A look at what the Naked Difference is and what impact the 2021 payment will have on its selected causes.
Once a year at Naked, we donate the leftover premiums received from our customers to causes that they’ve chosen, rather than taking it as profit. This is the Naked Difference. This year, we’re excited to be declaring a Naked Difference of R815,000 – a substantial increase from the R250,000 that the Naked tribe donated last year. Here’s a look at what the Naked Difference is and what impact the 2021 payment will have.
What’s the Naked Difference?
The Naked Difference is a new way of doing business that ensures our interests are aligned with our customers', while also helping to make a positive impact in our communities. Instead of being a standard Corporate Social Investment (CSI) initiative, independent from our day-to-day running, the Naked Difference is baked right into our business model.
Inherent in the traditional insurance model is the reality that if less is paid out in claims, it means more profit for the insurer. This results in the client and their insurer being in a constant tug of war over the same money when a claim is submitted.
We do not work like that. Instead, we take a flat fee upfront to cover running costs and profit. The rest of the money is pooled in a pot to cover claims. If there is money left over in the pot (in the years where claims are lower than expected), it is paid to causes our clients have chosen to support.
This means that our profit isn’t linked to how much we pay in claims. Rather, it’s dependent on getting people to join Naked and then keeping them happily on the Naked platform. By aligning our interests with those of our clients, we create a symbiotic relationship where Naked, our clients, and our communities all benefit.
The six causes directly benefiting from the 2021 Naked Difference are:
Door of Hope – Caring for abandoned babies and helping them find their forever home
Door of Hope cares for abandoned babies, an age-old problem that has increased during COVID-19 due to the increased financial pressures people are under.
They’ve recently launched a new campaign called the 2021 Birthday Pledge Project: it’s about encouraging people to pledge their birthdays by donating the funds which would normally go towards a birthday celebration to the babies at Door of Hope. If you’d like to get involved, you can join Naked and choose them as your cause, or you can make your Birthday Pledge through Door of Hope directly.
Here’s what Door of Hope plans to put the 2021 Difference payment towards:
The Baby Home in Berea is in desperate need of some structural repairs. The home’s structural issues have reduced the number of abandoned babies that can be taken in. Part of the funds from the Naked Difference will go towards fixing and improving the home to allow for more abandoned babies to be looked after.
As the pandemic is still undoubtedly affecting many people across the country, Door of Hope has seen a decline in donations. Some of the Difference payment will therefore go towards the usual focus of these missing donations, namely baby care items such as food, medicine, clothes and nappies. The Difference payment will also go towards the babies who require special medical care they so need.
Christel House – A non-profit school in Cape Town that works to transform the lives of children living in poverty
In the last year, we’ve watched Christel House move mountains to help their learners and community. Here’s a brief look at what they’ve been busy with:
They have built three new classrooms, which will accommodate 60 new Grade RR students from July 2021. If you’d like to help the little Grade RRs with essential school supplies, like shoes, toys, learning materials and fortified porridge, you can donate to their #GiveAHandUp campaign here.
To help the matric students, Christel House has repurposed their school hall to include functional “pop-up dorms” as part of their Matric Intensive project. The dorms will provide a living space for their matric pupils during their exam times to ensure a safe and productive study environment.
They have also extended a helping hand to the parents of students, by starting a small-scale farming project, called Siyakhula (‘we grow’) to employ parents from the school and help generate additional income for their households.
As for the upcoming year, Christel House plans to fund various items and projects on its 2021 Wish List ranging from reading glasses prescribed by a partner optometrist, drama therapy to promote mental health, workshops to empower the Christel House parents and student excursions to educational sites like the aquarium. They also want to put some money towards their healthcare department – their two nurses have performed a crucial role throughout this pandemic and Christel House wants to support them in continuing to keep their students healthy and focused on their academics.
Cotlands – A non-profit early childhood development organisation
Cotlands targets vulnerable children from birth to age six, with a specific focus on establishing early learning playgroups and toy libraries in under-resourced communities.
