contact information for the charities with which they’ll work.
Betsy Myatt, executive director of IICF’s New York/Northeast division, said the response last year was bigger than organizers expected. They expected about 1,000 volunteers in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut tri-state area, but ended up with double that number.
‘Volunteer Week feeds insurance industry employees’ strong desire to give back to their local communities, and supports companies that want to be active players in their communities,” Myatt said.
Volunteers from a broad spectrum of industry employers— reinsurers, carriers, agencies, brokerage firms, consulting firms, law firms, trade associations and other industry-related companies— are expected to participate in Volunteer Week.
Teams can choose the projects they are interested in from a menu of projects in a wide range of needs, including disaster preparedness, education, the environment, housing, senior issues, women’s issues, and youth and children.
‘IICF makes volunteering simpler by making initial contacts with the charities, so volunteers and their team leaders can make the most of the time spent hands-on working,’ Myatt said.
David Brinkman, chair of the IICF New York Division board and executive managing director of Aon Benfield, said charitable organizations welcome the event.
‘Volunteer Week works for charities, which receive the benefits of hard work, and often find new long-term volunteers and donors,” Brinkman said. “Meanwhile, volunteers get a new way to give back in their local areas, while employers tell us that volunteerism encourages teamwork and builds morale.’
The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation was established in 1994 and is completely directed and funded by the insurance industry. The foundation seeks to help communities and enrich lives by uniting the collective strengths of the industry to provide grants, volunteer service and leadership. Since its inception in 1994, IICF has contributed more than $16 million in grants to charities and 140,000 volunteer hours to hundreds of community nonprofit organizations. IICF is a registered not-for-profit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code.
Source: Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation
Volunteer Week: October 15-22, 2011 Register at www.ICF.org.
New York/Northeast Benefit Dinner to Support the Grants Program: December 14, 2011
Was this article valuable?
Here are more articles you may enjoy.
AT&T Says Data From Around 109M Customer Accounts Illegally Downloaded 
NCCI Identifies ‘Big 3′ Workers’ Comp Issues to Watch 
Reinsurers’ Appetite Grows During Mid-Year Renewals but Discipline Remains: Brokers 
Homebuilders Cut on ‘Sluggish’ Housing Market, Florida Woes 
