The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation UK (IICF) raised more than £120,000 at its annual gala dinner on October 8, with 200 insurance leaders from more than 30 companies backing charities that help young people facing adversity, in a year when the foundation has put literacy at the centre of its fundraising.
Vitesse PSP, The Hartford and AXA XL sponsored the evening at Plaisterers’ Hall in London. Alongside the guests, they helped raise funds for IICF’s community grants programme, which this year will benefit The Children’s Book Project, cricket charity Chance to Shine and tutoring charity Tutors United. IICF describes itself as a nonprofit that connects insurance companies, their employees and grassroots charities to advance social mobility and strengthen local communities. The 2025 gala, marking its tenth anniversary, raised nearly £145,000. The dinner also falls within IICF’s Month of Giving, which runs through October.
The foundation’s emphasis on reading coincides with the National Year of Reading, which the Department for Education and the National Literacy Trust launched for 2026 in response to falling reading enjoyment, with the Trust’s 2025 survey finding that only one in three young people aged 8 to 18 said they enjoyed reading in their free time. The campaign set out to bring in businesses as well as schools and libraries.
Phil McGriskin, chief executive of Vitesse, said the literacy focus was especially meaningful to him because reading had played a large part in his professional journey and continues to open opportunities for him. He said insurance is a network business and IICF brings people across the industry together to support communities.
IICF says it has raised more than £3.2 million for grants to social mobility charities since launching in 2015, helping more than 8,000 young people facing adversity gain the skills and confidence to do well at school, find work and make a new start. It says the work also helps insurers access diverse talent, strengthen employee engagement through volunteering and increase their community impact.
Guests heard from Matthew Robinson, head of fundraising at Northampton Saints Foundation, and Tom Wood, a former Northampton and England rugby player and an ambassador for the charity. Mark Trumper, managing director of Axco and chair of the IICF board, presented the Above & Beyond award to Emma Hodgart of AXA XL. The award recognises a member of IICF’s associate board of aspiring insurance leaders for an outstanding contribution to the foundation and the community over the past twelve months.
IICF’s aim of connecting insurers with young people who might never consider the sector matches a recruitment problem the industry is already measuring. A survey at this year’s BIBA conference found talent attraction and retention was UK brokers’ top priority, as Insurance Business reported in June. London Market Group data show early-careers hiring in the London market fell 25% last year, with a further 25% fall forecast for this year. In Ecclesiastical’s 2024 survey of 250 UK brokers, 87% cited succession planning as a main reason for wanting to attract younger talent.
Volunteering and grants do not replace a recruitment strategy, but IICF says they widen the pool of young people who encounter the industry, and the foundation’s funding goes to charities working with children and young people on reading, tutoring and sport.
