While most insurance agents probably like their clients, those that focus on nonprofits often love theirs.
“We really enjoy working with nonprofits and insuring them,” said Ed Gillman, chief problem solver at Gillman Insurance Problem Solvers of the Atlanta metro area. “They are really caring people who give back. We want to help them succeed, and we give back in a couple of ways ourselves,” he said.
Gillman started the agency in 1993, and began working with nonprofits a few years later when one of his agents developed an insatiable need to work with nonprofits.
“He was probably better fitted to work at a nonprofit; that was what he wanted to do. He loved serving. He was very community oriented. He went out and started talking to nonprofits, building relationships. He bided his time and got rewarded and we started writing some nonprofits. It is a large community but it is a small community if you know what I mean, and they started talking to each other. We serve about 100 nonprofits now and we have some differentiators that allow us to grow our business,” Gillman said.
He said his nonprofit rainmaker has since retired, but he laid the groundwork and the agency has continued to expand that part of its business.
Gillman said the agency offers a couple of pro bono services to help their nonprofit clients. They offer coaching and other assistance to improve their social media outreach efforts, and the agency also uses its social media assets to help promote client events.
They also pay their clients’ premiums to cover hole-in-one prizes in golf events and donate $100 and water bottles for clients hosting 5K and 10K walk/run events.
“We have a standing offer to all of our nonprofits that if they have a golf tournament, we pay their hole-in-one insurance. We don’t ask for anything in return. We have a large check we put out. We do it with USLI (United States Liability Insurance Group), a
Berkshire Hathaway company, and they have a thing where in addition to the prize, they give another 20% to the charity when there is a winner.”
Gillman said he had been offering the program for about 5 years, working with about 25 golf events a year, paying the $500 premium to insure against a $25,000 pot. Finally last July, someone hit a hole in one. The charity was Homestretch in Roswell, Georgia, which provides housing, job training, education and other services to unwed mothers. “The player got the $25,000 and donated $10,000 of it back to Homestretch, then USLI donated another $5000.”
Gillman said the tournament was on a Friday, and that Homestretch was scheduled to close on the purchase of an 8-unit apartment building the following Monday, and was able to apply the windfall to that purchase.
On the social media front, Gillman said the agency has a social media marketing director who consults with nonprofits as needed to optimize websites, help promote events and drive more traffic to their sites.
“We give them guidance on tricks of the SEO trade. Really, we just make our person available as a resource they can call on,” Gillman said.
Also, when anyone buys insurance through Gillman, they can choose from a list of nonprofits that Gillman will make a donation to.
