MassMutual Mission, Purpose & Impact

Describe how your company gives back to its communities. What impact do these efforts have on both those in need and employees themselves? 

MassMutual gives back in many ways, starting with supporting our employees' deep commitment to community service. The company supports our annual Live Mutual Week of service, provides 24 hours of volunteer paid time off to full-time employees and through the MassMutual Foundation's matching program, provides up to $6,500 per employee annually, based on volunteer hours tracked and personal contributions made to eligible nonprofits.

Through the MassMutual Foundation, we're proud to support a variety of organizations focused on building communities' financial resilience. In our hometown of Springfield, we fund the Way Finders City of Homes program, Tech Foundry and the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, among many others. In Boston, recent grantees include Daily Table, EMPath and Boston Medical Center's Economic Justice Hub, while Union Capital and NeighborShare are two organizations we've helped bring to both cities.

On a personal level, I love to run, and fighting cancer is important to me. In 2024, I ran the Boston Marathon to raise money for Dana Farber. The MassMutual Foundation matched my contributions, making an even bigger impact on this cause that matters to me.

How do these community outreach efforts bolster your company's mission and/or culture? 

At MassMutual, our company purpose is helping people to secure their futures and protect the ones they love. And helping others is how we come together as a MassMutual community, too. In 2023, we introduced our first Live Mutual Week, an annual companywide week of service inspired by our legacy of mutuality that brought together employees for onsite, offsite and virtual volunteer opportunities. It's a way to bond with colleagues while connecting with — and giving back to — the community.

As for personal volunteering experiences, when the company supports employees' interests and what's important to them, it strengthens our team culture and makes people more engaged. Happy employees are better employees. And happy, fulfilled people are better leaders of positive change in the world.

What advice would you offer to leaders at other organizations interested in implementing more volunteer opportunities? Which efforts have had the biggest impact at your company? 

Once you plan your first company or team volunteer event, commit to consistency. Whether that's once a month or once a year, stick to it. The first event often gets a lot of buzz, and then the second and the third are the hardest to keep going. Make it part of a regular cadence.

The other key is a degree of employee choice. At MassMutual, employees are able to volunteer for and/or donate to a variety of eligible nonprofits that align with their specific passions or interests. That element of choice is a change I've seen implemented during my own tenure here, and the flexibility has empowered our employees to really get involved and support what matters to them.

Even within my own team, we're all supportive of different causes. In just the last year, my team members have volunteered for mentoring programs, animal shelters, local school boards, nonprofit industry boards and more. MassMutual gives us the chance to give back to our communities in ways that resonate with us.