How Agents and Brokers Help Communities Nationwide

In addition to giving back with volunteerism, one of the key financial goals of employee-owned IMA is to contribute a portion of the company’s profits annually to the IMA Foundation.

The IMA Foundation historically has been funded with the company’s profits. The foundation supports organizations within the foundation’s four focus areas: enhancing economic vitality; advancing youth; advancing arts and culture; health and wellness.

In 2012, IMA associates donated $200,000 in volunteer time (9,618 hours) and supported 134 community partners. That year also marked the launch of “I MAke a Difference Day,” a corporate day of service held simultaneously throughout all of IMA’s markets.

This year marks the 10th year Westbrook, Conn.-based Gowrie Group is focusing its charitable giving on supporting The Shoreline Soup Kitchens & Pantries (SSKP).

Gowrie Group announced its 10th annual matching challenge with a $25,000 donation to SSKP. The challenge has raised $715,000 to benefit the charity over the past nine years, which translates to providing more than 2 million meals. The Gowrie Group Challenge runs from through Dec. 31.

Kathleen Sebetka, a producer at USI Consulting Group, traveled to Ghana, Africa, in August to volunteer at a rural school, where she taught English and other subjects like geography and history. The village where she lived had no running water.

USI MidAtlantic Chief Financial Officer Chris Hearn participated in the Over The Edge fundraising event for Special Olympics Virginia in October.

Hearn’s wife, Allison, works for Special Olympics, and the couple was looking for a way to show their support. Hearn rappelled off the SunTrust, a 25-story building in downtown Richmond.

The Heffernan Group in 2012 donated more than 16 percent of its profits to charity. In addition to encouraging employees to volunteer, the Heffernan Group sponsors three official avenues for charitable giving: employee matching; Garee Lee Smith Scholarship Award; and the Heffernan Foundation.

In 2013, Heffernan staff participated in the following philanthropic fitness events: Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, Chicago; Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, Portland; Walk for Humanity; Nike Women’s half marathon, San Francisco.

Momentous Insurance Brokerage formed a “Make it Better” committee that organizes unique and meaningful ways to give back to the community — from cooking meals for the homeless to hosting summer carnivals for foster kids and at-risk youth to buying toys for children over the holidays.

The Van Nuys, Calif.-based firm offers an employee contribution program, matching dollar-for-dollar what’s donated from employee payroll. In 2012, Momentous raised more $34,000 from the program.

Momentous also has a recycle program that returns the proceeds from the company’s recycled bottles and cans to the charity fund.

Momentous also partners with Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. to provide Heritage grants to local fire departments for vehicles, equipment and project funding.

Edgewood Partners Insurance Center takes its EPIC acronym to heart.

In 2013 alone, the charitable and community service organizations the firm’s employees and managers advocated for and supported included: the American Cancer Society; the National Multiple Sclerosis Society; the Alzheimer’s Association; the American Heart Association; Susan G. Komen for the Cure; Aids Walk and Project Open Hand; Boys and Girls Clubs; Northern Nevada Children’s Cancer foundation; the March of Dimes; Locks of Love; Ronald McDonald House Charities; and more.

Haylor, Freyer & Coon Inc. has contributed time and financial resources to community events and nonprofits throughout the central New York region.

Aside from the many organizations that Haylor, Freyer & Coon has supported, one Thursday per month is designated “Samaritan Center Thursday,” during which 10 to 15 employees head to the Samaritan Center and provide breakfast and a kind word for the clients of this local food kitchen.

On Fridays, up to 10 employees head to the Francis House, a local comfort care facility for dignified end of life care.

From social service and arts appreciation to youth mentorship and education, Texas- based Higginbotham and its employees put countless hours and dollars into community development.

In 2010, the firm created the Higginbotham Community Fund administered by the Community Foundation of North Texas to formalize its gifting strategy to the many charities it supports throughout Texas. Grants are distributed to nonprofits selected by an advisory committee comprised of Higginbotham leadership. The fund is financed by employee donations and corporate matching, and employees can recommend nonprofit organizations to the advisory committee. Since its founding, the fund has raised $265,358 and distributed $164,183 in grants.

Black & Ramer Insurance in Kendallvile, Ind., has been doing a Jeans Friday program for more than a year now.

