Lemonade Insuranceannounced today that 14 charitable organizations, which wereselected by policyholders, will become the beneficiaries ofdonations that together total 10% of the company's revenues todate.

The startup's "2017 Giveback" campaign is "something our entirecommunity can be very proud of," Lemonade CEO and cofounder DanielSchreiber said in a press release. "While we're small, and theabsolute numbers are modest, Giveback should scale as we do. Thinkwhat our industry could achieve if others adopted the Givebackway."

Lemonade said this year's donations total $53,174, or just over10% of company revenues since Lemonade launched its web-basedinsurance company less than a year ago. The startup sellshomeowners and renters insurance and is powered by artificialintelligence and behavioral economics.

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The beneficiaries of this year's Giveback include a homebuildingproject in El Salvador, a well-water project in Malawi, ameal-delivery service in New York City that caters to homeboundseniors, a childcare center that caters to families in need, andTeach for America, the 28-year-old nationwide nonprofit that trainsand sends teachers to work in low-income neighborhood schools.

"Giveback is like a social contract among our community," DanAriely, the company's chief behavioral officer, said in astatement. "As we see it, 'it's not our money.' It's money ourcommunity has entrusted to us, first and foremost to help ourmembers recover from unfortunate events in their lives, andsecondly to help the less fortunate in our broader community."

Lemonade's leaders argue that digitizing insurance saves money,which the company can then funnel back into its annual Giveback.The company's behavioral science business model also fosters theidea that when policyholders know that their money will be directedtoward charity, they are less likely to engage in fraud.

Families in El Salvador such as this one will benefit fromnew homes thanks to the Lemonade Insurance contribution to theorganization New Story. (Photo: Provided by Lemonade)

The company's leadership has stated that they aspire to becomeavailable nationwide by the end of the year. In its June 1, 2017"TransparencyChronicles," Lemonade reported that it had insured14,315 homes and that week-over-week sales of new policies hadgrown by 60%. The company also flaunts the fact that nearly all ofits policyholders have jumped ship from incumbent insurers.

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"We handled a total of 117 claims so far and happily paid$143,190 to our insured members," wrote Lemonade co-founder ShaiWininger. "Remarkably, 27% of the claims paid were handled andprocessed instantly" using Lemonade's artificial intelligence response bot, which itcalls AI Jim.

According to recent research from America's Charities, 9 out of 10 American consumers expect thebusinesses they patronize to be good corporate citizens. What'smore, the vast majority of companies that participate inphilanthropic giving or volunteerism believe that doing so enhancestheir company brand and reputation.

Lemonade also uses its Giveback campaign to strengthen customerrelationships. How? When a consumer buys a new Lemonade policy,that person is simultaneously queried for the causes andorganizations they care about.

"We no longer treat our users' leftover premium money as ourpotential revenue because we give it backanyway," Winingerwrote in a late 2016 blog post. "And because it's not ours andwe're giving it back — we can delight our customers by doingeverything painfully simple and superfast."

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