When you volunteer with the American Red Cross, it can be a win, win! Red Crosser Carla Signoret was able to secure a pair of grants for the North Texas Region thanks to her employer, Allstate Insurance. She works as a reputation manager with Allstate, and the company has a program that rewards employees and agents with grant money for time they spend volunteering.   

Signoret is a member of a Red Cross Disaster Action Team (DAT). Because of the hours she has already put in this year helping people in need, she qualified to receive the most amount of money Allstate offers for volunteer service. 

“I’ve already done over 16 hours, so I have the two grants for the year and that’s $1,000,” Signoret says. “I can still log my hours in the system, but I am now maxed out on the grants that Allstate gives. They give this to every employee and insurance agent. There’s a tremendous opportunity there if we would all volunteer 16 hours a year, which is like nothing, we would all be giving back at least $1,000 to whichever organization we support.” 

Allstate calls their program Helping Hands Grants. It has been around for around for at least a decade, although it has undergone various changes. The Allstate Foundation approves and distributes the grant funds, which have a maximum payout of $1,000 per person—two $500 grants for eight hours of volunteer service each—for every employee who chooses to partake in the program. 

It wasn’t hard for Signoret to earn the hours needed. She and her husband stay busy as DAT volunteers in Fort Worth, Texas. They mostly respond to house and multi-family fires—the nation’s most frequent disaster—where they do case work and serve as Spanish language translators when needed.  

She began volunteering with the Red Cross when she lived in Chicago. It was there that she and her fellow Latin Allstate employees began going out in Latinx communities to try and make a difference. She remembers going to Sound the Alarm event in Chicago, it was the first thing she did as a volunteer with the Red Cross.  

Signoret has been with Allstate for 11 years, working in Chicago, Tampa, Florida, San Antonio and now North Texas. She says much of the work she does with the company—catastrophe preparedness, recovery and response with agents—aligns closely with her experience as a DAT member.  

“I think it's just the fact that I work at an insurance company, and I see so many situations where there's no way you can prepare for everything,” Signoret says. “But if you prepare as much as you can, then you should be able to stay safe, help your neighbors, your family, your friends stay safer. So, I've always been very passionate about catastrophe preparedness in general.” 

The Helping Hands Grants program isn’t the only one The Allstate Foundation offers for volunteer service. They also offer a group grant for their agents, financial specialists and agency staff who come together and volunteer at least four hours with the same nonprofit. They can get preapproved for a grant ranging from $5,000 to $10,000.  

A team of Allstate agents in Florida got together and volunteered with the Red Cross during a Sound the Alarm event and installed smoke alarms in homes, says Megan Bultman, a community leadership manager with The Allstate Foundation. In doing so, they were able to earn a grant, which they gave to the local Red Cross region.  

“What I personally have always really admired about Sound the Alarm and other types of Red Cross volunteerism is that it's really connected to our agents' business, our expertise and what they're already knowledgeable and passionate about,” says Bultman 

Bultman is keen to encourage other Red Crossers who may work for Allstate to take part in the Helping Hands Grants program. Signoret is happy she was able to earn the grants, but that isn’t why she volunteers with the Red Cross. She does it because she knows that she can make a difference in someone’s life, providing comfort and care through her work as a DAT member and translator. 

“I can only imagine how it must feel to be the worst day of your life,” Signoret says. “Your house is burning. You may be an English speaker, but if you’re going through such a traumatic event, being able to speak in your own language can make you feel a little bit better.”