So why blog about this topic? Well I volunteered to write an article on the topic for our Public Affairs office. so this is as good a place as any to record my thoughts.
To start with, I have a personal experience with this. While working in Nashville TN, and travelling on business, my home was robbed. The plus for renters insurance is that when you have it, then you fall into a safety net. When you don't, well I think you get the picture.
I solicited some feedback on this topic from a very wise friend in the insurance business. He had some good (insurance-speak) advice. He said there are 3 key areas of protection under a renters policy is as follows:
- Contents protection - In apartment fires most tenants do not have this coverage. It protects your furniture, electronics, clothing etc. as it will replace these items at today's cost less a small deductible ($250 or $500). Not having this coverage can cost you thousands of dollars to replace these items.
- Additional Living Expense - This will pay for the tenant to live at a hotel and for extra cost of meals, dry cleaning, etc. if the tenant is forced out of the apartment
- Personal Liability - This covers the tenant if someone slips and falls at the apartment and the tenant is sued for negligence. The owner/landlord can also be sued. The liability also covers if you hit someone with a golf ball while playing golf, or accidentally running into someone with your shopping cart at the grocery store, etc.
My agent's daughter is covered at her rented home away at college in Georgia. The same concept applies to small business coverage for offices and retail stores.
So back to my experience with the Red Cross, well, somewhere in here is a story just waiting to be told.
2 comments:
If your goal is to convince your target audience (those most at risk for disasters), then you're on the right track as to content. I would develop a little farther examples of how people have actually been affected by disasters (Red Cross should help with this info) and how renters insurance could have helped. Then give some idea of the cost of renters insurance and where to get it, keeping in mind that most at-risk families will have a hard time affording an extra $50 per month.
Your hardest challenge will be reaching your target audience. Does Red Cross have a strategy for this?
Actually, this newsletter will most likely be read by donors and volunteers. Perhaps a small percentage will be those at risk. I think the intent is to share a story of personal experience as well as the potential impact of not insuring. Speaking for the volunteers, its tough to be helping someone who might have lost everything including family members. Volunteers in the field want real world examples of how precautions can help. These stories and real world practical experiences then shop up in community hall meetings where the Red Cross spokesman (usually a volunteer) is speaking to a group on some topic like renters insurance. I believe it only costs $10 - $20 per month, a small price to pay when over a lifetime, even the at risk families can accumulate $15,000 in worldly possessions. To the rest of your comments, I agree.
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