2020
Community Report
At the heart of who we are is a deep commitment to helping our communities. We focus on improving academic and career success, developing thriving neighborhoods and creating culturally enriched communities. In 2020, we also provided support to those experiencing hardships due to COVID-19 and put a stronger emphasis on advancing racial equity.
In 2020, we gave nearly $23M to support the communities where we live and work, bringing us to a total of approximately $225M over the past decade.
*This chart represents categorization for approximately $16.6M of Travelers’ 2020 giving. The remaining funds went toward a variety of causes.
COVID-19
Response
We provided more than $5.5M toward COVID-19 relief efforts to assist families, communities and small businesses across North America, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, including:
to leading charities that provide essential services, including emergency assistance for hourly workers, food and shelter for vulnerable populations, stability to small businesses and resources to mitigate disruptions in education.
to pay the wages and health benefits for eligible third-party contract employees who provide services at the company’s offices, including dining and building maintenance.
to match – on a 2-for-1 basis – employee contributions to designated organizations, including Americares, Dublin Simon Community, Food Banks Canada, Team Rubicon and the United Way.
worth of supplies were donated to food pantries in Connecticut and Minnesota.
pounds of ground beef were donated to Foodshare to help feed families across Connecticut.
meals were delivered to Connecticut nonprofits including Hands On Hartford, Open Hearth and Community Renewal Team, with the help of our third-party contract employees.
FLIK employees are in the Hartford kitchen packing meals to be delivered to nonprofit partners across the state. Employees are loading lunch trays and sealing them up for delivery.
Racial equity
We committed $1M to assist nonprofits dedicated to advancing racial equity and social justice across the United States and to rebuild damaged businesses in Minnesota.
to the National Urban League.
to the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce We Love St. Paul/Midway Fund.
to the YWCA Minneapolis Emergency Service Hub and Community Outreach Programs.
to the Women’s Business Development Council in Connecticut.
to the YWCA Hartford Region.
grants and sponsorships were allocated to nonprofits that have a focus on social justice programs or supporting communities of color.
Employee
Impact
Our strong culture of giving extends to our employees – they’re active corporate citizens and valuable assets to their communities.
Donations
In 2020, employees donated:
through the company’s virtual Community Connections Campaign events, which supported the United Way and focused this year on providing much-needed technology to students.
toward the match program we created to assist COVID-19 relief efforts in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
to cover costs of meals for health care workers in Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota and New York, which also helped small businesses, as meals were purchased from local restaurants.
to Feeding America to assist with COVID-19 hunger relief programs.
Volunteerism
In 2020, employees focused on virtual volunteer efforts. Highlights include:
- Participating in one-on-one email mentoring with students through BestPrep’s Cloud Coach and eMentors programs.
- Recording narrations of children’s books with the Happy Hope Factory and United Way for children in hospitals and schools across the United States.
- Recording video messages for students through the Read to a Child program.
- Hosting a virtual Girls Leadership Conference for 42 students in grades 6-12.
Improving Academic And Career Success
Providing opportunity to underrepresented students and preparing them for college and careers.
to support educational initiatives for 68 organizations.
of our education funding on initiatives targeting college preparation and career awareness through our Travelers EDGE® program.
Our signature education program, Travelers EDGE, provides a holistic approach to academic and career preparation through partnerships with high schools, colleges, universities and community-based programs.
Since 2007, we have worked to increase the number of underrepresented students who complete bachelor’s degrees and are prepared for a career at Travelers or within the insurance and financial services industry.
- 93 students through a direct scholarship or stipend.
- 37 students secure internships at Travelers.
- 24 students complete bachelor’s degrees.
- 12 graduates obtain full-time positions at Travelers.
- 539 students through a direct scholarship or stipend.
- 282 students secure internships at Travelers.
- 278 students complete bachelor’s degrees.
- 92 graduates obtain full-time positions at Travelers.
As part of our ongoing partnership with Usher’s New Look (UNL), we participated in a virtual job shadow and panel discussion focused on STEM careers in insurance. We also provided funding to support UNL’s Virtual Summer Academy, which reached more than 400 high school and college students.
