Some of the inspiration for Umberto
Fedeli’s many contributions to the
community came from a letter someone once sent him.
The letter said, “In life, the secret to happiness is to love, and the essence of love is
to serve.”
Fedeli has taken that message to heart
and works to give back to his community
both on a personal level and in his position
as president and CEO of The Fedeli Group,
one of the largest privately held insurance
brokerage firms in Ohio.
The reasons for getting involved aren’t
nearly as important as the end results.
“Regardless of whether you are doing
something with a more charitable agenda
or something with more of a public relations and community involvement agenda,
it’s OK to do both,” Fedeli says. “If you
want credit from God, then that’s charitable. If you want credit from the community
for being a good corporate citizen, that’s
not necessarily bad, you just have to understand your purpose.”
You need to understand why you are getting involved, and you have to believe in
the cause and that you can make a difference. Fedeli says lending leadership support to local organizations is as important
as giving financial support.
“The better the leadership, the more
success the entity will have,” he says.
“CEOs have the organization skills, the
credibility and the status within the community to talk to other CEOs or entrepreneurs. So often, those at the charity level
do not have those relationships or access
to those people.”
By providing leadership, you can help the
organization make the contacts it needs to
be more efficient and maximize the effect
it has on the community.
“I really believe every company should be
involved with some level of community or
charitable participation,” Fedeli says.
“How involved they are or at what level is
up to them to decide. If every business in
the state got involved, the compounding
and exponential effect of that would be
incredible. People get involved by seeing
others getting involved.
“If everyone got involved, the world
would be a better place.”
HOW TO REACH: The Fedeli Group, www.thefedeligroup.com
