50 years of social and cultural commitment

We firmly believe that access to good quality education, basic health services and a balanced diet can transform lives. That is why we have joined forces with more than 80 social organizations that develop comprehensive education projects in 25 countries, mostly in Latin America.

Thanks to this collaboration, each year 140,000 vulnerable children have the opportunity to take control of their own futures. The projects, which are carried out using a method devised by Fundación MAPFRE, provide these children with the tools they need to break the cycle of poverty and attain their full personal and professional potential.

With an investment of over 315 million euros, over the last 50 years we have positively impacted the lives of more than 15 million people. Each story, each case, encourages us to keep working to fulfill our dream: a world without poverty.

Throughout our history we have responded to 30 emergency situations in the following countries: Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, the Philippines, Haiti, Honduras, Jordan, Lebanon, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Turkey and Ukraine.

In each case, the response has been different: everything from supplying water purification plants to sending essential items. Our volunteers have been instrumental in getting aid to people in need, and we have also been supported by thousands of committed individuals who have taken part through our micro-donation campaigns.

More recently, we would like to highlight our response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the actions to support refugees from the war in Ukraine in 2022, and the response to the DANA storm that caused flooding in Valencia and other regions of Spain in October 2024. To this last cause we allocated a total of 1,030,000 euros, the largest amount mobilized by Fundación MAPFRE to respond to a humanitarian catastrophe.

Each day, we endeavor to improve the lives of other people, not only by allocating our own funds to the development of social aid projects, but also through a robust volunteering program of which we are very proud.

The only one of its kind, since its inception, this initiative has been implemented in a total of 28 countries. It brings together the corporate volunteering programs of several companies, including MAPFRE, to support hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people through various areas of activity: education, health, nutrition, emergencies, solidarity, and the environment.

In addition, through the ‘Sé Solidario’ (Be Supportive) project, we offer the opportunity for other groups and society in general to get involved in our initiatives, channelling donations and resources through microdonation campaigns that go entirely to projects run by small social organisations in Spain.

Since the program began, we have allocated more than 8 million euros to charitable causes and volunteering, impacting the lives of more than 1,378,000 people.

For five decades we have been running awareness campaigns to promote health, road safety and the prevention of unintentional injury, and to improve knowledge about savings, investment and retirement.

In the field of health, actions and programs include ‘Cyberland’ (risks associated with internet use), ‘Play Safe’ (CPR training), ‘Women for the Heart’ (cardiovascular prevention), ‘SOS Breathe’ (first aid for choking), ‘The Time Machine’ (healthy lifestyle habits), and ‘With Greater Care’ (injuries in the elderly).

Within the field of road safety, we remain committed to the ‘Goal Zero’ initiative, which aims to eradicate road casualties through accident prevention. Through the ‘World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims’ and training on how to prevent traffic injuries among teenagers, the use of child restraint systems in cars, and road safety in companies, we continue to raise awareness.

We work on financial wellness through the Seguros y Pensiones para Todos (Insurance and Pensions for All) program, which includes courses, digital tools and simulators.

Over the past 50 years, we have invested more than 190 million euros in awarenessraising programs in which more than 103 million people have participated.

Respect; responsibility; commitment; protecting and caring for life; inclusion in the face of diversity and solidarity. We want to ensure that these values are at the heart of learning in educational centres.

In order to involve the entire educational community —parents, teachers, educators and students— in our purpose, over the course of these five decades we have designed a wide range of activities and resources: educational workshops, workshop-visits and materials, freely accessible and free of charge, adapted to the different stages of development and utilizing innovative methods.

Highlights of this journey include the ‘Educational program to prevent injuries and promote road safety’; ‘Live Healthily’ (encouraging healthy lifestyle habits); ‘Control your network’ (focusing on the responsible use of technologies). To promote financial and insurance education among young people, we have developed educational workshops: financial escape room (FINEXIT), BUGAMAP and PlayPension. We also support Dual Vocational Training with a specialization in insurance so that students have an opportunity for professional and personal development.

And, of course, our art programs with which we promote knowledge and culture among people of all ages.

In the last five decades, with an investment of more than 165 million euros, our educational programs have impacted the lives of more than 43 million children, young people and teachers in 30 countries.

Convinced that research is an essential tool for social progress, in 1979 we awarded our first research grants, which at that time were valued at 300,000 pesetas. Today, the ‘Ignacio Hernando de Larramendi Research Grants’ have a budget of 300,000 euros. Over the years, these have funded more than 2,200 projects in areas such as health, road safety, insurance, and injury prevention.

Right from the start, we have been providing uninterrupted support for the Cell Therapy Program for the Treatment of Spinal Cord Injury, a successful research project that culminated in the approval of NC1, the first non-industrially manufactured drug aimed at treating spinal cord injuries.

Additionally, we collaborate with the project on Early-Stage Therapies for Parkinson’s Disease, developed by Fundación de Investigación HM Hospitales, and with Fundación Pro CNIC to promote research focused on improving cardiovascular health in our society.

Finally, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we donated 5 million euros to the Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; CSIC) to help understand what we were facing.

In total, over the course of 50 years, we have contributed more than 170 million euros to research.

From the beginning, our passion was the rediscovery of artistic modernity in Spain, with exhibitions of prominent artists including Sorolla, Rusiñol, Sunyer, Nonell, Casas, Regoyos, Echevarría and Mir, as well as thematic exhibitions including Painters of the Soul, The ‘14 Generation, and Amazons of the New Art. Over the years, we added international exhibitions, such as: Poland, turn of the century, Steinlen. Paris 1900, Camille Claudel, and Rodin, the Naked Body.

