Community

We understand that we can only thrive as a business enterprise if our economy and 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 gifts 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 publish an annual community report to highlight our accomplishments and progress.

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 create pathways and enhance opportunities for career readiness, access and success. While supporting our communities, these initiatives help address corporate needs for a skilled workforce while directly benefiting the economy. Travelers, directly and through the Travelers Foundation, has provided more than $60 million since 2014 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), our signature education-to-career pipeline program, are helping to strengthen our communities and build a robust and diverse talent pipeline for Travelers for the future. Here are a few examples of how we supported academic and career success in 2023:
  
  • 62% (13 of 21) of Travelers EDGE graduates were hired full time by Travelers in the 2022-2023 academic year. Of those who accepted full-time positions at Travelers, 77% (10 of 13) were admitted into leadership and technical development programs.
  • As part of ReadyCT’s G.R.I.T. (Get Ready! Immersive Traineeship) program, 30 high school students from Hartford and New Britain, Connecticut, worked with Travelers employees on projects during a five-week summer program. This program included professional development and opportunities to learn more about Travelers, insurance and the financial services industry.
  • Travelers continued its partnership with Usher’s New Look, a nonprofit that helps students from middle school to college find their career interests through professional development, leadership building, academic support and community involvement. We sponsored the 2023 Disruptivator Summit that brought together 300 students from across the United States to participate in workshops, panels, networking sessions and a job fair. Students also participated in excursions to area businesses, including our offices in Alpharetta, Georgia, where they were taught key professional development skills.
  • More than 150 Travelers employees across the nation served as volunteers and judges for the Connecticut Invention Convention (CIC), an entrepreneurial competition among innovative students in grades K-12. Additionally, Travelers sponsored the Safe Home and Safe Car Awards, which were presented at the CIC State Finals event, in which more than 11,000 young inventors participated.
  • Travelers has partnered with BestPrep’s eMentor program since 2007. BestPrep builds meaningful partnerships with schools, companies and other nonprofit partner organizations to prepare Minnesota youth for success in school, career and life at low or no cost to students, teachers and schools. In the past year, 183 Travelers employees volunteered an estimated 485 hours with BestPrep. Employees served as company coordinators and mentors for eMentors and Cloud Coach programs. They also served as mock interviewers and Resident Business Leaders at BestPrep’s Minnesota Business Venture summer camp. In addition, a Travelers employee was recognized for her involvement and dedication with a 2023 Volunteer Service Award.
  • Travelers has supported the Page Education Foundation for more than 20 years. The foundation’s mission is to support and encourage Minnesota’s underserved students to pursue post-secondary education. Students receive tuition assistance and are also paying it forward by engaging in meaningful mentorships with elementary school students. During the 2022-2023 academic year, multiple Travelers employees served as mentors and reviewed students’ scholarship applications.
• 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. In the past decade, Travelers has donated more than $47 million to help make home ownership possible, help rebuild after natural disasters and better position small businesses for success. Travelers’ efforts to promote thriving neighborhoods include the Small Business Support program, which leverages our employees’ expertise to help women, minority and veteran small business owners, and Travelers Fortifies Communities, which is focused on building affordable, wind-resistant homes to FORTIFIED Home™ standards throughout the country. Here are a few examples of how we supported thriving neighborhoods in 2023:
  
  • The nonprofit small business support organizations that we partner with reached more than two million entrepreneurs from various industries and locations — with many being small businesses led by women, minorities or veterans. These partners include the Metropolitan Economic Development Association, WomenVenture, reSET, Village Capital and TruFund. In addition, we support other organizations, such as Lonely Entrepreneur, that provide resources to entrepreneurs and small businesses.
  • More than 130 FORTIFIED homes were built with our support across the country in partnership with Habitat for Humanity^®, SBP and Team Rubicon.
  • Travelers’ support enabled Team Rubicon to rebuild 12 homes in low-attention disaster sites. Low-attention disasters are devastating weather events that affect communities but are not large enough in scale to draw the government, media and philanthropic responses triggered by major events.
  • Travelers has partnered with Habitat for Humanity International^® since 2008. In addition to new construction, the organization renovates existing buildings in many communities, particularly in urban areas, to create decent, safe and affordable housing. Habitat for Humanity affiliates across the United States and Canada partner with Travelers offices to engage employees in volunteer builds. Participation provides opportunities for employee involvement in the community, team-building and networking. In 2023, Travelers employees logged more than 6,800 hours on Habitat builds.
  • Travelers employees in the United Kingdom volunteered at Food for All, a non-profit that turns unattractive produce destined for the landfill into free, healthy meals. The team helped pack 500 meals for local families. 
• 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. During the past 10 years, we have provided nearly $24 million to keep our communities vibrant. Here are a few examples of how we supported culturally enriched communities in 2023:
  
  • We partnered with the Greater Hartford Arts Council to provide more than $500,000 in grants to more than 20 Hartford-based arts organizations through the Travelers Arts Impact Grant Fund.
  • We are a longtime partner of the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota, providing sponsorships and grant support for the center’s education programs. In 2023, our support helped the Ordway provide arts experiences for 30,000 audience members, including local students.
  • We sponsored the “Tuskegee Airmen: Their Untold Stories,” a new, permanent exhibit at the New England Air Museum, which opened in early 2023. The exhibit tells the story of the Tuskegee Airmen and shares their World War II and post-war experiences through their own testimonies and those of their children.

We remain committed to making diversity and inclusion a centerpiece of our approach to charitable giving and community involvement. In 2023, we further invested through the Black Innovation Alliance to support Black technologists, creatives and innovators from across the country. Travelers sponsored the 2023 National Urban League Conference, which convenes influencers, thought leaders and those engaged in social justice efforts. As a corporate member of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Travelers also sponsored the 35th National Equal Justice Awards Dinner, which recognizes and honors leaders in law, the arts, business and philanthropy who have demonstrated a commitment to the promotion of racial justice and equality. In addition, we have an employee initiative called Travelers Art Speaks, which leverages our investment in arts and cultural organizations to spark meaningful and thought-provoking dialogue on topics related to diversity and inclusion.

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 for company-sponsored events and activities 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.

In 2023, Travelers partnered with five national non-profit organizations to provide curated team volunteer activities that, in turn, provided essential community resources:
  

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 and Volunteer Rewards Program

We amplify our employees’ generosity with the Travelers Community Connections Matching Gifts and Volunteer Rewards program. 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. From 2014 through 2023, we matched our employees’ gifts of time and money with $21 million in matching funds.

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 2023 campaign, which was themed “Ensuring Resilient Communities,” employees raised more than $900,000 for our local communities through over 100 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 2023, this program supported 21 organizations partnering with Travelers offices across the country with more than $200,000. In addition, we provided more than $550,000 to Habitat for Humanity affiliates throughout the United States and Canada, supporting more than 54 Travelers team home builds.

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

Supporting Employee Community Involvement