Corporate Citizen: Doing Good And Doing Well | Unum Group proves charity, community and business success are mutual
There was a time when large corporations could be easily identified with a particular city. Companies like Norton and Wyman Gordon had larger-than-life presences in cities like Worcester. Their top executives as well as their thousands of employees lived and were involved in the life of the city.
Today it seems less and less possible for all those things to come together. Many of the region’s largest employers are based elsewhere and employees commute from other towns, counties and states.
Unum, this year’s Corporate Citizen of the Year, bucks those trends in many ways.
The company we know as Unum today had a long history in Worcester as the Paul Revere Life Insurance Co. and has deep roots here. And even though the company is based in Tennessee today, it treats Worcester with the kind of charitable largesse, civic participation and respect for history that’s rare even for native companies.
Absolutely A Leader
Timothy J. Garvin, president and CEO of the United Way of Central Massachusetts, said he himself was “honored and thrilled” that Unum had been chosen as the WBJ’s Corporate Citizen of the Year.
“Their corporate support for this entire community is extraordinary in that it permeates their entire culture. It’s a culture of doing good and doing well,” he said.
In 2008, Unum gave $225,000, its largest ever lump sum donation and about half of all the charitable giving it did in the entire city, to the United Way.
And Garvin explained that the company doesn’t just give money. Its employees, “and not just executives, but from all levels,” volunteer extensively with the United Way, he said. “I’d be hard-pressed not to find a Unum representative on every board. It makes us better stewards of corporate funds and it advances the common good.”
“This year, Unum went above and beyond,” Garvin said. “We identified this year as the year of the young child and they stepped up and said they would match any new or increased gift related to early education and care.”
“Good performance in school and in college is formed in the early years and Unum gets it,” Garvin said. The company’s donations allow the United Way to put more money into its annual grant cycle for early education and care initiatives. “They are absolutely a leader.”
The company does get it, and not just when it comes to charitable giving or education. Unum has a deserved reputation for treating its employees well and offers generously flexible schedules and work-from-home options.
And that doesn’t seem to even nick the company’s bottom line. In 2007, the company’s revenue held steady at $10.5 billion while its net earnings jumped to $679.3 million from $411 million the previous year.
A For Effort
To Unum’s senior vice president and general counsel J. Christopher Collins and the company’s other 700 Worcester employees, Paul Revere never really left town and neither did the sense that the company and its employees have a great stake in, and responsibility for, the city of Worcester.
In addition to sponsoring local chamber of commerce and Worcester Research Bureau events, the company gives generously to the Worcester Art Museum and the Nativity School of Worcester.
“Our real focus is on education, and that’s becoming more so,” Collins said. Even organizations that may not focus on education in particular are brought into the education fold by donations from Unum. The company donated money to the massive Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts restoration project. But when the theater approached Unum for more, Unum said it would give $100,000 to a program for high school students to learn about the various professions in the theater industry at the Hanover.
“We thought it would be a great way to not just put money into the bricks and mortar, but we’re putting a little pressure on the nonprofits to say, ‘there’s something more that you can do,’” Collins said.
It may seem like an old-fashioned sentiment, but when Warner S. Fletcher, director at the Worcester law firm Fletcher, Tilton & Whipple says, “business is what provides the basis for all the other good things a community has,” it rings true. And for Fletcher, Unum is a huge part of that equation.
“It employs people and those people get involved,” Fletcher said. “When you look at how richly Worcester was rewarded by the companies that were here and how their roles in the community directly or indirectly have changed, even though (Unum) is based in Tennessee, they’ve maintained an active and strong presence in the community.”
One of the most impressive manifestations of that role was Unum’s donation of Paul Revere silver to the Worcester Art Museum.
The company has a major collection of Paul Revere silver assembled by former Paul Revere Life Insurance Co. executive Frank Harrington. The Worcester Art Museum also has its own collection of Paul Revere silver.
“Unum decided it was best for Worcester that those collections be combined,” Fletcher said. “They could be better cared for and curated at the museum and now they’re out at the museum for anyone to view.”
City Dweller
Soon, a new Unum facility could be in Worcester for all to see. The company needs newer, modern facilities to accommodate its Worcester operations better than its sprawling Chestnut Street campus. The company has said it is committed to remaining in Worcester and is considering the CitySquare development downtown, Gateway Park and several other city sites as potential new homes.
Collins said the company is still a month or more from making a final decision on a new location and some have speculated that the insurer might look outside the city’s bounds given the lack of viable real estate in Worcester.
But Fletcher said that if Unum follows through with its promise in Worcester it will be a testament to the company’s character.
“They probably had offers that were as attractive to leave Worcester and move toward Boston,” he said. For Unum to stay “is a real feather in (Worcester’s) cap. We need a lot more Unums.”
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