Chubb Foundation

The Chubb Foundation (EIN 22-6058567) is a private employee scholarship endowment — not a traditional institutional grantmaker. It does not accept proposals from nonprofits, community organizations, or academic institutions. Its sole purpose is providing scholarship awards to children, grandchildren, and qualifying dependents of current and former Chubb insurance employees. Understanding this distinction is essential: organizations cannot apply, and no relationship-building with program officers is relevant. The relevant "applicant" is an individual student whose family connection to Chubb determines eligibility.

Founded in 1953 by Hendon Chubb — the youngest son of the Chubb organization's founder — the foundation reflects a loyalty-to-employees philosophy that has now endured for over 70 years. The employment-sponsor threshold (three continuous years minimum, with provisions for retirees at age 55+ with 10 years of service, and displaced employees at age 50+ with 25 years) reflects a values system that rewards tenure and long-term employment relationships.

Scholarship decisions are driven by three criteria: financial need, academic achievement, and extracurricular involvement. No weighting formula is publicly disclosed. However, the three named one-time awards — the Benton Scholar ($3,000, outstanding community service), the Kathryn Hosie Scholar ($3,000, top academic achievement), and the Hendon Chubb Award ($3,000, international community service) — signal that the foundation values service orientation and academic excellence in roughly equal measure.

The program is administered entirely through ISTS (International Scholarship and Tuition Services), a professional third-party scholarship management firm. This means the process is standardized, deadline-rigid, and evaluated against consistent rubrics rather than by foundation staff. Awards are disbursed directly to accredited institutions on the student's behalf — students never handle funds directly.

Critically, the foundation awards up to 25% of all new applicants each cycle — a rate far more generous than most competitive scholarships. The total pool of eligible applicants scales with Chubb's global workforce of approximately 40,000+ employees, meaning competition is meaningful but not prohibitive for a well-prepared applicant. The geographic distribution of awards (21% in NJ, 9% in PA) mirrors Chubb's major U.S. employment centers and confirms that applicants from those states benefit from a proportionally larger local pool.

The Chubb Foundation has disbursed 1,050 recorded grants totaling $9.44 million across the tracked dataset period, with an average individual award of $8,994 and a median single-year disbursement of $9,000. Individual payments range from $1,000 to $20,500 per disbursement cycle, but multi-year recipients accumulate totals well above the single-year ceiling: the top 50 recipients in the dataset received between $45,000 and $70,000 in aggregate, corresponding to 3–5 years of annual payments in the $12,000–$17,500 range.

Annual giving has grown substantially: $1.26M in FY2019 → $1.47M in FY2020 → $1.98M in FY2021 → $1.95M in FY2022 → $2.08M in FY2023 → approximately $2.55M in FY2024. This represents a 102% increase over five years. The grant count grew from roughly 130 per year pre-pandemic to 202 in FY2024. Average per-award disbursement also rose, from approximately $9,700 (2019) to $12,600 (2024), indicating both more awards and modestly larger individual amounts.

All 1,050 recorded grants carry a single purpose category: Scholarship Award. The foundation does not allocate giving across program areas, cause categories, or geographic priorities beyond what the eligible workforce naturally produces. There are no general operating grants, project grants, or capital grants — 100% of disbursements are education scholarships.

Geographically, New Jersey leads with 216 grants (21% of total), followed by California (59, 6%), Pennsylvania (93, 9%), Connecticut (52, 5%), Texas (51, 5%), Virginia (46, 4%), Illinois (28, 3%), and Arizona, Florida, and Georgia (24–25 each, roughly 2% apiece). The top 10 states account for approximately 678 of 1,050 total grants; the remainder reflects Chubb's national and international footprint.

The endowment presents a sustainability concern: assets have declined from $27.9M (2019) to $20.9M (2024) — a $7M drawdown — while contributions received remain zero. Net investment income of $422K (2022) and $296K (2023) falls far short of $2M+ in annual distributions, meaning the foundation draws approximately $1.5–2.0M annually from principal to sustain program growth.

The Chubb Foundation occupies a narrow and specific niche: a single-purpose corporate employee scholarship endowment funded solely by an insurance company's internal capital, with no external contributions, no institutional grantmaking, and no program areas beyond employee-family scholarships. The most meaningful peer comparisons are similar corporate-sponsored scholarship foundations within insurance and financial services.

