BATON ROUGE — Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana has been named a 2020 honoree of The Civic 50 by Points of Light, the world’s largest organization dedicated to volunteer service.
The award recognizes Blue Cross as one of the 50 most community-minded companies in the United States. Blue Cross is receiving this award for the second consecutive year, having been named a Civic 50 honoree for the first time in 2019. The Civic 50 provides a national standard for superior corporate citizenship and showcases how companies can use their time, skills and resources to make a difference in/improve their communities.
The Civic 50 honorees are public and private companies with U.S. operations and revenues of $1 billion or more, and are selected based on four dimensions of their U.S. community engagement program, including investment, integration, institutionalization and impact.
“Points of Light believes that now more than ever, companies must drive transformative social change around the world,” said Natalye Paquin, president and CEO, Points of Light. “We thank Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana for their investment, and look forward to supporting them in innovating and expanding this work.”
“We are honored to be among those recognized on this list,” said Dr. I. Steven Udvarhelyi, Blue Cross CEO. “It’s a reflection of our employees’ commitment to service, including the 35,000 hours they volunteered in 2019. But, this honor also represents the outstanding work of the hundreds of Blue Cross’ community partner organizations who dedicate themselves to improving the health and lives of Louisianians. In these times of pandemic and social unrest, it has never been more important to work in unity together to address health disparities and other social inequalities in our communities.”
“The work of our community partners — local nonprofits who, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak, have been doing lifesaving work — reaches about 2.5 million Louisianians each year,” said Michael Tipton, president of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation. “While we are delighted to see Blue Cross recognized in this way, we recognize that it is our responsibility to our community to back these organizations doing that work.”
The Civic 50 survey was administered by True Impact, a company specializing in helping organizations maximize and measure their social and business value. The survey instrument consists of quantitative and multiple-choice questions that inform The Civic 50 scoring process. The Civic 50 is the only survey and ranking system that exclusively measures corporate involvement in communities.
To learn more about The Civic 50, the2020 honorees, and insights from this year’s survey, please visit Civic50.org.
About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana is committed to our mission to improve the health and lives of Louisianians. Founded in New Orleans in 1934, we are a tax-paying nonprofit health insurer with offices in every major region to serve our customers. We were recognized in 2019 and 2020 as an honoree of The Civic 50, named by Points of Light as one of the 50 most community-minded companies in the United States. Along with the Blue Cross Foundation, we invest more than $5 million each year in Louisiana communities through grants and corporate giving.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. We are a private mutual company, owned by our policyholders, with an independent Louisiana Board of Directors and no shareholders. We invite all Louisianians to visit our website at www.bcbsla.com or visit the foundation at BCBSLAFoundation.org.