In early 2020, we partnered with Girls Inc. and the YWCA to host 4 leadership summits for girls in grades 8-12 in Connecticut, Colorado, Georgia and Minnesota. Students and their parents heard from engaging presenters on topics related to personal branding, interview skills, and college readiness and affordability.
- 180 girls attended.
- 70 parents attended.
- 70 employees volunteered.
- Every student participant received a free 30-minute advising session with uAspire to review their college financial aid award letters.
We partnered with ReadyCT to host a summer work experience focused on auto claims with students from 3 Connecticut high schools: Pathways Academy of Technology & Design, Weaver High School and New Britain High School.
Working with Girls Who Code, our Technology & Operations team hosted a virtual summer immersion program, where 30 high school girls from the Connecticut area learned about computer science and were introduced to jobs in technology.
Developing Thriving Neighborhoods
Helping to shape and maintain safe, stable and vital neighborhoods.
We provided more than $2M to organizations dedicated to helping our communities thrive.
Habitat for Humanity
In lieu of our employees volunteering to build homes across the country, we provided a grant of $400K to support the Habitat for Humanity Homes, Communities, Hope + You campaign, which provides protection for Habitat homeowners who have experienced illness or job loss due to COVID-19 across the United States.
We provided $50K toward the Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity At Home Fund, which supports the needs of Habitat families that have been affected by the pandemic.
We also provided a grant of $85K for a program in Hartford that will allow Habitat for Humanity to purchase and rehabilitate a single-family home.
Travelers Fortifies Communities
We continue to partner with Habitat for Humanity, SBP and the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) to build FORTIFIED Homes™ across the United States.
Since our partnership began in 2012:
We’ve helped support the building of nearly 90 Habitat FORTIFIED homes.
SBP
In 2019, we launched a partnership with SBP, a nationally recognized leader in comprehensive disaster resilience and recovery. We supplied a grant that allowed SBP to launch a pilot program to rebuild homes to FORTIFIED standards.
In 2020:
- 76 homes were FORTIFIED in 5 states.
- 14 SBP staff members were trained in FORTIFIED construction standards.
Congratulations to SBP for being named a 2020 IBHS Fortified™ Pioneer Award winner! Each year, the FORTIFIED Awards program honors builders who are among the first in their area to use the FORTIFIED standards to build stronger, more resilient homes.
team rubicon
We are the exclusive insurance sponsor for Team Rubicon’s Mobile Training Center (MTC). Team Rubicon is a nonprofit that unites military veterans with first responders to deploy emergency response teams after disasters.
Travelers has provided $750K in grant funding for Team Rubicon’s low-attention disaster rebuild program, which responds to devastating weather events that are not large enough in scale to draw significant government, media and philanthropic response.
Small Business Risk Education
Our
Small Business Risk Education (SBRE)
program started in 2012 to help women, minority and veteran small business owners learn about business continuity, develop safety risk management plans and
qualify for microloans. Since SBRE started, we’ve helped more than
3K participants.
with Village Capital.
Creating Culturally Enriched Communities
Supporting organizations that enrich lives through arts and culture.
We provided more than $2M in funding to
28 organizations focused on arts and culture.
We continued our Global Sponsorship of the New York City Ballet – a partnership we’ve had since 2014 – and provided $215K to the dancers’ emergency fund to help pay salaries while they were unable to perform.
$450K was provided to the Greater Hartford Arts Council to allocate toward local arts organizations.
$305K was provided in COVID-19 emergency grants to help nonprofits focused on the arts in Connecticut and Minnesota.
Art Speaks
Art Speaks is an employee-focused program that leverages Travelers’ investment in arts and cultural organizations to spark meaningful and thought-provoking dialogue around diversity and inclusion.
Travelers employees participated in a virtual event exploring universal human rights as part of our continued partnership with the Norman Rockwell Museum exhibit “Enduring Ideals: Rockwell, Roosevelt & the Four Freedoms.”
Travelers employees attended a virtual event commemorating the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in America with the Norman Rockwell Museum and the New Britain Museum of American Art.