Insurer Lancashire’s charitable arm has seen an explosion in the number of local charities looking for corporate assistance.

The Lancashire Foundation has donated more than $5.8 million to Bermuda charities in the last 19 years.

“More charities are trying to do more with less,” said Jennifer Wilson, chair of the Lancashire Foundation donations committee and Lancashire group financial planning and analysis director.

She chalks part of it up to a rise in corporate mergers.

“There are just less players out there out there to actually give these donations,” Ms Wilson said.

According to management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, mergers and acquisition activity among insurers is climbing, after several years of decline. Deal value reached around $104 billion last year, up from $88 billion the year before.

Ms Wilson said this year the Lancashire Foundation plans to increase the amount of money given to their key charities Family Centre and Tomorrow’s Voices by 10 per cent to adjust for inflation.

“We haven't done that in a long time,” Ms Wilson said. “Instead we have just set an amount and given it to them.”

She sits on the Family Centre’s fundraising committee so knows first hand how hard it can be for a charity to get donations.

“We have been giving $10,000 or $5,000 for quite a few years, without inflation adjustment,” Ms Wilson said. “We know from talking to the charities that their costs are going up. If our donations don’t creep up with that, they are going to have to find another donor, to fund that difference.”

The plan is to continue taking inflation into account in the years to come.

Ms Wilson wants to encourage other firms to also adjust their donations for inflation.

“I have told the Family Centre, committee that when they are doing presentations to mention that the cost of living has gone up much,” she said.

The Lancashire Foundation’s key charities received $40,000 each last year.

When the insurer started the foundation 19 years ago, they were giving $125,000 each, per year.

“We have been stepping that down,” Ms Wilson said. “Tomorrow’s Voices do so much wonderful work with autism. So does the Family Centre, but we do not want to be a critical donor to any one organisation. What if we couldn’t donate one year and had to pull back?”

The pulling back allowed the foundation to spread the wealth further, having money to a host of charities such as Waterstart and the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Staff often volunteer with the organisations at special times of the year.

All through the Covid-19 pandemic the foundation maintained their charitable donation levels.

“We have a good amount of reserves in the foundation that have acted like a rainy-day fund,” she said. “Our donations have stayed around $750,000 [across the group] every single year with a bit more, some years, even right through Covid-19. We have Lancashire shares that were gifted to the Foundation, way back when.”

Ms Wilson becomes Lancashire’s Bermuda chief executive on April 1, but has no plans to give up her charitable work.

“I love my role with the foundation,” she said. “It is my favourite part of the job. Everyone at Lancashire knows it.”

New corporate income tax regulations make tax credit available once a Bermudian-based corporation gives more than $300,000 in charitable donations over a rolling three-year period.

“Last year was the first year that the tax credits were available so despite having donated approximately $220,000 in Bermuda we haven’t hit the $300,000 threshold yet,” Lancashire communications manager Peter Kricks said.

“Once we get to that amount, which will be this year, we would qualify for a tax credit equal to 25 per cent of eligible Bermuda charitable donations.”