The inauguration of the new gallery on Paseo de Recoletos in Madrid in 2008, with the exhibitions: Spain 1990. Between Two Centuries, Degas and The Brown Sisters, by Nicholas Nixon, kicked off a new phase. In 2010, the Impressionism exhibition, which attracted 327,000 visitors, consolidated our presence in the Prado Recoletos district, one of the most important museum hubs in the world.

In 2009, we went one step further by embracing photography, an area that, in 2020, materialized with the opening in Barcelona of the KBr Center, a space dedicated exclusively to this discipline.

With more than 285 million euros invested in cultural activities over the last 50 years, we have made art accessible to more than 14.5 million people, transforming the way in which culture is experienced in our society.

At Fundación MAPFRE, we have always focused on the workplace integration of all the people who make up our society, without exception.

That is why, in 2010, we launched the “Juntos Somos Capaces” (Together We Can) project, thanks to which nearly 6,000 people with intellectual disabilities and mental health problems have been able to access training grants and do internships in companies.

In 2013 we opened the first ACCEDEMOS call, which helps small companies, freelancers and entrepreneurs to hire young people, the over-50s, or the long-term unemployed, subsidizing part of their salaries for the first 9 months. Since then, we have awarded more than 7,000 grants for a total amount of 25.8 million euros.

In 2023, we were designated an Intermediate Body of the European Social Fund Plus for the 2021-2027 programming period to manage 20 million euros from the ESF+, to which we will add 10 million euros of our own funds. In total, 30 million euros that, through the +Rural Grants, will address the needs of many vulnerable people living in rural Spain, including finding a job.

We firmly believe that people of the so-called “silver generation”, between 55 and 75 years of age, play a fundamental role in our society. Not only do they live longer, but they also enjoy a good quality of life that allows them to continue making a significant contribution to the prosperity of their environment, even after retirement.

To highlight this unique contribution and the economic and social opportunities that older adults generate, the Ageingnomics Research Center was founded. Throughout its five years of existence, it has disseminated, researched and promoted projects related to the silver economy. As a result, guides and studies containing key information on senior entrepreneurship and active ageing have been made publicly available; in-depth research has been carried out into issues such as consumption, the labor market and public policies related to the “silver economy”; and academic seminars have been organized in collaboration with universities and high-impact research projects.

Today, Ageingnomics has become a benchmark in the exchange of knowledge related to the silver economy, demonstrating that older people are key players in the future of our society.

Our recognition is aimed at people who, through their professional careers, their valuable contributions to science, culture or social action, and through the inspiring example of their lives and actions, have left a significant mark on society. Among them, we would like to highlight:

In the field of science: Margarita Salas, Pedro Guillén, Valentín Fuster, Ciril Rozman, and Joaquín Barraquer.

In the field of culture: excellence in drawing as an artistic expression (Antonio López, David Hockney, Paula Rego); the impact of journalistic writing (Jorge Edwards, Carlos Fuentes, Antonio Gala, Antonio Muñoz Molina, Francisco Umbral, Manuel Vicent); musical talent (Raphael); stage talent (Núria Espert, Emilio Aragón), and originality in fashion design and its business projection (Carolina Herrera)

In sport, Vicente del Bosque and the Spanish racing driver Carlos Sainz.

This commitment to excellence and solidarity is reflected in our Social Outreach Awards, which are aimed at people who make the world a fairer place. We would especially like to thank Her Majesty Queen Sofía of Spain, for accepting one of our awards and for joining us every year at the awards ceremony.

In just seven editions, the Fundación MAPFRE Social Innovation Awards have established themselves as a global benchmark for committed entrepreneurs in fields including digital health, safe and sustainable mobility, and the silver economy.

Throughout the history of these awards, we have enjoyed the support of IE University as our academic partner, the collaboration of the Fundación EY España and BIDLab, as well as the valuable participation of expert judges from the fields of health, social innovation, economics, finance, and technology.

The more than 2,145 participants, from the various geographical regions that the competition covers (Brazil, the rest of Latin America, Europe and the United States) share the same goal: to produce a viable solution to problems that often transcend their own environment. Today, initiatives such as Betterfly, Liight app, Medicsens, Navilens, Neurobots, Pensium and Scoobic are achieving this goal.

All the finalists are also supported by Red Innova, our innovation ecosystem that guides projects in terms of their growth and scalability.

Among the more than 2,800 printed works that we have published over the last 50 years, art, history, medicine, fire prevention, health and safety at work, road safety, insurance and risk management stand out for their abundance and importance.

Our publishing work in the field of history — from collections dedicated to the publication of documentary sources to major editorial projects like the Colecciones MAPFRE 1492— cannot be understood without acknowledging the Americanist perspective that permeates our history and is part of our DNA.

But it is in the field of art publications where the three features that best define our editorial project converge: continuity, diversity and quality. The more than 500 works on painting, drawing, photography, sculpture and engravings are united by a common element, the use of the two fundamental tools for cultural transmission: images and words.

Technical publications aimed at sharing knowledge about medicine, health and safety at work and fire prevention complete our range of publications, to which we should add works published in other formats, such as the hundred or so CD-ROMs, which at the time represented an important milestone for the digitalization of Spanish bibliographic collections.

Throughout these decades we have maintained our commitment to promote our publications, combining quality and rigor to broaden their spectrum and reach new generations.