The program has staff members making a donation to the same charity for a month on each Friday and for doing so they wear Jeans.

The firm has two offices, which go back and forth on choosing a charity for which to donate. At the end of the month the employees let the owners know the total donated and they match it with a check.

Brock Insurance Agency has been committed to giving back to the community since opening its doors 50 years ago.

Rossville, Ga.-based Brock has assisted the Boys and Girls Club, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Forgotten Child Fund, March of Dimes and the Walker County Secret Santa.

Hundreds of spectators and special interest vehicle owners gathered in Potomac Falls, Va., in September, to raise more than $17,000 for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to fight blood cancer.

It was the third annual Carz Cruizin to Cure Cancer is a yearly fundraiser presented by the McLean Insurance Agency.

The event featured more than 100 classic, antique, sports and custom cars, trucks and motorcycles which were on display and to be judged.

With the help of numerous volunteers and sponsors, McLean organizes the annual event to honor the memory of its founder, Henry C. Megill, Jr. who battled a rare form of lymphoma for several years before dying in 1990.

The Lynam Agency in Bar Harbor, Maine, is a locally owned agency that has been in business since 1884, and throughout its long history the agency has contributed to local non-profit organizations.

All employees pitch in to give money, collect food, toys and clothing for others, as well as stocking shelves at the local food pantry.

This year the agency took it up a notch. Agency manager Nancy Corliss, whose 33-year-old daughter-in-law, Trish, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer two weeks after her first child was born, helped out the STAND UP TO CANCER organization, which assists doctors and scientists in concentrating their efforts.

In one fundraising effort, Corliss found 100 people to fill up a large boat and raise more than $4,000 to fight cancer.

Participants in the March of Dimes’ March for Babies line up at the starting arch in Allegany, N.Y., on Oct. 5.

Employees of The Iroquois Group, headquartered in southwestern New York state, raised $1,585 for the March of Dimes’ March for Babies on Oct. 5. The walk took participants through the woods and along the bank of the Allegheny River.

Woodruff-Sawyer has an extensive program supporting the community both in volunteer efforts and fundraising.

In 2008, Woodruff-Sawyer established the C.A.R.E. Committee — Community, Action, Responsibility and Enhancement.

The employee-directed committee selects charitable organizations which Woodruff-Sawyer will support each year. Woodruff-Sawyer provides financial contributions to those and other non-profit organizations.

California-based Hartley Cylke Pacific Insurance Services (HCPac) helped a wounded veteran move into a new home through a fundraising campaign benefiting the organization Homes for our Troops (HFOT). Late last year HCPac decided it wanted to support HFOT, which builds new homes for severely wounded veterans, and Marine Corporal Travis Greene, in particular. Between the agency’s staff and some very generous clients, HCPac raised nearly $10,000 to go toward a specially adapted home for Greene, who lost both his legs in an IED blast in Ramadi, Iraq on Dec. 7, 2005. Greene received the keys to his new home on Dec. 2, 2013.

Since 2009, the Barney & Barney Foundation, created by insurance brokerage Barney & Barney, has contributed more than $1 million to nonprofit organizations in California.

Among the community initiatives Barney & Barney participated in this year are: Rock The Foundation Benefit Concert, Barney & Barney Foundation Golf Classic, Building Bikes for Kids, and I Love a Clean San Diego.

The Leavitt Group supports the local Cedar City, Utah, community in which it is headquartered, as well as other worthy causes. All shareholders have the opportunity to direct a portion of the company’s profits to a charitable organization of their choosing. One of the charities receiving many of these contributions is the Iron County Care & Share, Cedar City’s local food bank. The Iron County Care & Share provides numerous services to the community and is able to help homeless and low-income individuals and families work toward self-sufficiency.

One year, the Leavitt Group’s donation to the Iron County Care & Share was in the form of canned goods. Leavitt Group employees broke into teams and had a “can”-tribution sculpture contest before stocking the shelves.

With a mission to protect families, Dallas-based TWG Insurance believes this not only includes providing insurance coverage for the market, but also providing for and helping families in its community. Throughout each year, TWG Employees voice their passions about their favorite charities and the agency annually supports the Stepping Stones Foundation, Battered Women’s Foundation and The Dallas County Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

Many TWG Employees have been personally affected by breast cancer, so over the past three years the company has become very involved in finding a cure. With only about 100 employees, TWG has raised more than $25,000 and encouraged more than 360 people to join the TWG race team to fight to find a cure.

