This year’s Step Up Challenge welcomed 228 teams with nearly 2,000 participants dedicated to giving back and raising funds for those in need, while providing insurance industry employees and families an opportunity to focus on mental and physical health through a friendly exercise-based competition. The winners of both the individual and team challenges were also offered the opportunity to designate a grant for their nonprofit charity of choice. This year’s winners selected several worthy programs, including TogetheRide, No Us Without You LA, Camp for All, Girls Who Code and Save the Children to benefit from IICF Community Grants. IICF will host its 3rd annual International Step Up Challenge beginning April 25 through May 22, 2022.
“This year’s Step Up Challenge was a great success, building upon IICF’s introduction in 2020 of this unique program that unites the industry for several weeks of fun, camaraderie and teambuilding, exercise and fitness while working together to address the ever present threat of food insecurity,” said Carmen Duarte, IICF Boston Chapter board member and VP Marketing & Communications/D&I Champion at Intact Insurance Specialty Solutions, this year’s presenting sponsor of the IICF Step Up Challenge. “Through the industry’s collective strength, IICF is working to combat hunger across the US and UK and create real change for those in need.”
As the nation continues to struggle with food insecurity, it is projected that as many as 13 million children (1 in 6) in the US alone may experience hunger this year. IICF first established the Children’s Relief Fund in 2020 to respond to the immediate needs of children and families facing food insecurity, which was dramatically exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the generous support of the insurance industry, including 1,200 individual insurance professionals, IICF helped to deliver over 2.5 million meals to children in need. IICF’s 2021 Children’s Relief Fund, launched earlier this year, runs through April 2022 and was designed to provide members of the insurance industry and beyond with the opportunity to work in unison, thereby making a much greater collective impact, to support at risk children and families across the US and UK.
To date, the 2021 campaign has raised more than $190,000 thanks in part to the IICF Step Up Challenge and to generous donations by Zurich and the Z Zurich Foundation, Philadelphia Insurance Companies, and Coverys, this year’s initial Campaign Champions. Please contact Bill Ross, IICF CEO, at bross@iicf.com to learn more about becoming an IICF Children’s Relief Fund Campaign Champion.
To donate and help children at risk of food insecurity and those struggling with hunger, please visit the IICF Children’s Relief Fund and IICF UK COVID-19 Revitalising Communities donation pages.
About the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF)
Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF) is a unique nonprofit that unites the collective strengths of the insurance industry to help communities and enrich lives through grants, volunteer service and leadership. Established in 1994, IICF has served as the philanthropic foundation of the insurance industry for more than twenty-five years, contributing $42 million in community grants along with 300,000 volunteer hours by more than 110,000 industry professionals. IICF reinvests locally where funds are raised, serving hundreds of charities and nonprofit organizations, for maximum community impact. IICF is a registered nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code. Learn more at www.iicf.org or follow us on social media: @doubleicf.