The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF) Northeast division announced 16 charitable grants at its seventh annual benefit dinner on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013. The total amount of the grants is $879,000.
Lisa Tepper, chair of the IICF Northeast division board of directors and president of the Downstate New York/New Jersey region for The Travelers Companies, Inc., announced that the division has now committed to grants totaling more than $4.5 million since 2007.
More than 1,000 insurance industry leaders attended the IICF charity event, held at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. Speakers and presenters included:
At the event, the IICF Northeast division honored Ironshore with the 2013 “Double I” award for influence in the industry and impact in the community. Accepting the honor was Ironshore CEO Kevin H. Kelley. Brandon Sweitzer, dean of St. John’s School of Risk Management, Insurance and Actuarial Science, served as dinner chair and presented the award.
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The IICF Northeast division focuses its grants on education, children at risk, disaster preparedness, and the environment across the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut tri-state area. The total of 16 grantees for 2013 matches the highest-ever total of 16 in 2012 and surpasses the 2011 total of 15 grantees.
Grantees are listed below:
Be The Match Foundation raises funds to help patients who need a marrow or umbilical cord blood transplant find a donor and receive the treatment they need.
Contributions to Be The Match Foundation are used to support the costs associated with adding more potential donors to Be The Match Registry, offering hope to individuals searching for their life-saving match.
Be The Match provides grants to ease the financial burden of many uninsured costs associated with transplant, such as temporary housing near transplant centers and prescription co-pays. Be The Match Foundation provides critically needed funding for research to reduce post-transplant complications and improve the ongoing quality of life for all marrow-transplant patients.
The Bob Woodruff Foundation is the nonprofit dedicated to ensuring injured service members and their families are thriving long after they return home. A national organization with grassroots reach, the Bob Woodruff Foundation navigates the maze of more than 40,000 nonprofits providing services to veterans—and finds, funds and shapes innovative programs, and holds them accountable for results.
To date, the foundation has invested more than $16 million in public education and solutions, reaching more than a million service members, support personnel, veterans and families. The Bob Woodruff Foundation was co-founded in 2006 by award-winning anchor Bob Woodruff and his family, whose own experiences inspired them to help make sure our nation’s heroes have access to the high level of support and resources they deserve, for as long as they need it.
buildOn is a non-profit organization that builds schools in developing countries while also running after school service programs across the United States.
At home or abroad, buildOn’s goal is to break the cycle of poverty, illiteracy and low expectations through service and education.
In the U.S., buildOn empowers urban youth to transform their neighborhoods through intensive community service and to change the world by building schools in some of the economically poorest countries in the world.
Internationally, buildOn is breaking ground on a new school every five days in Haiti, Nicaragua, Nepal, Senegal, Malawi, and Mali. Students have contributed more than 1.2 million hours of service in the U.S. and helped build more than 560 schools around the world.
Central Harlem Initiative for Learning and Development, Inc. (CHILD, Inc.) is a not-for-profit organization that supports St. Aloysius School, a two-campus school in Central Harlem dedicated to educating children who are at great risk of not meeting their potential.
Since 1940, St. Aloysius has been an oasis for African-American and Latino inner-city students. St. Aloysius provides a comprehensive education, including strong core academics and enriching programs during the regular school day, after school and during the summer months. IICF’s grant supports a summer camp program ensuring that students have a safe and nourishing environment in which to grow during the summer.
CityKids Foundation offers an arts-based youth empowerment model to urban young people ages 13-19 through arts and educational programs to develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence to succeed in school, workplace and life.
Established in 1985, it empowers youth by utilizing artistic exploration and development as a tool of engagement. CityKids programs embrace the SafeSpace model promoting an environment where young people are respected, encouraged to learn and grow, and stay with the program for 2-5 years.
CityKids Foundation’s youth-driven live performances, mass media productions, workshops and individual and group support help to foster academic excellence, youth development, leadership skills and a successful transition into adulthood for more than 800 young people annually.
The Doe Fund answers the call for a proven and effective solution to homelessness and criminal recidivism. Through its innovative paid transitional work program “Ready, Willing & Able,” the organization has empowered tens of thousands of individuals to lead productive lives.
Eden Autism Services is a primary resource for autism information, education, training and support services for individuals with autism, families, educators and healthcare professionals. Founded in 1975, Eden’s mission is to improve the lives of children and adults with autism and their families by providing a range of community-based services to meet specific needs throughout the lifespan.
Programs include early intervention, education, employment training and residential services for children and adults with autism. Eden’s clinicians offer in-person and online workshops, conferences and webinars as well as in-home therapy services, evaluations and consultations.
Friends of Karen, Inc. ensures that families caring for a child with a life-threatening illness don’t have to face the illness alone.
