CORPORATE SOCIAL INVESTMENT

Insurer unveils social investment strategy to boost volunteerism

By our News Team | 2022

Insurance giant says it felt it needed to do more to fulfil its organisational purpose and create a better future.

Africa-based insurance company Hollard is claiming a ‘world first’ with its newly launched initiative that calls on South Africans to volunteer their time and effort to serve local communities, while at the same time allowing policyholders to effectively earn back a portion of their insurance premium.

Hollard ChangeMaker encourages people to volunteer their time and makes it easy to do so. While a pilot group of policyholders stand to earn back up to 20% of their life insurance premiums through the programme, the insurer says this is a call to everyone who cares about the country.

“The turmoil that South Africans have been through over the past two years really got us thinking about how we could go beyond our core business,” says Hollard Chief Marketing Officer, Heidi Brauer. “We had a sense that we needed to do more to fulfil our organisational purpose – which is to enable more people to create and secure a better future.

Corporate social investment

Photo by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay

Agency comes up with ‘audacious idea’

Brauer continues: “Our creative agency, VMLY&R, came up with an audacious idea. What if we could unleash the power of active citizenry to make real change, by creating a way for South Africans to pay for their insurance premiums through volunteering? 

“What if we could find a way to create thousands of small acts that would generate big change? What if we could get South Africans to take an active role in improving the future, not only for themselves but for the most vulnerable in our society?” 

The potential of volunteering as a means to improve South Africa’s trajectory is not a new one, but the recent floods in KwaZulu-Natal province have exacerbated the need for ordinary citizens to lend a hand. The much-lauded actions of Gift of the Givers, a world-famous local disaster relief and aid organisation, have demonstrated the power of private citizens to make a significant impact, Hollard notes in a media statement.

“We’re optimistic that by showing everyone just how easy it is to make a difference, we’ll unleash the power of volunteering at mass scale, at a time when South Africa, and the world, needs everyone to be a change-maker,” say Saks Ntombela, Hollard Group CEO.

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