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Chubb’s Fundraising Builds Key Relationships
Jim Darling never dreamed that the Chubb national team for Great Strides could raise over $100,000 this year. After all, this was the first time that Chubb, the nation's 11th largest property and casualty insurer, had coordinated a national effort to raise money for a specific charity.
A Personal Connection and a Teambuilding Idea
The Chubb/Snellings Walters team for the Atlanta Great Strides walk raised over $50,000 and solidified a key business relationship. |
For Jim, Chubb’s Los Angeles Regional Branch Manager and the head of its national Great Strides team, the effort to support the CF cause began small and close to home.
When he was in his 20s and newly married, Jim’s first wife, Reggie, died from complications of cystic fibrosis. Nearly 25 years later, Jim, his second wife, Kathy, and their children, Kristen, Matthew and Megan, remain faithful to his first wife’s memory and the mission to cure CF. For years they have been active in Great Strides and other local CF Foundation activities.
Last year, Jim got Chubb involved organizing a Great Strides team among LA branch employees and a local broker partner — Aon Insurance. Not only did the team raise $12,000, but the walk also proved to be a fun teambuilding opportunity for employees and a key business partner. This, Jim thought, would be great for other Chubb branches, given that Chubb’s business depends so heavily on relationships with its 8500 independent brokers and agents.
So Jim shared his idea with close friend Gary Delong, who heads the Dallas Region. Sadly, Gary’s daughter, Hannah, passed away from CF complications following a lung transplant in 2008. These two worked with the CF Foundation to plan a national effort to coordinate local teams of Chubb branches and their local producer partners.
Friendships, Phone Calls and Unexpected CF Connections
Then Jim and Gary picked up the phone and called ten friends who also happened to be Chubb branch managers. Each one recognized the teambuilding potential and signed on. Several immediately identified a local agent or broker who could join the team.
In Atlanta, branch manager Scott Dalton hadn’t yet reached out to a local agent when he got a phone call from his friend, Clay Snellings, president of Snellings Walters, a key Chubb partner agent. Clay was calling to tell Scott he couldn’t join him on a business trip because his daughter was being hospitalized with CF complications.
Within days, Scott and Clay were working with local CF Foundation chapter head Molly Taggart on a corporate kickoff party at Chubb’s Atlanta office for a joint Chubb/Snellings Walters team. A few weeks later, at the Atlanta Great Strides event, their team had more than 60 walkers and raised over $50,000.
“It was amazing to see a business relationship become so much more than that,” said Molly Taggart.
Atlanta’s success was mirrored in 13 other Chubb branches across the country. As of last month, the Chubb national team had easily topped the $100,000 mark — a total that doesn’t even include Chubb’s matching funds. In the age of Facebook, it’s an amazing story of old-fashioned friendships, phone calls and footwork.
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