Since 1978, Friends of Karen has provided vital, practical and comprehensive support, all at no cost to more 5,000 families in the tri-state area, consistently achieving the highest 4-star Charity Navigator rating. Social workers, staff and volunteers provide resources such as helping to pay living and medical expenses and providing school supplies and holiday gifts.
Harlem RBI serves more than 1,500 boys and girls ages 5-22 with year-round academic, sports and enrichment programs.
Harlem RBI’s comprehensive approach to youth development replaces the barriers inner-city youth typically face with concrete opportunities to build the skills and confidence needed to graduate high school, matriculate to college and break the cycle of poverty.
Since 2005, 97 percent of Harlem RBI seniors have graduated high school, 94 percent of seniors have been accepted into college and 99 percent of participants have avoided teen parenthood.
Harlem RBI operates DREAM Charter School in East Harlem that serves 350 students and grows one grade each year until it reaches capacity at 450 students grades K-8.
KidZone TV is a state-of-the-art interactive production and internal broadcast studio within Mount Sinai’s Kravis Children’s Hospital. Housed in the child life and creative arts therapy department, KidZone TV helps pediatric patients cope with fears and anxieties by offering therapeutic activities tailored to meet social, emotional, and educational needs during a hospital visit or stay.
Seven years in operation, KidZone TV produces live programming at least twice a day, seven days a week, throughout the medical center on a dedicated channel that is free of charge.
The goals of KidZone TV are to educate children and families about the hospital environment, encourage self-expression and creativity, increase socialization opportunities for children and families who are isolated, and create therapeutic diversion for patients and families.
The LearningSpring School (LSS) for children on the autism spectrum in grades K-8
is committed to advancing the social, developmental and academic growth of its students through educational and therapeutic strategies in order to prepare each child to participate in the wider community.
Students are provided with a dual curriculum encompassing academics and social skills. The social skills curriculum is based on best practices and designed to help children overcome difficulties in developing relationships naturally.
LSS has received accreditation by the New York State Association of Independent Schools. In 2011, LSS was awarded gold LEED certification as the first “green” school building in New York State.
Mount Kisco Child Care Center (MKCCC) is a non-profit, non-sectarian childcare facility licensed by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services that is dedicated to providing high quality child care and early education, regardless of a family’s ability to meet tuition.
Located in northern Westchester County, N.Y., MKCCC provides more than half of its families with need-based scholarship assistance to attend.
MKCCC’s curriculum incorporates innovative programming, such as intergenerational activities and nutrition education, to help prepare children for success in school and beyond.
Scholarship support enables parents to enter or remain in the workplace, provides critical economic opportunities for families and gives parents peace of mind that their children are being cared for in a safe and nurturing environment.
The One Fund Boston was formed to assist victims and families affected by the tragic bombing at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013 and events in the days that followed. Created at the request of Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and established through the generosity of businesses, foundations and individual donors, The One Fund has distributed nearly $61 million to over 230 individuals who were severely affected by the marathon bombings and related events.
Our Military Kids provides grants to children of deployed National Guard and military reserve personnel, as well as to the children of wounded and fallen warriors of all branches of service. The grants cover fees for extracurricular activities and tutoring that nurture and sustain the children during the time a parent is away in service to our country or recovering from injury. Our Military Kids’ objective is to lessen the behavioral and emotional problems often experienced by children when their military parent is deployed to a war zone or is home recovering from serious injury sustained in an overseas conflict.
Riverkeeper’s mission is to protect the Hudson River, its tributaries, and the drinking water supply for nine million residents of New York City and the Hudson Valley.
Riverkeeper was founded in 1966 by fishermen determined to reclaim the Hudson, their source of livelihood and the defining characteristic of their communities, from polluters. Riverkeeper has become the leading advocate for the river and for long-term protection of the freshwater streams, lakes and reservoirs that supply drinking water to millions of New Yorkers. Riverkeeper has also established globally recognized standards for waterway protection, and serves as the model for the growing Waterkeeper movement of more than 200 “Keeper” programs around the world.
The Westchester Institute for Human Development (WIHD) is a leader in addressing major social and health issues affecting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (long-term conditions that affect cognitive ability, physical functioning, or both). WIHD also works with vulnerable children who have been affected by abuse and neglect, as well as their families and caregivers. WIHD promotes health and well-being, self-determination, inclusion and full community participation through nearly 50 programs and services throughout Westchester County and the lower Hudson Valley, New York. More than 60 percent of staff is composed of family members of individuals with developmental disabilities.
For more information about the grantees, visit www.IICF.org/grants/northeast-division-grants
The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation was established in 1994 and is completely directed and funded by the insurance industry. The foundation seeks to help communities and enrich lives by uniting the collective strengths of the industry to provide grants, volunteer service and leadership. Since its inception in 1994, IICF has contributed more than $20 million in grants to charities and 166,000 volunteer hours to hundreds of community nonprofit organizations. IICF is a registered not-for-profit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code.
Source: Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation