Our Definition of Success: Giving Back
Odyssey Group is committed to making a positive impact in the communities in which our employees live and work. We established the Odyssey Group Foundation (Foundation) in 2007, and each year, Odyssey sets aside 2% of its pre-tax earnings for charitable purposes.
Since its inception, the Foundation and its business affiliates have pledged $98.7 million to more than 550 charities around the world. In addition to short and long-term grants made at the corporate level, the Foundation also holds a biennial Employee Nomination Campaign that gives employees the opportunity to help support charities that are near and dear to them.
In 2024, charitable distributions totaled $11 million to over 80 charities around the world.
Odyssey’s Good Works
The Foundation’s “Good Works” support charitable organizations focused on healthcare, food and shelter, community and human services, education, the environment, disaster relief and cancer research.
Most of our charitable endeavors closely align with our core business and the clients we serve.
- As a commercial property insurer and property catastrophe reinsurer, we also contribute to global disaster relief efforts and help rebuild communities.
- As an insurer of medically based clinical trials and research organizations, we also support cancer research and provide hope.
- As an insurer of agriculture, crops and livestock, and protecting food supply, we regularly contribute to organizations that help prevent hunger.
- As a (re)insurer and risk management service provider to the healthcare industry, including hospital and physician groups, we are committed to helping keep patients safe.
- As an insurer to those who have suffered a personal, catastrophic liability loss, we provide funding to help those who need it most.
- As a large employer in the (re)insurance industry, we support and provide opportunities to educate the leaders of tomorrow.
Odyssey Group is a trusted and committed philanthropic partner to some of the world’s leading organizations. Our contributions have resulted in significant achievements ranging from global disaster relief to groundbreaking medical research. Learn more below.
At a Glance: Odyssey’s Charitable Initiatives
Americares is an emergency response and global health organization committed to saving lives and building healthier futures for people in crisis, both within the U.S. and around the world.
In 2013, the Foundation joined the Americares Annual Emergency Response Partner Program, which provides key resources that enables Americares to immediately respond when disasters strike. In addition, Odyssey staff regularly dedicate their time to assemble emergency kits in their Stamford, CT warehouse.
Odyssey Group is one of Americares’ strongest corporate supporters, donating more than $4.8 million to date.
Since its establishment in 1982, Americares has delivered more than $23 billion in humanitarian aid to 164 countries.
To learn more about the Foundation’s relationship with Americares, please read the Partner in Profile on Americares’ website.
Additional information about Americares is available at https://www.americares.org/.
Founded in 1994, Americares now operates four free clinics in Lower Fairfield County, Connecticut, providing care for nearly 2,000 low-income, uninsured patients annually. Since then, over 25,000 residents have received free health care services valued at $165 million from community partners.
The Foundation’s partnership with Americares began in 2007, representing a significant commitment to enhancing healthcare access for underserved communities. Since then, the Foundation has donated a total of $4.4 million, which includes funding Mobile Health Centers to over 100,000 people living in Mumbai, India, and the start-up capital for Americares Free Clinics in Stamford, CT.
In 2024, the Foundation issued a five-year $1,500,000 grant to help support the Clinics health programs, not just locally, but globally.
To learn more about the Foundation’s relationship with Americares, please read the Partner in Profile on Americares’ website.
Additional information about Americares is available at https://www.americaresfreeclinics.org/about/.
Future 5 is a Stamford, Connecticut-based organization that connects low-income high school students to the greater community. Since 2009, Future 5 has provided over 700 highly motivated and under-resourced, diverse youths with access to coaches, colleges and job opportunities with local companies.
In 2021, the Foundation, in partnership with Future 5, launched The OdysseyRe Scholar Program as part of Odyssey Group’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. The Foundation awarded a three-year $300,000 grant which will help current high school seniors and college students by providing two forms of tuition support:
- Gap Funding Support, which covers a key tuition “gap” that would otherwise prevent them from attending their college of choice
- Additional Student Funding Support, which provides emergency/tactical education support to commuting students
The Foundation hopes to engage Odyssey’s employees in mentoring programs and provide educational opportunities/internships to students so they can learn more about the (re)insurance industry.
Additional information about Future 5 is available at https://futurefive.org/.
In January of 2021, Odyssey Group’s U.S. insurance operations, underwritten by Hudson Insurance Group, implemented the Hudson Education Leadership Program. This work study program creates a pipeline of future talent for the Company and targets students from disadvantaged communities and those who are the first in their family to go to college. The program aims to educate participants about the insurance industry and its opportunities.
In addition to paying students to work while attending college, Hudson contributes to college tuition and provides a stipend to cover certain costs and expenses for students.
Since 2021, 15 students have enrolled in the program, with two being hired full-time. The initiative helps cultivate and advance Hudson’s talent development efforts for growth and underscores the Company’s commitment to continuing to recruit young people from disadvantaged communities.
Additional information about Hudson Insurance Group is available at https://hudsoninsgroup.com/.
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, located in New York City, enhances science, medicine and healthcare for humanity through excellence, innovation, collaboration and diversity. They conduct groundbreaking research, educate future leaders, provide advanced compassionate care and are committed to health equity.
In 2019, the Foundation established a relationship with the Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai by issuing a research grant in support of Mount Sinai’s Artificial Pancreas Research Program. The program, led by Dr. Carol Levy, is a pioneering clinical research program studying the efficacy of artificial pancreas systems to improve blood glucose control in people with type 1 diabetes.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Foundation donated to Dr. Florian Krammer’s COVID-19 Research Fund at Mount Sinai Hospital. This research focused on the antibodies within individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 to treat the virus in new patients.
Most recently, the Foundation announced a new three-year $562,000 grant to support groundbreaking Multiple Sclerosis (MS) research at the Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for MS. This grant, which extends through 2026, will fund the “Advanced Radiologic and Immunologic Characterization of Pre-Clinical MS” project, which aims to explore the early stages of MS by focusing on patients with Radiologically Isolated Syndrome, a condition where MRI findings suggest MS but without the presence of any symptoms. Researchers hope to intercept the disease before it fully develops.
Additional information about the Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is available at https://icahn.mssm.edu/.
Founded in 1887, Institut Pasteur is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study of biological diseases and the discovery of their cures. Bearing the name of the great Louis Pasteur, one of the first scientists to successfully implement vaccines, the France-based institute has been a pioneer in the forefront of the fight against infectious disease for over a century.
OdysseyRe’s relationship with the Institut Pasteur began in 2008 and continues to this day, with contributions amassing more than $3.1 million over the past 16 years. Our support has been primarily in the form of grants allocated for various cancer research projects performed by some of the world’s foremost scientists. We helped fund their Titan Project, which included the installation of the most powerful microscope currently in existence on the Institut Pasteur’s Paris campus. Most recently, funding has also been directed to the Institut’s Autism Research Initiative.
Additional information about the Institut Pasteur is available at https://www.pasteur.fr/en/.
Institut Curie is a leading cancer research and treatment center in France that features an internationally renowned research center with a state-of-the-art hospital group to treat patients suffering from some of the rarest cancers. With three locations, it has over 3,300 researchers, physicians and caregivers collaborating on their mission to research, teach and treat cancer.
In 2023, OdysseyRe issued a two-year grant of $162,000 to support Institut Curie’s new flash radiotherapy lung cancer research, a promising method discovered by the Institut in 2014 which delivers an ultra-high dose rate irradiation in a fraction of a second, making it possible to spare healthy tissue. This research will compare flash radiation with conventional radiotherapy, which can lead to the development of toxicities and long-term side effects.
Additional information about Institut Curie is available at https://institut-curie.org/.
The mission of Ronald McDonald House New York (RMH-NY) is to provide a strong and supportive environment for patients of pediatric cancer and other complex illnesses, encouraging and nurturing the development of child-to-child and parent-to-parent support systems. RMH-NY, affectionately known as “the House,” offers patients and their families a place to rest their heads at night and works to address social determinants of health through meal and wellness programming, educational services, hospital transportation, specialized support groups and social support services.
In 2022 and 2023, the Foundation provided RMH-NY one-year grants to support their Transportation Program that has relieved the stress of securing and paying for transportation for patients and their families. Public transportation is not an option for RMH-NY families, as it poses many hazards for children who are immunocompromised.
