Lemonade’s Social Impact Report: 20% For Nonprofits In 100 Days
Insurance As A Social Good
As Chief Behavioral Officer, I’m tasked with helping make Lemonade trusting and trustworthy. I spent years researching honesty and distrust, and Lemonade’s unique business model borrows heavily from that body of research. Long story short: instead of fighting with our customers over the same coin, we join our customers in fighting for a common cause.
That changes everything! It eliminates conflicts of interests, and creates a partnership between Lemonade, our customers, and their chosen nonprofit.
In the Social Impact Report, the final installment of the Lemonade Transparency Chronicles, I reveal the metrics and stats behind the first 100 days of business. Everything from the numbers behind our Giveback program to the causes we’re working with- it’s all in this report.
Spoiler alert: in 2016 we paid out 20% in claims. While we don’t know what that number will end up being on Giveback-day, we do know what would happen if it remained 20%: we’d Giveback to nonprofits 20¢ of every dollar we collected.
Beyond the Numbers
In 2016 we took important steps towards entrenching Lemonade’s social mission. In April 2016, by unanimous vote of our board and shareholders, Lemonade Inc. became a Public Benefit Corporation, with a mission “to use the power of technology to transform insurance from a necessary evil to a social good.” In August, Lemonade received B-Corp. certification, and in September of last year, New York regulators approved the Giveback and Lemonade was launched.
2016 was about laying the foundations: we created a new double-bottom-line insurance business model, supported it by a novel reinsurance program, built the tech to deliver it, negotiated the legal and regulatory framework to allow it, and brought Lemonade to market. It’s too soon to give a definitive picture of the social impact of Lemonade, but if the first 100 days are anything to go by, we may be onto something :)
This post is an excerpt of the Lemonade Social Impact report, on the Lemonade blog.
