Giving Meals to Disaster Victims with the American Red Cross

Lemonade’s Giveback to the American Red Cross

The American Red Cross prevents and relieves human suffering in the face of emergencies. They work to deliver vital services, such as helping families recover from disasters, training volunteers on health and safety, and delivering international support programs.

Through Giveback to the American Red Cross, the Lemonade Community provided meals for 50 people post-disaster. These meals will bring help and hope to these victims of disaster, helping them to physically and emotionally recover from the harm they had just experienced. 

The 2017 Lemonade Giveback

Our total Giveback for 2017 was $53,174, and this number calls for some context: this amounts to 10.2% of our revenue. As a point of reference, the Fortune 100 give 0.08% of their revenues each year (CECP p.36). So if year-one is anything to go by, Giveback has the potential to 100X that benchmark. Time will tell, but early indications are encouraging.  

We had 21 cause-centric-groups as of June 30, and 14 (66.7%) received a Giveback. Here’s a fun fact: among these 14 causes, an average of 18% of premiums were given to charity. These funds can go a long way when put in the right hands.

But it’s more than just numbers. Giveback amounts to a change in kind, because it isn’t dependent on profits (Lemonade hasn’t turned a profit yet). We think of Giveback as a social contract among our community, where the size and allocation is determined not by our big profits or big hearts, but by the good fortune and good behavior of our members. Remember, it’s not our money.

As our Chief Behavioral Officer Dan Ariely explained, “it’s money our community has entrusted to us, first and foremost to help our members recover from unfortunate events in their lives, and secondly, to help the less fortunate in our broader community.”

Share your American Red Cross impact, and read more about our 2017 Giveback here.