Intact Financial : Marketing employees support community programs through skill sharing

The Community Impact program gives Intact Financial Corporation employees the flexibility to choose how and where they give, in ways that are meaningful to them. It's one way we live our value of generosity.

Most charities have very small teams who provide the services their communities and clients need the most. They often don't have the people or resources to lead marketing and communications initiatives.

With in-person volunteering limited due to ongoing restrictions, Intact's marketing team wanted to put their skills and creativity to good use and help charities in our communities tell their stories, increase their reach, and help more people.

Using their skills to help others

"We really missed being able to volunteer as a team and we started to think about how we could do something meaningful while we're working remotely," said Laetitia Sorribes, Marketing Director in Montreal, who led the team's volunteer organizing committee.

The team offered their skills and expertise to seven charities, including three of Intact's partner charities: the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation; The Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace, and Security; and the Breakfast Club of Canada.

The full Marketing team was split into six working groups - led by Laetitia as well as Arielle Rasamison, Amélie Depatie-Huard, Roxanne Kuru, Stéphanie Bouvet, Sopheak Cheng and Solène Deswartes. The groups brainstormed with each of the charities to share their biggest marketing challenges. A seventh brainstorming session will be held with Breakfast Club of Canada soon.

One session, dozens of ideas

The Intact Centre had two goals: Engaging brokers and other key partners as advocates and encouraging Canadians to protect their homes from flooding. After the session, the Intact Centre team said they were excited for what's next with their marketing strategy.

''I thought we would get out of here with one or two good ideas. Truth is, we probably have a dozen!'' said Blair Feltmate, the head of the Intact Centre.

Some ideas included creating an augmented reality experience to show Canadians what it's like when their home floods and a contest for brokers who complete the home flood protection training.

Reigniting their passion

Another charity the team helped was High Potential, an organization that helps gifted children and teenagers reach their full potential, regardless of their circumstances. The participants were very impressed by the brainstorm session and the ideas it generated.

"The pandemic has been very hard on our association. The brainstorm gave us a big boost to continue and better define how we could evolve our mission," said one of the High Potential participants. They've already implemented one suggestion - an affordable roundtable event that allows parents to meet professionals who work with gifted children.

"We had so much fun during the brainstorm. It was great to have the team working together and it felt so good to use our skills to help someone else," said Laetitia. "Among our key deliverables were actionable communications plans, innovative fundraising ideas and strategic planning to build the future of the charity."

Living our value of generosity

Through the Community Impact program, the Intact Foundation amplifies employees' generosity by matching donations dollar for dollar or donating $20 for every hour they volunteer, to a combined maximum of $1,000 per year. In all, the team volunteered 267 hours and the Intact Foundation donated $5,340 to the charities.