In the last year they have been busy with a bunch of donation drives to help support their educational programmes for young children. They most recently collected toys for their Toy Library.
Cotlands’ next drive is to take place in support of Mandela Day, which part of the 2021 Naked Difference payment will fund. It’s an event called 67 Minutes of Laughter, where famous South African comedians will come together for some comic relief while raising money for the kids via ticket sales. Tickets are still available for R100 and the event is taking place on 17 July 2021, 20:00. The remaining funds will go towards helping playgroups and toy libraries in disadvantaged communities.
Greenpop Foundation – A registered NPO who works to restore ecosystems and empower environmental stewards
The Greenpop Foundation has planted more than 150,000 trees since 2010 and they’ve only continued to grow that number in 2021 amidst the pandemic. They recently managed to plant 1,924 trees at the Bodhi Khaya Nature Retreat in the Overstrand, Western Cape. We hope to see trees from the Naked Difference planted here soon!
Greenpop plans to use part of the 2021 payment to fund their Family Food Gardens through which they will empower individuals and communities for 12 months to grow their own gardens.
If you’d like to get involved, here’s how:
Eden Festival of Action: This festival combines tree-planting with workshops, sustainability talks, campfires and music by some of South Africa’s best musicians. The festival takes place on the Garden Route between 19 and 26 September 2021. Get more info here.
Living Legends – Improving South African communities by implementing sport and life skills programmes for impoverished youth
During the past term, Living Legends focused on staff training and workshops which included a Kinetix refresher about adapting the physical education programme during COVID-19, Level 1 first aid training, child protection workshops and a critical thinking workshop to encourage creative thinking.
Living Legends also hosted a Youth Day competition which focused on educating young people about what Youth Day means in South Africa. The pupils wrote short stories and were encouraged to ask parents and elders in their community about Youth Day to get parents more involved with their children's learning. Living Legends have posted 16 of the best stories on their Facebook page if you’d like to check them out.
The 2021 Naked Difference payment is planned to go towards prizes for the winners of the short story competition as well as further workshops for the instructors once COVID-19 allows for it.
WOOF Project, Oscars Arc – Accelerating dog adoption through pop-up adoption initiatives
Since its inception in March 2017, WOOF Project has successfully homed 2,254 dogs in the Western Cape. They recently held additional pop-ups in Gauteng which helped home 120 dogs to help alleviate the severe overcrowding of abandoned dogs in the region. As for the upcoming year, Oscars Arc will use their Difference payment to upgrade one of their old shipping containers (that they use for pop-up adoptions) and get it to Joburg so that they can host many more dog adoption days in Gauteng.
If you’d like to get involved, click here.
We’re excited to say that as we’ve grown, we’ve managed to add a further seven causes this year. We want a wide range of organisations who are making a difference to be able to benefit from the Naked business model. The following additional causes will be part of the 2022 Naked Difference payments.
- The Kolisi Foundation, founded by Siya and Rachel Kolisi, which supports people living in under-resourced communities;
- JAM (Joint Aid Management), a non-profit that provides meals for vulnerable children and communities;
- CHOC (Childhood Cancer Foundation South Africa), a non-profit organisation that supports children and teenagers diagnosed with cancer or life-threatening blood disorders;
- TEARS, a women-led organisation that offers 24-hour support to victims of gender-based violence;
- Surfpop, which runs surfing, nutrition and education programmes for children in townships;
- The Beach Co-op, which has a mission to eliminate, reuse, redesign and recycle single-use plastic; and
- The Baby Box Project, which works with public hospitals to deliver hampers to help new mothers to care for their babies.
We are extremely grateful to our Naked tribe and to be able to make a difference within the communities of South Africa. As we’ve said, this isn’t a CSI initiative, but a new way of doing business.
P.S. If you’re a Naked client and want to nominate a cause you’d like to support, please let us know at help@naked.insure
