Based in Morrisville, North Carolina, The Redwoods Group, which Trapani founded in 1997 and where he serves as president and CEO, has as its motto Serve Others^®. The organization’s mission, he notes, is to protect and improve the quality of life in the communities it serves.

Redwoods pursues its mission in three ways:

• Through insurance products and services, the firm helps customers transfer risk and reduce the likelihood of injury to members and program participants at YMCAs, JCCs (Jewish community centers) and camps.

• By educating and engaging employees on the human condition, the company strives to develop committed citizens of the world.

• By sharing financial resources with effective social service agencies in the United States and abroad, the Redwoods Group Foundation responds to compelling human and environmental needs.

“We are here to make a difference—by driving social change, returning benefits to communities, supporting social and economic progress and environmental sustainability, and inspiring changes in the way we impact our world,” Trapani explains.

Trapani’s community engagement and social responsibility roots run deep. “When I was growing up, my dad ran Veterans Administration hospitals around the country,” he explains. “My first exposure to work was following him around the halls, watching him minister to injured veterans.” On several occasions, his father was offered jobs running the teaching hospitals associated with renowned universities. “He turned each job offer down,” Trapani says, “because his sense was that he had the opportunity and the obligation to serve wounded veterans.”

The young Trapani found continual reinforcement of philanthropic awareness and responsibility at home. “My mom and dad used to say to me just about every day, ‘Of those to whom much is given, much also is expected,’” he recalls.

Trapani puts this Biblical exhortation into action in his business. “My sense is that we at The Redwoods Group, like other insurance organizations, have been incredibly blessed,” he explains. This blessing extends beyond the financial. “Through our profession, we have been given the gift of data,” he adds. “For example, we know how people get injured and we know things that people can do to reduce the likelihood of accidents that lead to injuries.”

With this “gift,” he believes, comes responsibility. “It drives how we work with our customers,” Trapani notes. “By sharing information and working closely with our clients, we can help them change how they operate, which in our market can help them keep kids safe and alive. That seems like a very natural connection for us.”

Responsibility also extends to how Trapani supports his staff. “We all want our employees to be thinking communally, to operate outside of themselves, to serve our customers, our communities and one another,” he explains. “In order to do that, though, they need their most basic needs met. As an employer, I have an obligation to do more than just give my people a paycheck.”

This philosophy drives a robust benefits program at Redwoods that addresses everything from health care to retirement to the most basic need, job security. “Those are things we have an obligation to do,” Trapani says. “If we fulfill those obligations, our people will be able to think communally—if we give them the opportunity to do that.”

Such opportunities abound at Redwoods. Employees are able to spend 40 hours of work time each year serving their communities—doing everything from building houses for the working poor or tutoring children in homeless shelters to serving meals at soup kitchens or raising money for childhood cancer research.

In addition, the firm matches employee charitable contributions dollar for dollar, up to $1,000 per employee per year, and with no limit for United Way contributions. Under Redwoods’ volunteerism support program, dubbed “Dollars for Doers,” the company donates $10 for each hour an employee volunteers at a charity outside of normal work hours, up to $300 per employee each year.

While personal passion drives his firm’s social responsibility activities, Trapani acknowledges that additional reasons exist for serving others, including some purely business considerations. “I don’t believe that any organization can succeed in a community that has failed,” he explains. “This is particularly true for insurance organizations.

“Many communities are failing,” Trapani observes. “We are facing some serious problems in education, the environment, access to health care and more. So organizations that are healthy, whether they are for-profit or not-for-profit, can be really powerful forces for positive social change.”

Earlier this year, Trapani shared some of his insights with attendees at the TMPAA Mid-Year Meeting in Baltimore. As part of his presentation, he identified what he describes as “The Four Habits of Socially Responsible Program Administrators.”

First, he says, is a mission beyond building shareholder value. “This is very simple: Get beyond yourself,” he says. “We spend too much time thinking about how to make our next dollar and too little time thinking about the needs of our communities. We are part of our communities, not above them.”

The second habit is following progressive employment practices. “Your own people drive your success,” Trapani notes. “Good firms focus on job security and opportunities for advancement, offer competitive salaries, and then complement these with a strong, subsidized family benefits plan.”

Third is using conservative financial practices. “By properly managing resources, program administrators have the ability and flexibility to respond to community needs,” Trapani explains. “Important factors that support this effort include reserving against volatility, minimizing the compensation gap between company owners and staff, and limiting the use of debt.”

Finally, he observes, socially responsible program administrators focus on sustainability. “In order to serve, businesses need to remain viable,” Trapani says.  Among the factors he cites are risk-bearing profitability; a sound business model that is profitable, disciplined and resilient; and a willingness to postpone gratification.

Trapani wants to be sure that his firm’s social responsibility initiatives are producing genuine, measurable results. Each year, The Redwoods Group contracts with a university business school to conduct a social audit; it becomes part of the company’s annual report and is posted on the corporate Web site.

Trapani is pleased that, even in times of financial adversity, his firm has been able to sustain its social mission.

“One of my employees put it like this: ‘For Redwoods to preach a larger purpose for business, then focus narrowly on profit during a recession, would be hypocritical. During tough times, you find out what really matters to organizations. And from day one, this company has existed to change the world.’” Trapani asserts: “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”

“We continue to have a tremendous opportunity to improve our communities,” he comments. “And because we have the opportunity, it’s really important for us to share our blessings.”