QBE ends the year with £300,000 donation to help tackle homelessness, mental health and disaster relief

£50,000 will go to each of its UK charity partners Crisis and Mind to support with their Christmas campaigns; Crisis’ work at Christmas and all year-round to help people leave homelessness behind for good and to help support and sustain Mind’s two helplines, the Infoline and the Legal Line.

Grant Clemence, Chair of The QBE Foundation in Europe said: “Normally in December, we would be together celebrating all our hard work during the year. But as we cannot do that this year, we have decided to donate the budget partly in lieu of our Christmas party to Crisis and Mind, who will be able to put the funds toward causes that are so important right now.”

Internationally, QBE’s European, Canadian and Dubai offices each partner with a local charity that either supports homelessness or mental health. A further £90,000 will be split among these partners to provide on-the-ground support in the communities where QBE operates.

In addition, The QBE Foundation has pledged over £100,000 to its global charity partners Save the Children and Red Cross to support the work they are doing across the UK and continental Europe to help communities build their resilience and save lives by improving their capacity to prepare, anticipate, respond and recover from disasters.

Grant Clemence adds: “We have donated in support of our disaster relief partners and our homelessness and mental health charity partnerships throughout Europe to help them to be sustainable and resilient during this time. The British Red Cross has been on the frontline of helping those affected by Covid-19. Meanwhile, our charity partners Crisis, Mind and Save the Children are working harder than ever to protect vulnerable people.”

Orlagh McCardle, Account Manager at Mind, said: “We are delighted to be accepting this incredibly generous donation from QBE Foundation which will help us to continue funding our vital Helplines. Our Helplines provide essential, impartial information and support to thousands of people who are struggling with their mental health or need advice for a loved one.”

Ian Richards, Head of Crisis Christmas said: “Thanks so much to QBE for their very generous donation. It will help us support people who are facing homeless and on their own this Christmas, forced onto the streets, into sofa surfing or living in a hostel. For many, this may be their first Christmas that they have been without a home.  Although we’ve had to adapt our services this year because of coronavirus, we are still there for people who need us, providing coaching, support and advice to help people leave homeless behind for good.”

QBE has donated approximately £500,000 to its charity partners since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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For further information contact:

Sandra Villanueva, Corporate Communications, QBE, 020 7105 5284, Sandra.Villanueva@uk.qbe.com

Alexis Burris, Corporate Communications, QBE, 020 3465 3921, Alexis.Burris@uk.qbe.com

About the QBE Foundation

The QBE Foundation is the charitable arm of QBE and partners with impactful not-for-profit organisations around the world to protect vulnerable communities, enable financial resilience, strengthen their health and wellbeing, and to build more inclusive, sustainable communities. In Europe, it has donated over £8m to charities since its launch in 2011, through a combination of initiatives such as matching employee fundraising efforts and payroll giving donations to providing grants to charities and encouraging employee volunteering.

About QBE

QBE helps businesses build resilience through risk management and insurance.

QBE European Operations is part of QBE Insurance Group, one of the world’s leading international insurers and reinsurers and Standard & Poor’s A+ rated. Listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, QBE’s gross written premium for the year ended 31 December 2019 was US$13.4 billion.

As a business insurance specialist, QBE European Operations offers a range of insurance products from the standard suite of property, casualty and motor to the specialist financial lines, marine and energy. All are tailored to the individual needs of our small, medium and large client base.

We understand the crucial role that effective risk management plays in all organisations and work hard to understand our clients’ businesses so that we offer insurance solutions that meet their needs – from complex programmes to simpler e-trading solutions – and support them in minimising their risk exposures. Our expert risk management and rehabilitation practitioners focus on helping clients improve their risk management so that they may benefit from a reduction in claims frequency and costs.