For The Gibson Agency and its parent company, Thompson Insurance Group, their local Ohio food bank started as a philanthropic partnership and turned into an insurance client. The food bank’s network of 160 community partners opened inroads to new relationships for the agency.
Turn community engagement into
an easy strategy for growing agency awareness
By Colleen Flynn
Independent agents already understand the importance of helping others protect what matters most; it’s the foundation of your promise to customers. This intrinsic
passion can create a natural foundation to engage with your communities beyond just business.
But as the insurance industry evolves and digitizes, agencies may feel pulled to prioritize tech-based relationship-building over more traditional tactics.
Forward-thinking agencies are discovering they can differentiate themselves by doing both: fostering real connections in the community and embracing digital tools to build stronger customer relationships. Demonstrating a commitment to the community offers a powerful pathway to build trust and create lasting impact, both for worthy causes and for business growth.
The holidays present the perfect time to evaluate your agency’s philanthropic approach and goals. Putting an achievable plan in place in the new year can help you do more or do it better and strengthen how your agency is perceived.
Use the holiday season to
take stock of how your agency gives back
As charitable giving traditionally increases during the holiday season, now is an ideal time to review current efforts and explore if and how your agency can do more. Do you want to evolve from seasonal donations to year-round giving? Do you want to stick to an annual volunteer event, but step up promotion?
Here are a few ways how:
- Food bank drives don’t need to end with the holidays. Packing meals for students during the school year or running a summer food drive can meet critical needs during weekends and summer break for children experiencing hunger.
- Love a holiday party? Raise your hand to serve on an event planning committee next year. Your agency can sponsor and promote events, introducing new people to your network.
- Keep your current plan … but turn up the megaphone. Invite clients to your diaper and formula drive, commit to sharing on social once a month, or mention activities in your agency newsletter. It’s a low-cost, low-effort way to deepen your impact.
Why giving back matters to
thriving agencies
The business case for community engagement is increasingly supported by consumer behavior research. According to a 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer report, 88% of consumers say trust is as important as price and quality when it comes to the brands they do business with. This trend is particularly relevant within the insurance sector, where trust serves as the currency of relationships.
Agencies can lean into this connection: When you are more visibly committed to societal betterment, this signals to clients that your values extend beyond sales transactions. Charitable activities also expand networks, create new relationships and provide avenues to connect with community leaders.
These organic relationship-building opportunities prove valuable as they’re built on shared interests and collaborative action.
For Gibson Insurance Agency in Ohio, their local food bank started as a philanthropic partnership and turned into an insurance client. The food bank’s network of more than 160 community partners opened inroads to new relationships for the agency. Conversely, Perkins McKenzie Insurance Agency in Louisiana started their relationship with the local Boys & Girls Club as an insurance provider. When their agency counsel retired, they found a successor through deep involvement with Club Blue, the nonprofit’s young professionals’ philanthropy network.
While the desire to make a positive impact is there for many agencies, the challenge lies in seamlessly weaving philanthropic efforts into the fabric of daily business operations without overwhelming resources or losing sight of customer commitments. This requires taking purposeful steps to identify initiatives that are manageable to execute, beneficial to the cause and complementary to the agency’s strategic objectives.
How to bring giving into your
day-to-day operations
Your agency’s purpose statement can serve as a helpful guide for pinpointing core values and causes that naturally align with your mission. Whether your agency emphasizes family protection, business security or community resilience, these themes can inform which activities feel most authentic and will resonate the most with clients.
Choose your approach. Agencies can contribute through time, expertise, financial donations or a combination of all three. Opportunities might include service events, pro bono consulting or team volunteer days.
Consider nonprofits that may lack strong financial support and where your time or dollar will go even further. Educational initiatives allow agencies to share expertise through financial literacy seminars, policyholder workshops or mentorship programs for entrepreneurs.
When personal experience intersects with professional expertise, the result can be powerful. For some, the decision to give back stems from their own life circumstances. Patrick Geoghan, agency owner of U.S. Home and Auto, says his agency supports the National Aging in Place Council (NAIPC) because its mission is deeply personal for him and his wife, caregivers to multiple aging family members.
