Early autumn brings the excitement of back to school, cooler weather and changing fall foliage in many areas. Since 1998, this is also the time when insurance professionals are preparing for IICF’s annual Week of Giving, the largest ongoing volunteer initiative in the insurance industry. Having involved well over one hundred thousand insurance professionals in service to the communities where we live and work, the IICF Week of Giving is a time to give back and to celebrate year-round insurance industry volunteerism.
Following the global pandemic and unprecedented events of the past few years, we continue to see the needs of our communities grow – and in response we see this matched by the insurance industry’s commitment to giving back through the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation(IICF). This has been the case particularly in combatting food insecurity, one of IICF’s key focus areas, as we work together to help alleviate hunger among our neighbors.
IICF has helped deliver more than 2.5 million meals to vulnerable children and their families through our Children’s Relief Fund since the start of the pandemic. Our ‘Fill the Truck’ food drives, introduced to facilitate direly needed contributions at the height of this crisis, have provided the equivalent of well over 100,000 meals. These popular events have evolved to be a productive and engaging way for volunteers to collect vital food and toiletry items benefiting our food bank partners, while extending our reach more broadly into new communities.
The IICF Week of Giving, held this year October 8-15, offers extensive opportunities for creative and meaningful ways to volunteer and support many important causes. There are volunteer opportunities designed for teams representing companies or solo volunteers, including in-person and virtual projects to both accommodate work-from-home professionals and offer an opportunity to volunteer together. IICF’s dedicated insurance volunteers provide support throughout the year and during Week of Giving to a wide array of nonprofit partners serving children at risk, those struggling with mental illness, domestic violence, homelessness, environmental causes and more. IICF has created convenient online resources to connect our volunteers with nonprofit partners at www.volunteer.iicf.org, including a tool for supporters to search volunteer opportunities.
