Spotlight On Modern Woodmen

The impact of Covid-19 is seen in sharpest detail not as an infection curve or lines on a chart, but in America’s communities. It’s there that Modern Woodmen has always directed its energy and resources. Founded in 1883, the fraternal financial services organization provides insurance, annuities and investment products to 740,000 members nationwide.

“Modern Woodmen is about people,” says its website. “Together we’re here for each other, for our families and for the communities we love.”

For well over a century, the organization and its members have unfailingly honored that commitment at the grassroots level, through natural disasters, economic downturns and public health crises. In 1907, as a tuberculosis epidemic raged through the country, Modern Woodmen opened a 1,000-acre sanitarium in Colorado that would treat more than 12,000 members over the next four decades. In 2019, the organization donated more than $70,000 to local chapters in Oklahoma to help stricken communities there recover from catastrophic floods.

When the coronavirus struck, it was a given that Modern Woodmen would be in the front lines, sleeves rolled, ready to help. The organization’s COVID-19 Relief Program gives chapters and youth service clubs access to up to $2.5 million to donate to nonprofits in their communities, from food pantries and homeless shelters to schools and hospitals, allowing them to determine where the need is greatest.

In Lewiston, Maine, for example, the local chapter used the funds to enable the Auburn Fire Department to purchase urgently needed personal protective equipment for first responders. In Honey Grove, Texas, chapter managing partner Diane Stegall personally delivered cleaning supplies, toilet paper and other essentials to a domestic violence shelter. In Starkville, Mississippi, Barbara Coats, financial representative and activities coordinator, delivered more than $3,000 to the Christian World Mission to provide meals for low-income households.

And in the Quad Cities, straddling Illinois and Iowa, Modern Woodmen figured importantly in a “COVID-19 Recovery” fundraiser that collected over $102,000 in one day “to support groups providing critical services to vulnerable families and individuals,” according to Quad Cities Community Foundation president Sherry Ristau.

In the time of Covid-19, of course, we are all vulnerable. Modern Woodmen’s promise is to ensure that no one is left behind.

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About Brand Acts of Kindness® 

Brand Acts of Kindness® is a series from Carpenter Group that spotlights companies across industries that are living their brand values in addressing the unprecedented challenges facing the world today.The series initially headlined companies assisting healthcare workers and first responders, as well as communities, businesses and families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We also highlight brands taking the lead in supporting social and racial justice, LGBTQ rights, sustainability and the environment. Their stories show how innovation, resolve and action, built on a solid value proposition, can both strengthen a brand and help create a better world.

About Carpenter Group

Carpenter Group is an independent, woman-owned strategic branding, messaging and marketing communications firm that has delivered results-driven solutions to financial, professional services and technology firms for 30+ years.Our broad cross-discipline experience enables us to craft brand messaging and carry it through to the channels that most effectively connect with our clients’ target audience, from editorial content to advertising to event marketing and more.