“Through NAIPC, I realized that our community simply isn’t aware of the wide range of resources available to support aging successfully,” Geoghan notes. “At a recent seminar, I spoke with seniors about a simple, low-cost rider they can add to insurance policies to protect against fraud and scams.
“Volunteering has been personally fulfilling and strengthened my role as a trusted community resource,” he adds. “In turn, I’m able to support my clients more holistically—not just with insurance solutions, but by connecting them with a broader network of aging resources.”
Maximize existing resources. Consider causes, groups or organizations that your employees may already be passionate about. Designate a point person to coordinate volunteer activities; this role can pair with any of your agency’s existing outreach initiatives. By leveraging your team’s talents and playing to their strengths, your efforts can move to a more regular cadence without overwhelming team capacity.
When you are more visibly
committed to societal betterment,
this signals to clients that your values
extend beyond sales transactions. Charitable
activities also expand networks, create new
relationships and provide avenues to connect with community leaders.
Add to business activities. Charitable components can be added to what you already have in place. New business referral programs can be paired with a monetary match to worthy causes. Client appreciation events can include fundraising elements, or sponsorship of a nonprofit event can provide visibility in your community.
Community One Insurance found success with this approach. The agency created the Community Heroes Festival to bring its North Carolina community together and appreciate the agency’s clients and their families. Together they raised more than $48,000 for Claire’s Army to fight pediatric cancer in 2025.
Once it is determined which efforts will make an impact and a more regular cadence of giving has been established, it’s time to share efforts more publicly to benefit both your agency and the cause.
Where and When to share
your involvement
Some agencies hesitate to publicize volunteer efforts to avoid being seen as bragging. In fact, only 37% of agencies involve clients in giving back, according to research from Liberty Mutual and the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (the Big “I”). However, reframing philanthropic involvement is an opportunity to amplify social commitment rather than self-promotion.
Share often. The “tree falling in the woods” analogy applies here: If an agency’s efforts go unseen, it prevents others from getting inspired and joining in. Instead, focus on the nonprofit’s mission through authentic storytelling and a clear call to action. By helping meet a need, you will underscore your agency’s values and character, rather than appearing to seek “credit.”
Streamline content creation. Fortunately, there are tools that make sharing simple. Generative AI makes it faster than ever to create and repurpose content, including event updates, personal stories and fundraising results. AI tools can develop a year’s worth of content and organize it into a calendar, adapt posts for different social media channels, and create seasonal newsletter items.
Maximize visibility. Show up where your clients are most likely to engage. Use your website, reach out to newspapers and connect with chambers of commerce to share involvement in newsletters or event listings. Many chambers also have awards highlighting civic leaders that you can apply for.
Engage your clients—and your competitors. Make it easy for your customers to feel good too by encouraging them to participate alongside your agency through drop-off food or toy drives, or by donating in-kind services like catering or repairs to nonprofit partners. You can also tap your competitors! Making charity a friendly competition with neighboring agencies enables more people to make a difference, experience your agency’s values firsthand, and reinforce independent agencies’ reputation as a force for good.
Sharing frequently simplifies the ways that your community can learn how the agency makes a difference, according to Jill Lang, marketing director of Allen Insurance and Financial.
“Our agency uses our website to make it easy for the community to learn how we give back and what we sponsor,” Lang explains. “With social and email, we share highlights from charity golf tournaments or invite clients and community to join us in local food drives.
“When we share updates about our people and our partnerships in the community,” she adds, “we see engagement that resonates and lasts—for us and for the organizations we highlight.”
By taking these steps to work giving back into regular workflows, agencies can more vocally differentiate themselves in competitive markets while contributing to community wellbeing. Investment and amplification in this area pays dividends in client loyalty, employee satisfaction and business growth, creating a cycle of mutual benefit that strengthens agencies and the people they serve.
Above all, prioritize making charitable activities fun and meaningful. These meaningful initiatives can bring teams together and create shared experiences that extend beyond routine work responsibilities.
The author
Colleen Flynn is the program manager for Independent Agent Giving at Liberty Mutual and Safeco Insurance. She conducts research and shares best practices for independent agents to maximize the business benefits of community engagement, such as AgentGiving.com and the IA Community Giving Guide. Previously, she spent 15 years working in the philanthropy and nonprofit sector.
