Aviva has launched a fund-matching initiative that will double broker charity fundraising up to £5,000 per project, with a total pot of £200,000 available on a first-come, first-served basis to UK brokers that trade with the insurer.
The scheme, called Double the Difference, matches individual donations up to £250 per donation and allows brokers to register up to five projects - one per location - enabling firms with regional networks to support multiple causes simultaneously. Since its launch in June, 18 broker-led projects have received support, with Aviva contributing more than £13,000 in matched funding and total fundraising across those projects reaching more than £31,000. The fund replaces the former Aviva Broker Community Fund.
Alistair Body, business development director at Momentum Broker Solutions Limited, said the impact had been immediate. "Aviva's Double the Difference campaign has already matched £5,000 for our charity, The Community Rugby Trust," he said. "For a charity as young as this, that's an incredible amount of money, and on its own it allows us to deliver coaching to more than 800 children."
Michelle Taylor, broker distribution director at Aviva, said the programme was designed to amplify what brokers were already doing. "By matching every pound up to £5,000, the fund makes it simple for brokers to make twice the impact," she said.
Aviva's initiative is one of several routes through which brokers can access insurer or industry backing for charitable work - and the differences between them are worth understanding.
The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation UK (IICF UK), an independent grant-making body backed by 22 corporate partners from across the insurance sector, operates on a collective rather than bilateral basis. Rather than tying support to a commercial relationship with a single insurer, IICF UK raises funds industry-wide and awards grants to charities focused on social mobility, while also facilitating employee volunteering and career pathway programmes. In 2025 the foundation marked its tenth anniversary with what it described as a year of record-breaking generosity and volunteer action, according to the IICF UK website.
In 2026 the foundation is focusing its efforts on literacy, targeting £30,000 to expand its Better Futures campaign in line with the UK's National Year of Reading.
Allianz operates its own community-focused initiatives separately. The Allianz Future Fund offers grants of between £500 and £3,000 to grassroots rugby clubs across the UK, according to the Allianz website - a narrower remit than Aviva's broker-facing scheme but one that targets a specific community need. Allianz has also previously operated a broader Community Fund supporting local charities near its UK offices.
The most structurally distinctive model in the market belongs to the Benefact Group - the insurance holding company that owns Ecclesiastical Insurance, Ansvar, and other specialist brands, and which is ultimately owned by a charity. Benefact gives all available profits to good causes and has donated more than £200 million to charity since 1987, according to the group's own reporting. For brokers with clients in the charity, faith, education, or heritage sectors, Benefact's ownership structure represents a different kind of alignment - one where the commercial relationship is itself a charitable act.
The choice between these routes is not purely financial. Fund-matching schemes such as Aviva's Double the Difference reward brokers who are already actively fundraising, effectively amplifying effort already underway. Grant-based models such as the former Aviva Broker Community Fund - or the IICF's grant programme - require an application process but can deliver larger sums to a single cause. Industry-wide bodies such as IICF offer participation without requiring a bilateral insurer relationship.
Aviva's Double the Difference is open while funds remain in the £200,000 pot. Brokers wishing to register a project can do so at the Aviva Broker Fundraising page.
