Community

At Travelers, we understand that we can only thrive as a business enterprise if our economy – and by extension our communities – thrive too. We believe that strong communities are sustained by educational and economic opportunities, and we are dedicated to assisting our communities in generating those opportunities. Our community initiatives, including our volunteer and matching gift programs, are also designed to enhance employee engagement and retention.

Travelers provides community support both directly and through the Travelers Foundation, the company’s philanthropic arm. The Travelers Foundation Board of Directors provides oversight of the foundation’s strategies, priorities and activities. Our Community Relations department meets regularly with the foundation’s Board, comprised primarily of senior leaders from our Management and Operating Committees. Community Relations also reports annually to the Nominating and Governance Committee of the Travelers Board of Directors. Travelers and the Travelers Foundation publicly disclose a detailed annual list of charitable giving and community reports to highlight our accomplishments and progress.

With a focus on equity and inclusion, we target our giving and volunteerism priorities to help improve academic and career success, develop thriving neighborhoods and create culturally enriched communities.

• Academic and Career Success. Travelers supports initiatives that combat inequity by creating pathways and enhancing opportunities for career readiness, access and success. While supporting our communities, these initiatives help address corporate needs for a skilled workforce and benefit the economy at the same time. Travelers, directly and through the Travelers Foundation, has provided more than $100 million since 2009 to help foster academic success, increase career preparedness and reduce barriers to higher education. Programs such as Travelers EDGE® (Empowering Dreams for Graduation and Employment) are helping to strengthen our communities and build a robust and diverse talent pipeline for Travelers for the future.
• Thriving Neighborhoods. Travelers fosters thriving neighborhoods through neighborhood economic development and community-building services to help individuals, families and small businesses understand and mitigate risks, stay safe and prepare for disasters. This includes efforts such as the Small Business Risk Education program, our work with Habitat for Humanity® and SBP to fortify homes and our support of nonprofits that are building strong, resilient communities, such as Team Rubicon.
• Culturally Enriched Communities. Travelers supports organizations that enrich lives through arts and culture, both as a lever for academic improvement and to foster cultural vitality in communities where our employees live and work. In 2019, we launched Travelers Art Speaks, an internal initiative that leverages our investment in arts and cultural organizations to spark meaningful and thought-provoking dialogue on topics related to diversity and inclusion.

Throughout the pandemic and during 2021, we continued to address broader community needs arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the onset of the pandemic, we have repurposed the kitchen facilities on our main campus in Hartford, Connecticut, to assist nonprofits in the preparation and delivery of tens of thousands of meals to those in need. In 2020 and 2021, we provided a combined total of more than 140,000 meals to three community meal centers in the Hartford region. Our pandemic response efforts also included more than $2 million to pay the wages and health benefits for eligible third-party contract employees who provide services at Travelers offices, including dining and building maintenance, protecting jobs that would have otherwise been lost during the economic shutdown.

The events of 2020 put a spotlight on the racial inequities faced by many Americans every day. We have continued to make equity a centerpiece of our approach to charitable giving and community involvement. For example, Travelers partnered with Resource, a joint initiative led by Village Capital and the Black Innovation Alliance, to create a stronger entrepreneurial infrastructure for Black, Latinx and Indigenous business founders across the United States.

Travelers Charitable Giving

We take pride in empowering our employees to have a positive impact on their communities by serving others. As community leaders, Travelers employees are more than strong corporate citizens – they are valuable assets to the communities in which they live and work. Year after year, our employees’ efforts to give back to the communities we call home are truly remarkable. We do not limit the number of paid volunteer hours an employee can take during the year; each employee works directly with their manager to balance volunteering with their job responsibilities.

We hear from our employees about how connecting with their communities – by contributing their time, talents and financial resources – is personally rewarding, drives engagement and morale and strengthens their commitment to our company’s mission. We also see how community involvement – whether by leading a team volunteer project, coordinating an event for a local nonprofit, providing pro bono services or serving on a charity’s board of directors – helps our employees develop as professionals, building competencies that we value in the Travelers workforce.

