Every business unit signed our ‘Volunteer Pledge’: all permanent Zurich employees are entitled to a minimum of one day per year paid volunteering.

Each year, the Z Zurich Foundation allocates a budget to match Zurich’s employee volunteering hours with donations to good causes.

In 2019, Zurich employees volunteered 142,200 hours of which about 31,800 were skill-based. Since the scheme started in 2016, the Z Zurich Foundation matched CHF 1.83m. 

In 2017, we launched a program to recognize Zurich employees who make significant contributions in their communities. Employees can nominate their colleagues for a wide range of activities, including fundraising, volunteering and campaigning. Each winner will receive a one-off donation of CHF 25’000.

In 2021, we awarded 18 individuals/teams for going above and beyond to support their local communities. 

In February 2019, 35 Zurich employees from more than 25 business units (including colleagues from Zurich-Santander and Cover-More) came together in Nepal to pilot a new project – building schools in underdeveloped areas with the charity buildOn, an experienced non-profit working across the world to deliver education to the world’s most disadvantaged communities. Nepal was chosen because of the levels of extreme poverty, and consequently our ability to create significant impact, and because of existing links to the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance.

Zurich employee volunteers stayed with host families in order to connect with the community and better experience and understand their traditions and culture. The construction of the schools was financed by the Z Zurich Foundation, with participants raising funds to cover the cost of adult literacy programs. With most of the village illiterate, providing adult literacy classes is vital if the children attending the school are to receive help and support at home. 100% of participants describe their participation as a life-changing experience.

Crises and emergencies happen regularly and can strike anywhere in the world. When a disaster strikes, it is imperative to provide relief as quickly, efficiently and effectively as possible. While the Z Zurich Foundation cannot respond to all crises, we do provide assistance for two types of disasters:

1) Disasters on a global scale that are so large that they cannot be dealt with by the usual in-country coping mechanisms, and merit a much broader response. The Z Zurich Foundation will launch a global appeal for employee support, with the Z Zurich Foundation matching all donations made, capped at CHF 250,000 maximum per appeal. An example of a campaign we have launched after a disaster has occurred was for the 2019-2020 bushfires in Australia.

2) Local disasters, when a major disaster hits a country in which Zurich has an office but where it is not so large as to need a global response. At the request of the local office, the Z Zurich Foundation will launch a local appeal for employee donations, with the Z Zurich Foundation matching all donations made, capped at CHF 10,000 maximum per appeal. Recent examples of disasters for which we have launched campaigns include mudslides in Mocoa, Colombia (2017), and earthquakes in central Italy (2016).

In addition to the cases mentioned here, the Z Zurich Foundation also contributes CHF 500,000 annually to the International Federation of Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies’ Disaster Relief Emergency Fund. This fund allows local Red Cross/Red Crescent Societies access to emergency funding in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, ensuring relief can still be provided even though donations to public appeals may not yet have begun.