Impact report 2024 | 2024 progress and numbers | Meeting communities where they are | Harnessing global strength to change society
2024: A year of significant progress and strategic developments
2024 marked the beginning of a new four-year strategic cycle for us. With the collaboration of charitable organizations and the dedicated support of Zurich employees, we have achieved incredible impact across all our key areas since the creation of our Foundation, both in depth and scale.
Supporting communities further by enabling new partnerships
In addition to our programming and engagement activities, we have facilitated 15 new partnerships enabling us to drive system-level change and support even more people and communities.
Milestones and alignment
In 2024, we hit some big milestones. Our projects match our evolved goals and vision, setting us up for future success. By strengthening our ability to make a bigger impact through teamwork and broad changes, we are in a strong position to grow our influence and effectiveness.
Enhanced crisis response capabilities
Furthermore, we have significantly enhanced our crisis response activities, responding to over 30 crises in 2024 alone – a figure that represents double the number of crises supported year-over-year. This strengthened capability ensures that we can provide effective assistance when it is most needed.
Investing in our team
Investing in our team has been a critical component of our strategy. Between October 2023 and February 2024, 40% of our Foundation team joined, bringing fresh perspectives and expertise to our management. This investment in our human resources underpins our ability to execute on our ambitious goals and navigate the complexities of our mission.
Building foundations for tomorrow
While delivering remarkable impact on all our key fronts throughout 2024, we are also now well positioned for 2025 and beyond. Our strategic initiatives and institutional developments have not only strengthened our current operations but have also laid the groundwork for the future.
Where do we stand in our strategic cycle and
Mission 2035?
In 2024, we launched Mission 2035, an ambitious strategy to accelerate our impact and help create lasting change in some of the most precarious and at-risk places on earth. This strategy focuses on meeting increasingly complex needs by scaling our impact through partnerships with public and private organizations, and working with local and national authorities to generate positive and sustainable changes at a system-level. By building on our learnings and successes, we have redesigned our programs so they are fit for the future.
The decisive actions we took and the impact achieved in 2024 have put us in a strong position to execute on our key objectives through to 2027 and for many years to come.
2024 in numbers
10.5 million
lives positively impacted via our programming activities in 2024, a 179% increase year on year compared to 2023
Improving Mental Wellbeing: Positively impacted
6.7 million
lives, including 2,779,000 where the impact was transformational – 281% increase year on year compared to 2023
Adapting to Climate Change: Positively impacted
1.3 million
lives, including 120,000 where the impact was transformational – 58% increase year on year compared to 2023
Enabling Social Equity: Positively impacted
950,000
lives, including 153,000 where the impact was transformational – 392% increase year on year compared to 2023
Responding to Crisis: assisting about
97,000
people via responses to 30+ disasters around the world – 258% increase year on year compared to 2023
A person is “transformed” if we observe an enduring change in their circumstances as a result of the intervention.
Deep engagement from Zurich and Zurich employees
In 2024, Zurich employees'*, inspiring community engagement reached new heights. Here are some key achievements:
- Over 199,000* volunteering hours completed by Zurich employees across the globe, 28% increase year on year
- Over CHF 6.5 million in donations and fundraising (including Z Zurich Foundation’s matching, a 34% increase year on year)
- 270 grants in support of Zurich employees who are Board members of local charitable organisations, in addition to running four 'Board match' programs where employees wanting to be board members can be trained and matched to appropriate organizations (US, Canada, Spain, Ireland).
Our 2024 Community Hero Awards recognized the exceptional efforts of 37 Zurich employees around the world who make their communities better in numerous ways. Winners include Krysty Sullivan from Australia for her outstanding advocacy in raising awareness about women's health, Keshav Kaushik from Singapore for championing volunteer activities and leading the 'Break the Barriers' campaign to raise funds for girls' education, and Vinicius Campaner from Zurich Santander Brazil, a dentist offering free consultations and treatment to children and teenagers in underserved communities.
The amazing commitment and dedication we see every year from Zurich’s people continues to increase. These collective efforts strengthen our communities and encourage others to join initiatives that build brighter futures.
*Zurich Insurance Group Ltd and its subsidiaries (Zurich). It also includes employees of the Farmers Group Inc. and Cover-More. Zurich Insurance Group has no ownership interest in the Farmers Exchanges. Farmers Group, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Zurich Insurance Group and certain of its subsidiaries provide certain non-claims services and ancillary services to the Farmers Exchanges as attorney-in-fact and receive fees for its services.