While our employees had to change the way they supported their communities due to the pandemic, their commitment and passion did not waver. In 2020, we suspended company-sponsored, in-person volunteer activities and instead developed a roster of virtual volunteer opportunities – a number of which were initiated by our employees. In 2021, employees continued to engage virtually, on an individual basis and as remote teams.

Here are some examples of volunteer activities Travelers employees participated in during 2021:

• BestPrep: Travelers has engaged with BestPrep for more than 15 years. BestPrep’s virtual programs focus on one-on-one email mentoring to help high school students understand career paths and identify potential workplace skills. In 2021, we increased our engagement to include employees outside of Minnesota. Over 200 employees participated in the various programs throughout the year.
• Art with a Heart: 35 Travelers employees and 45 Travelers EDGE scholars, alumni and partners volunteered to create hundreds of clay hearts that are included in Art with a Heart’s 25th anniversary sculpture, a new public art asset for Baltimore.
• Junior Achievement Virtual Panel Discussions: Interns and first-year participants from our Travelers Leadership Development Programs partnered to inspire high school students to start planning for their future success.
• Usher’s New Look (UNL): Travelers employees served as virtual mentors for students in UNL’s Leadership Academy, helping graduating seniors with college planning.
• Read to a Child: Approximately 30 Travelers employees were matched with elementary school students in Hartford for weekly lunchtime reading.
• The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp: Over the summer and holidays, Travelers employees sent cards and handmade snowflakes to campers of The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp – a camp for seriously ill children.
• Pathways Academy of Technology & Design: Travelers employees volunteered for weekly math tutoring for high school students.

Travelers was recognized with the U.S. President’s Silver Volunteer Service Award for the 2020-2021 school year for its strong support of Junior Achievement. Created by the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation, the award recognizes individuals and organizations that contribute a significant amount of time to volunteer service. Junior Achievement USA®, as an official certifying organization, designated Travelers for providing more than 3,000 volunteer hours across the country.

Through the Travelers Community Connections intranet site, we continue to encourage Travelers employees to log their company-sponsored and independent volunteer activities, as well as view volunteer opportunities available in their communities. In addition, Travelers maintains both a matching gifts and volunteer rewards program to encourage and support employees in their efforts.

Travelers Community Connections Matching Gifts Program

We amplify our employees’ generosity with the Travelers Community Connections program. From 2012 to 2021, we matched our employees’ gifts of time and money with $21 million in matching funds. The program offers an annual Cash Match of up to $500 per employee for donations made through our online portal. Employees also are eligible to earn volunteer rewards at a rate of $20 per volunteer hour logged, which they can then designate as grants to eligible charities. Each employee may earn up to $1,000 in rewards annually. Our annual Community Connections Campaign also encourages employee giving through fundraising events in support of United Way affiliates across the country and reminds employees about the ability to give to their favorite charities through payroll deduction and other methods. During the 2021 campaign, which was themed “Reimagining Communities,” employees raised more than $700,000 for our local communities through over 90 creative virtual and live events.

Travelers Community Connections Team Volunteer Grants

The Travelers Community Connections field office volunteer grant program encourages volunteer initiatives at our offices across the United States by supporting employee team requests for grants of up to $15,000 to support local schools and nonprofit partners. In 2019, 34 organizations associated with 19 Travelers offices received more than $350,000 through this program, not counting 54 Habitat for Humanity® build days in the United States and Canada, which we supported with nearly $600,000 in grant funding. Although in-person volunteer programming came to an abrupt halt in early 2020 due to COVID-19, Travelers employees partnered with local organizations throughout the pandemic to provide virtual volunteer power. In 2021, $180,000 in Travelers Community Connections volunteer and operating support grants were made to 13 organizations in nine states, and $220,000 in operating and emergency funds were provided to Habitat for Humanity® affiliates in the United States and Canada.

As demonstrated below, these programs add up to millions of dollars in assistance for the communities we call home.

Supporting Employee Community Involvement