Mentoring for Impact, Employee Giving & Disaster Relief

Mentoring for Impact

Village Capital: Mentoring Financial Health StartupsAround the World

MetLife employees volunteered virtually in the Finance Forward program in partnership with Village Capital by serving as mentors to startup founders based in the U.S., Latin America, and EMEA. The mentors worked with the entrepreneurs, leveraging an array of skills, including business, marketing, management, and financial services expertise. One hundred volunteers from 20 countries across EMEA, Latin America, and the U.S. provided over 2,400 hours of direct mentorship to entrepreneurs.

Mentoring Young People

• Junior Achievement: Recognizing the pandemic’s impact on young people, our volunteers sustained their commitment to being there, listening, and helping them develop skills to succeed in school, the workplace, and life. With Junior Achievement (JA), one of our oldest and largest volunteer partners, MetLife employees mentored and taught personal finance, work readiness, and entrepreneurship to local students. Shifting from in-person, classroom-based volunteering, MetLife employees in 26 markets volunteered with students, pivoting to virtual program delivery with the onset of the pandemic. Employees also served on regional and local JA boards in Asia, EMEA, and the U.S. and raised funds for JA programs. Highlights included:
  • MetLife Korea launched a program for vocational high school students in Seoul, Daejeon, Kwangju, and Busan
  • MetLife Mexico engaged sales force volunteers in Yucatan and Puebla in the digital Finance Park program, reaching more than 500 students.
  • Associates in Turkey taught personal finance to more than 600 elementary and middle school students
• Big Brothers Big Sisters and Girls Who Code: These two U.S. initiatives gave young people exposure to careers and the workplace, while developing their skills. Through our Workplace Mentoring Program with Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City, volunteers work one-on-one with public high school students to explore careers and improve resume-writing, interview skills, and workplace etiquette. Volunteers for Girls Who Code, which teaches girls computer science, provided online mentoring and sessions about data analytics and the data scientist, and managing change and transition.

Employee Giving

Every year MetLife employees raise money to support local, national, and global organizations that align with their values, including food banks, financial health organizations, and diversity, equity, and racial justice nonprofits.

Racial Justice and Equity: UNCF and NAACP Legal Defense Fund

MetLife Foundation committed an additional $5 million in 2020 toward expanding racial equity in the U.S., supplementing the $10 million it already contributes every year to support diverse communities and racial equity. As a part of this commitment, MetLife Foundation provided immediate support of $1 million to the UNCF and $250,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. This builds on our decades-long relationship with the UNCF and will help finance the newly established MetLife Foundation Scholarship Fund. The Scholarship Fund will support 60 college juniors attending HBCUs majoring in business, accounting, or finance every year. Three cohorts of 20 students each will receive approximately $7,300 each, with potential for a renewal for their senior year. MetLife Foundation matched 250 employee contributions as well to the UNCF and NAACP Legal Defense Fund, totaling more than $43,000.

Disaster Recovery

Our employees rose to the occasion every time there was a natural disaster to support their communities with their time, volunteerism, and donations.

Habitat for Humanity: Rebuilding After an Earthquake

Before the pandemic, over 130 MetLife Nepal volunteers built Habitat for Humanity houses for an earthquake affected community in the Kavre region. The volunteers worked along with community members to do prep work for Habitat for Humanity to build permanent, stable, earthquake-resistant houses.

In Australia, the MetLife team partnered with Habitat for Humanity to launch Fit 4 Humanity. For every 30 minutes of outside activity by a MetLife associate, MetLife Foundation donated $10 to Habitat for Humanity. The unique program allowed us to continue supporting Habitat for Humanity in a trying year, encouraged people to get active, and helped make associates feel like they could still contribute meaningfully to their local communities. It also gave Habitat for Humanity a new engagement model that they have since rolled out to other corporate partners.

Rebuilding Lebanon

MetLife Foundation committed $500,000 to help Lebanon recover and rebuild after the devastating Beirut port explosion in August 2020. MetLife associates donated an additional $5,000 to the International Medical Corps and $8,500 to the Red Cross, both matched by MetLife Foundation.

Recovering from Flooding in Hitoyoshi and Kumamura in Japan

In June 2020, MetLife Japan delivered 1,050 disaster kits to the cities of Hitoyoshi and Kumamura in Kumamoto Prefecture, with each kit containing food and water to last one person three days. The kits supported many people impacted by torrential rains and flooding.