Yet again, Zurich offices all across the world, from Colombia to New Zealand, South Africa to Poland, and everywhere in between, have shown how fundamental charitable giving is to Zurich's company culture. Employees continue to give their time, talent and money to support those in need. Despite this generosity, we always strive to do more, further activating the activist in all of us, and are excited to broaden our giving program, and further increase its relevance to Zurich's customers. in 2025. To every employee across the globe who participated in one way or another last year, a huge thank you.
Hear from our 2024 CommunityHero Award winners
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Vania Monasterio, |
Outstanding Volunteering - in recognition for her participation in local CSR activities and championing them to her colleagues. “For me, volunteering has been a deeply enriching and transformative experience. Through this, I have had the opportunity to contribute positively to my community, which has filled me with satisfaction and pride, strengthening the sense of teamwork and camaraderie with my colleagues.” |
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Bill Dengler, |
Outstanding Volunteering – for his long-term support of the Ronald McDonald House of Philadelphia, including fundraising, and with MANNA, delivering food medicine to vulnerable people in his local community. “Find your superpower. What is something you are good at and enjoy? Chances are you can find a way to give back using that superpower. Whether it be teaching a child to dribble a ball, singing a song, fixing a door or making a lasagna – there will be a way you can use that to make a difference to someone in your community.” |
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Alex Chen, |
Outstanding Volunteering – for his regular volunteering commitments, including the annual beach clean up and his continued support of the 300th EPIC house building programs. “Volunteering began as a belief: that small actions can open doors to brighter futures. Acts of kindness take so little yet can mean so much. Every moment reminds me why I volunteer—because even the simplest gestures can create a lasting impact on someone’s life” |
Launching a more efficient response to climate or conflict crises across the globe
In 2024, the Foundation strengthened its crisis response pillar, responding to more than 30 crises across the globe in 2024, compared to 20 in 2023. According to the CHF 10 proxy, we estimated impacting over 97,000 people via our responses, a 258% increase year on year compared to 2023.
Our ability to respond effectively in times of crises relies on our strong international network, including humanitarian organizations, Zurich Business Units and Zurich employees.
To drive this change, we implemented the following key initiatives:
- Defined Assessment Criteria: Establishing clear criteria to align our efforts with our objectives while effectively managing our budget.
- Crisis Response and Recovery Appeal: Launching a dedicated multimillion initiative via our giving platform to facilitate donations from Zurich employees.
- ‘Go-To' Partner Network: Creating a trusted network, connecting us to a vast array of experienced humanitarian organizations with a proven track record in immediate relief. This network includes non‑governmental organizations, international organizations, and UN agencies, such as International Committee of the Red Cross, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Médecins Sans Frontières, Plan International Switzerland, Save the Children, Switzerland for UNHCR, UNICEF.
- Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS): Whenever feasible, we integrated MHPSS interventions into our initial response efforts.
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The importance of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in emergency responses |
Over the years, through our discussions and responses, we have identified a critical gap: mental wellbeing in crisis situations. As of 2023, one in six people in crisis settings suffer from mental health conditions, according to the WHO. This issue is even more pronounced among youth, with approximately 25% of children and adolescents in crisis situations developing mental health disorders, as reported by UNICEF.
Crises are akin to societal settings where mental health is not mainstreamed, remains too expensive, and is often deprioritized by funders. Consequently, mental wellbeing continues to receive minimal attention in the crisis response cycle. In 2023, only 1.5% of international aid was allocated to mental health (United for Global Mental Health). This lack of integration and investment exacerbates the mental health crisis, leaving vulnerable populations without adequate support.
We strongly believe that MHPSS must become a mainstream practice embedded in all humanitarian responses. The responsibility is immense: effective integration of MHPSS in humanitarian responses can reduce mental disorder prevalence by approximately 30-35%, according to the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC).
To achieve this, we have started to identify our added value in changing systems to better address these invisible needs, supporting the humanitarian sector in integrating MHPSS activities wherever possible, and helping communities and individuals strengthen their personal resilience.
Increasing the scale of our impact through advocacy
Advocacy is a strategic lever for driving impact at the Foundation. We define it as a collaborative process with our charity partners and Zurich to amplify our efforts. We do it in two ways: through system-level changes and partnerships.
To scale our impact through system-level changes, we strategically target areas based on potential impact, resource needs, and likelihood of success. Scaling occurs only when effective community programs and replicable advocacy proof points are in place. We prioritize building relationships with key stakeholders who can influence these systems, recognizing that system-level change is a long-term and less predictable effort than direct community programming.
In terms of partnerships, we work with charities to embed strategic collaborations in our programs, using funding mechanisms like grants and coalitions. Our charity partners seek co-funding opportunities, while Zurich Business Units engage local partners in grants. These organizations can invest in our supported projects. We leverage our resources and relationships to identify and connect with like-minded organizations to enhance our initiatives.