Associates at Kansas City-based Lockton often go the extra mile to support community organizations such as the United Way, American Cancer Society, YMCA, Children’s Hospital of Colorado and the American Heart Association. Sometimes they run that mile through the muck, as they did raising funds to fight multiple sclerosis in support of a fellow associate.

Lockton associates in Kansas City have raised more than $840,000 for the United Way of Greater Kansas City, with more than 95 percent participating in the campaign this year, donating time and raising money.

More than 175 Kansas City associates have volunteered at quarterly Harvesters Volunteer Night this year, stuffing backpacks with food for children. Associates packed 2,600 backpacks in two hours at one Harvester event.

Rogers & Gray Insurance, located in Massachusetts, recently celebrated the 27th Annual Thanksgiving Dinner for the Needy.

For the past 27 years, Rogers & Gray staff have been cooking and serving a complete Thanksgiving dinner the day before the holiday, for close to 500 guests. Rogers & Gray pays for all of the meals and the facility and staff members hand-make all of the snacks and desserts.

The dinner begins with a blessing by the agency’s resident Pilgrim, Bob McAllister, senior vice president of Rogers & Gray. Since its inception, Rogers & Gray has supplied this special meal to more than 10,000 guests.

Mack, Mack & Waltz Insurance Group Inc. in Deerfield Beach, Fla., collected food this year for Gateway Community Outreach which assists individuals and families in rebuilding their lives and reaching their full potential by providing financial, emotional, physical, and spiritual support. The group’s 45 associates brought in canned and boxed goods for those in need, and were able to get a couple of turkeys donated. Through a departmental competition, the group collected enough food to almost completely fill a van.

Mack, Mack & Waltz is again supporting the Gateway Community Outreach program by donating toys this Christmas/Holiday season.

Cypress, Calif.-based insurance agency, Bowermaster and Associates, strives to play a part in improving its surrounding community. The agency is actively involved in supporting numerous nonprofit community organizations, including Children’s Benefit League of Long Beach, The Foster Care Project and The Kiwanis of Huntington Beach.

In 2013, independent insurance broker InterWest Insurance Services in Sacramento, Calif., made contributions to more than 125 national and local organizations.

The firm solicits suggestions from employees on how they would like to give back. Based on votes this year, the company-wide focus is on creating care packages for military members, participating in Relay for Life, raising funds for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital and Make-A-Wish Foundation, having a food drive for local food banks, and collecting treasures for Toys For Tots.

The Cheney Cos. Financial Group in Damariscotta, Maine, has committed to raising $25,000 this year for the CLC YMCA Pool. Company President and CEO Dennis Hilton has served on the YMCA Board of Directors in the past and been involved with other community groups. His companies — Cheney Insurance, Newcastle Square Realty, and Newcastle Square Vacation Rentals — have long maintained a strong commitment to providing financial and volunteer support.

Starkweather & Shepley Insurance Brokerage Inc. and its president and CEO, Nat Calamis, strongly believe in giving back and investing in their community.

In 2010, Starkweather & Shepley and The Rhode Island Foundation formed a new partnership, The Starkweather & Shepley Charitable Fund, which was created to grow over time and encourages the company’s 175 employees to participate.

One of Calamis’ most recent personal charitable priorities is Joyce House, which serves homeless veterans. At Joyce House, which is affiliated with the Providence Center and was formally dedicated in 2013, homeless veterans with mental health and substance abuse problems can live and receive support services.

Service to community is one of the core values at McClain Insurance in Everett, Wash. Owner, Claudia McClain is former chair of the Everett Public Schools Foundation Board of Directors and the agency is actively involved in foundation projects such as “Stuff the Bus” and “High School and Beyond.” In January 2012, McClain Insurance organized, publicized and served as the collection spot for end-of-life electronics e-cycling. A record 19 tons of computers, TVs and printers were collected in five hours. The recycling event this year yielded similar results.

McClain Insurance even gets clients into the act. Its client referral program includes a $25 donation per referral to a local “Charity of the Month.” In 2013, this program will provide more than $3,000 to local non-profits.