Insurance Industry Volunteer Week Underway in Tri-State Region

A weeklong insurance community involvement campaign kicked off over the weekend: The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation’s (IICF) Volunteer Week.

Begun on the West Coast 13 years ago, Volunteer Week is new to the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut tri-state region. In the region, IICF expects more than 1,000 insurance industry professionals to get involved with hands-on volunteer efforts involving more than 80 different projects.

Coordinated and managed by local non-profits, community service organizations, and schools, the volunteer events include those helping deal with disaster preparedness, education, the environment, housing, senior issues, women’s issues, and youth and children.

Volunteer Week is an eight-day industry wide event from Oct. 16-23, where teams of insurance volunteers provide three or more hours of volunteer service at neighborhood and community nonprofit organizations throughout the week. Nationwide, more than 2,000 volunteers are expected to participate in 2010 in IICF Volunteer Week.

“The power of the insurance industry’s people is truly impressive, and we are just scratching the surface with our first-ever Volunteer Week here in the New York tri-state region,” said Betsy Myatt, executive director of IICF’s New York division. “We applaud the hundreds of industry volunteers here in this area and thank the many charities for coordinating volunteer opportunities.”

David Brinkman, chair of the IICF New York Division board and executive managing director of AonBenfield said Volunteer Week is good for employees, for employers, and for charities and the people they serve.

“It’s clear that so many people want to work hands on to help others, and Volunteer Week is a way for insurance industry employees to do just that. We’re proud that IICF has gotten volunteers involved from a range of insurance carriers, brokerage firms, trade associations, law firms and service providers, and other allied companies,” Brinkman said.

The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation was established in 1994 and is directed and funded by the insurance industry. The foundation seeks to unite the collective strengths of the industry to provide grants, volunteer service and leadership. Since its inception in 1994, the foundation has contributed more than $16 million and 120,000 volunteer hours to hundreds of community nonprofit organizations.