These grants resulted in 6,398 rides to and from medical treatments, which ensured that families received the critical wraparound services needed while navigating treatment for their child.
In 2024, the Foundation issued a three-year $600,000 grant towards the Transportation Program. The Foundation’s support of this safe and reliable transportation alternative will enable RMH to continue to facilitate uninterrupted and quality care for families impacted by pediatric cancer.
Additional information about RMH-NY is available at https://www.rmh-newyork.org/.
Stamford Health is a non-profit independent healthcare system located in Stamford, Connecticut. It is committed to caring for the community through a wide range of high-quality health and wellness services, including its 305-bed Stamford Hospital, Stamford Health Medical Group, which offers primary and specialty care, and ambulatory locations across the region.
Odyssey Group’s relationship with Stamford Health began in 2008 when the Foundation funded the hospital’s purchase of the da Vinci Surgical System, a minimally invasive robotic surgical tool.
The Foundation’s support of Stamford hospital continued in 2011 with a 10-year commitment towards the construction of a new trauma center. The Odyssey Group Emergency Department at Stamford Hospital opened in 2016.
In 2022, the Foundation renewed its commitment to Stamford Health with a donation of $10 million for the construction of the Odyssey Group Breast Center. These funds will outfit the new center with state-of-the-art equipment, co-locating specialists, and improving patient flow and privacy in order to support patients from diagnosis to reconstruction.
The Foundation is proud to have donated over $22 million to support Stamford Health, a beacon in the local community and shared home of Odyssey Group’s headquarters that houses nearly 300 employees.
Additional information about Stamford Health is available at https://www.stamfordhealth.org/.
First established in 1994, The Actuarial Foundation is a non-profit philanthropic organization devoted to highlighting the practical usage and professional significance of actuarial science and its accompanying mathematical skills, as well as financial literacy. The Foundation facilitates various educational programs to assist teachers and students through the talents and resources provided by professional actuaries, striving to support an educated public in pursuit of a secure financial future.
The Foundation has been a proud corporate sponsor of The Actuarial Foundation since 2009, granting annual contributions in support of their financial literacy, as well as probability and statistics programs, amassing over $350,000 to date.
Additional information about The Actuarial Foundation is available at http://www.actuarialfoundation.org/.
In 2015, The Kelsey Dickson Team Science Courage Research Award was established when the Foundation and Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited issued a grant to the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) in support of ongoing research into the causes of, and treatment for, Merkel Cell Carcinoma (MCC).
The Foundation announced a new partnership with the University of Washington Foundation in May 2023 to support the continuation of the Kelsey Dickson Team Science Courage Research Award with a pledge of $1.5 million over three years.
Research has been led by Dr. Paul Nghiem and his team based at the University of Washington. Since this research began, the team has seen one-year survival rates for MCC rise by a factor of 10 (from 5% to 50%), immunotherapy become the new standard care for advanced MCC and the first-ever drug be FDA-approved for the treatment of the disease.
This partnership with the University of Washington Foundation will continue our support of Dr. Nghiem and his team’s focus on therapeutic strategies to target treatment-resistant MCC. Their progress thus far has been incredible, and the Foundation is extremely proud to further support the ongoing research into the causes of, and treatment for, MCC.
Additional information about the University of Washington Foundation is available at https://uwfoundationboard.org/about-the-foundation/.
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation is a leader in the fight to improve the lives of children with cancer. Through an impressive effort to raise funds and awareness in support of juvenile cancer research, St. Baldrick’s is committed to creating a supportive community for children with cancer and their families.
Odyssey Group has been a proud supporter of St. Baldrick’s mission since 2007. Through employee donations and generous company matches, OdysseyRe and Hudson Insurance Group have raised more than $1.3 million to date, helping to make a lasting difference in the lives of kids with cancer.
In addition to Odyssey Group’s donations, we participate in the annual head shaving events that started at a reinsurance industry St. Patrick’s Day party in 2000. In 2024, alongside fellow Stamford, CT-based (re)insurers, the annual event raised more than $155,000.
Additional information about St. Baldrick’s is available at https://www.stbaldricks.org/.
