We sat down with Christina Tunnah, General Manager Americas and Global Marketing and Brands at nib, to hear more about why they choose to support The Hunger Project.
Q: Hi Christina! In your own words – tell us a little bit about nib.
nib’s purpose is your better health. We are a trusted partner in helping our members and travellers make more informed healthcare decisions, transact with healthcare systems and generally live healthier lives.
We are also Australia’s third largest travel insurer and global distributor of travel insurance through our businesses, nib Travel and World Nomads, providing financial protection and assurance to travellers wherever they are in the world.
Q: How did you first hear about the work of The Hunger Project?
We began partnering with The Hunger Project through The Footprints Network in 2022. We recognised your work to end hunger across the world through tackling issues including poverty, gender equality and food and water security resonated strongly with travellers wanting to give back and support the communities they visit on their travels.
Q: What do you and nib’s customers love about our work?
The Hunger Project Australia’s program model has a strong emphasis on community-led initiatives, which we know are crucial to create enduring impact. Epicentres are transformative hubs for community development, becoming focal points where local leaders and champions drive change. By empowering local communities to take charge of their own development, it ensures that solutions are sustainable and tailored to the specific needs of each community, no matter what part of the world they are in.
There’s also a global impact encompassing many regions across the world, which provides us great opportunities to fundraise for a range of projects addressing community issues in various countries where we know our travellers want to give their support.
Q: What are nib’s values and how do they tie back to our partnership?
Our values guide each decision we make and shape how we interact with each other, our members, travellers, suppliers and shareholders. One of our core values is ‘Our footprint matters’, highlighting our responsibility to lead by example and contribute towards the sustainability of the communities in which we operate.
This is why we believe that as travel insurance provider we have a responsibility to give back, so we support international communities through The Footprints Network, founded by World Nomads. When purchasing travel insurance with us, travellers can choose to add a small donation to their policy price to help fund a community development project. We work with reputable charities and NGOs, and absorb the administration costs, so that 100% of donations goes directly to the projects chosen by travellers.
Q: Why do you think it’s important to embed purpose into your business model?
Embedding purpose connects our members, travellers and employees to the positive impact we strive to have on the communities where we live, work and operate. We know people want to support businesses who are active as responsible corporate citizens.
Our World Nomads travellers have told us how important travelling responsibly is to them, which is why The Footprints Network was created, so they can directly support communities they visit.
Q: What advice would you give to other corporates who are considering giving back through a partnership?
Connecting partnerships with your purpose is really important, as it fosters greater connection for employees and customers in understanding the ‘why’ behind the partnership. For us, it drives further engagement for our people and customers, leverages more support for your partners and ultimately drives more positive impact in the community – it’s a win-win!
Small gestures also add up to a lot over time. With Footprints taking only microdonations from travellers, the individual donations may seem small, but together they have provided an enormous amount of support to charitable organisations and their work over the last 20 years, with over $5.6 million in donations, supporting over 260 community development projects globally.