Giving Hope

The National Insurance Industry Council’s 2011 Spirit of Life Award Dinner at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, Calif., on Nov. 12 could have easily been renamed to the “Spirit of Giving” award dinner.

The annual event brought together insurance industry philanthropists and raised funds for Duarte, Calif.-based City of Hope, a leading research, treatment and education center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases.

The event recognizes an industry leader each year for their outstanding professional and philanthropic contributions. This year’s honoree was F. Robert (Bob) Woudstra, CEO of Los Angeles-based Farmers Group Inc.

“What this event is about … it’s got everything to do with what we can do to help others,” Woudstra said.

Referring to the industry’s philanthropic efforts, Woudstra said: “It makes me proud to be in an industry like this.”

More than 600 people were gathered at the event, which included a silent and a live auction to raise funds. More than $50,000 was raised during the live auction, and the dinner grossed $744,550, bringing funds for the campaign for the year to just over $1 million, according to organizers.

“It’s truly a remarkable number,” Gary Petrosino, executive vice president and western U.S. field operations officer for Chubb & Son, announced at the dinner.

In fact, the insurance industry ranks well in terms of charitable giving. According to a report issued in October by McKinsey & Company, charitable giving in the property-casualty industry totaled roughly $500 million in 2010.

Most of this giving was in the form of direct cash contributions from companies, and about one-fifth from employee donations of cash or volunteer hours.

While this giving compared favorably to other industries, insurance executives believe they are not maximizing the impact of charitable giving or receiving full recognition for their efforts. Sixty percent of executives believe the industry can increase the social and business impact of its charitable programs while maintaining current levels of giving, according to the report.

One beneficiary of such giving, and a speaker at the City of Hope event, was Patrick Franco, who was diagnosed in 2001 with lymphoblastic leukemia, a rare form of cancer at age 12. He became a regular patient at City of Hope, undergoing radiation, chemotherapy, bone marrow tests and spinal taps.

But Franco, who this year is celebrating his fifth anniversary off treatment and apparently cancer free, told the crowd that cancer sufferers cannot say they are done with cancer. “You are always surviving cancer,” he said. “It can come back.”

Topics Market