Note: Peer asset and giving figures for Travelers, Allstate, and Liberty Mutual are estimates from publicly available 990 summaries; the Chubb Foundation database record lists no direct peer foundations.

The Chubb Foundation is distinctive in three respects: it is narrower in mission (100% scholarships, zero institutional grants), older than most corporate foundations (founded 1953), and more generous per applicant than typical employee scholarship programs at its asset scale. Its zero-contribution funding model — relying entirely on endowment returns — sets it apart from corporate foundations that receive annual infusions from their parent company. The separate Chubb Charitable Foundation (the corporate philanthropy arm) handles all institutional, environmental, and community grantmaking and should not be confused with this employee scholarship foundation.

The 2025-2026 scholarship cycle represents the most recent confirmed program activity. Applications opened December 2, 2025 — an earlier start than some prior cycles — with a hard deadline of February 9, 2026 at 11:59 PM Pacific time. Semi-finalists were notified March 6, 2026, with required materials due April 6, 2026. Scholarship recipients are expected to be announced in May 2026, with scholarship payments disbursed in July 2026 (fall semester) and December 2026 (spring semester).

Fiscal year 2024 data confirmed through the Instrumentl 990 report shows 202 awards totaling approximately $2.55 million — the highest single-year giving in the foundation's tracked history. This extends a three-year growth streak: $1.95M (185 awards, 2022), $2.08M (196 awards, 2023), $2.55M (202 awards, 2024).

Leadership serving the foundation as of the most recent 990 filings includes Rebecca Crunk (Chairperson/Trustee), Kevin F. Murphy (President/Vice President/Trustee), Paul Betkowski (Treasurer/Trustee), and Marci Leveillee (Secretary). All trustee positions carry $0 compensation, consistent with the foundation's operation as a volunteer-governed employee benefit administered by Chubb corporate staff. No leadership transitions or external program announcements specific to this foundation (EIN 22-6058567) were identified for 2025–2026.

Important note: The Chubb Charitable Foundation (a legally distinct organization, EIN 26-2456949) announced a landmark seven-year, multi-million-dollar Blue Boundaries partnership with the National Geographic Society in September 2025 for ecosystem conservation. This is an unrelated corporate philanthropy initiative and has no bearing on the employee scholarship foundation covered in this report.

The Chubb Foundation scholarship is among the most accessible employee family scholarship programs available — but only to eligible candidates. These tips are specific to this program's structure and evaluation criteria.

Verify sponsor eligibility before starting the application. The single most common disqualifier is failing to confirm that the employee-sponsor meets the three-year continuous employment threshold. Part-time employees must have logged 1,000 or more annual hours. Gather employment verification from Chubb HR before creating your AIM account — do not assume eligibility without documentation.

Apply in December, not at the February deadline. The portal opens December 2 each year. Submitting in December eliminates last-minute technical problems and gives time to correct errors. The February 9 deadline is firm — ISTS does not accept late submissions, and missing it means waiting a full year.

Target a named award with a focused narrative. Three one-time $3,000 supplements are available: Benton Scholar (US applicants, outstanding community service), Kathryn Hosie Scholar (US applicants, outstanding academic achievement), and Hendon Chubb Award (international applicants, outstanding community service). Applicants who center their narrative on one of these themes — with specific, measurable examples — improve their chances at both the named award and the base scholarship.

Document financial need concretely, not anecdotally. Financial need is a core selection criterion. Semi-finalists must provide a Financial Aid Award Statement from their institution listing all eligible aid. Request this document from your financial aid office immediately upon starting the application — processing takes two to three weeks at many institutions.

Plan for multi-year renewal from the start. The top recipients in the dataset received $45,000–$70,000 over 3–5 years. Renewal requires 24 credit hours of annual enrollment and a minimum 2.0 GPA — both achievable thresholds. The renewal form deadline is June 15 each year. Missing the renewal deadline terminates the award for that year even if you remain academically eligible.

Understand the payment structure. Awards are paid directly to your accredited institution in two installments: July (fall) and December (spring). Students do not receive funds directly. Ensure your institution is on ISTS's accredited list before applying — students at non-accredited schools are ineligible regardless of other qualifications.