What is Social Good Insurance?

Focusing on serving social entrepreneurs and social businesses through our www.socialgoodinsurance.com website and our social good insurance brand.

After 21 years of serving the non-profit and faith-based charitable community with travel insurance, international health insurance, annual multi-trip plans and more, we realized that we must do more to both serve and intentionally focus on helping the social good business, social entrepreneur and social enterprise market. These businesses have been under-served and have unique needs that often create inequalities in terms of healthcare choices, not to mention affordability. We are a “one-stop shop” for insurance for social good businesses. If you can’t find what you are looking for at www.socialgoodinsurance.com, you can find it here at our parent site and company, Good Neighbor Insurance (or email [email protected]).

First understanding what “Social good” is.
Social business, Social enterpreneurship, Social enterprise defined

There are many definitions for this growing business sector. However, we like to focus on the definition of “good” – Meaning for a good cause, to do good to people or the environment, a good use of resources and also profits, focusing on sustainability, job creation, empowerment of the poor and of communities, etc. by people who feel a social responsibility to invest, to give back, and make the places they work better by their presence rather than simply offering local employment.

We also define social business or social enterprise compared to non-profit work and community development/aid.
Unlike non-profit organizations, social entrepreneurship does not primarily rely on donors for funding (except sometimes for launching/expansion through crowdsourcing, GoFundMe, etc.) but rather on finding a needed market and serving that market in exchange for services/products. Or selling those products outside the area. Often these are made locally, by local workers, OR are services that can be taught so that local people can then expand those services, replicate the business model, and break the cycle of poverty.

For example of social enterprise:

Not just going overseas and taking equipment to dig a (clean water) well using a local workforce, but instead, taking equipment and then training local staff on its usage, seeking additional villages that could benefit by a clean water source and what they can afford to pay, helping these workers to then start buying equipment, hiring and training locally, and expanding needed services (often with continued overseas expat connections, resourcing, advice, etc. especially in the early stages) outward from there.

Of course, these are all rough generalizations and we value your input below in the comments to help future readers. Social good tends to intersect a number of different goals and practices.
(See “How do you count how many social businesses are there?” below.)

Where non-profits often rely on donors and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to find funding from the government or other nations (bilateral and multilateral aid) and multilateral organizations set up by different countries (such as the United Nations, or the World Bank for example), social businesses often raise seed money using the same methods as other businesses (investors, their own personal capital, bootstrapping, …).

Where “social good insurance” comes in

Social good businesses often struggle to provide good health insurance protection for themselves, their families, and for their local staff. Social Good Insurance (.com) and our special relationship with 10-12 well-known international insurance carriers, have served similar verticals in the faith-based and non-profit market for many years. We are accustomed to fluid groups of workers, frequent back and forth from home to an overseas “workplace,” to finding affordable health coverage for key local nationals when needed as well as third-country nationals and multi-national companies (some staff may need U.S. coverage, others may have nationalized health care back home, and others may need health coverage across a few countries but excluding U.S. care). We can do that. We can also create group health plans for as few as two-to-three expats. Then, as a company grows, they already have a “claims history,” and good health coverage in place that will not exclude any pre-existing conditions of future staff or their family members. This is good long-range business planning.

We also understand frequent travelers and offer annual multi-trip plans that feature an unlimited number of trips out of your home country anywhere in the world. You apply once at a low price, and your health insurance follows you worldwide.

Social good insurance also helps some businesses and charitable groups that rely on volunteers to help them throughout the year. We offer a whole host of affordable travel insurance plans for volunteers (all include emergency evacuation). We also have team travel insurance for groups traveling together or joining a team or a project for a select time. These specially contracted plans exclusive to Good Neighbor Insurance and Social Good Insurance feature discounts and even the ability to pre-select a plan and the requirements you prefer, and then send all your volunteers to a co-branded page with your logo and colors (at no cost to you) where they can sign up – This greatly reduces liability issues for young companies/your board and leadership. (Find out more from [email protected])

The blanket travel policies we offer are for groups and organizations that know they will have a certain number of travelers coming to volunteer every year. They are paid for annually based on a set number of users. No names or ages or sign up is required and if you end up having one or two more volunteers than allocated visit you in a given year, they are still covered under your blanket policy. (If you have more questions about blanket travel insurance for volunteers or your staff, email us at [email protected] for assistance and answers.)

Lastly, for those businesspeople living overseas with their families, we offer both the best, most affordable expat health insurance, as well as temporary health plans just in case you need to return to the U.S or your home nation for 2-3 months. No need to get on an ACA policy when back in the USA (unless you are planning to stay in your country of origin for over a year.) Check out https://www.gninsurance.com/health/furlough/ and https://www.gninsurance.com/travel/short-term-us/.

How do you count how many social businesses are there?

This is tricky because many social businesses are simply counted as businesses. So there is no unique filing or licensing. Others may operate under larger “umbrella” organizations, or be just starting out so are uncounted/unknown. Some larger faith-based charitable groups may have multiple businesses (even up to 20 or more) they are helping to start in order to hand them off to local people to fill needs and to empower local employment – locals hiring locals. And then you have huge employers that have social good values, or consider their entire company to be committed to being socially responsible, or follow sustainable practices (again depending on the definition of social good or social business). Not to mention all of the actual enterprises created by microlending and created by those social good entrepreneurs.

In order to make some sense of the numbers (and because of our services and products), we usually think in terms of an expat (or expats) from anywhere in the world, moving abroad or across national boundaries, in order to help create a new business, OR creating a new business in their country of residence that will then help/serve another people in another area (that otherwise might be stuck in poverty, or under-employed area, or face challenges due to remoteness or education or physical risk or marginalization).

What we do know is that social good business is growing by leaps and bounds, even when you subtract those companies that might include themselves because they are locally sustainable or socially responsible (fair wages/fair trade, etc.)

What is our social mission? We focus on helping those who are helping others around the world.
More at https://www.gninsurance.com/about-us/our-purpose/

How social good businesspeople are different from other forms of travelers?

Depending on the type of business you have, social business and social enterprise is very different from other forms of international business – You are usually working for yourself or may not have the same cash flow of larger more profitable international businesses. You may be a micro-business bootstrapping it and need more affordable options/discounted rates such as those used by non-profit workers and missionaries. If your business is for social good, we can offer you those discounts. You may need more flexible options for local staff or you may want a group plan but have less than 50 workers. We can do that. You may not be able to absorb 15-25% yearly rate increases that are so typical of larger businesses abroad. We specialize in keeping insurance sustainable and increases in the single digits.

You may also be working in areas outside the larger urban areas, you may be working among the poor or in areas of greater need/greater risk. We understand work in remote areas/at-risk areas, and the heightened chance of sickness and exposure due to poor living conditions. Our founders lived and worked overseas themselves for 30 years and many of our staff have also lived and worked abroad in Turkey, Central Asia, Europe, Southeast Asia, etc.

Finally, one area we didn’t address much here is cultural issues and cultural preservation. Social good businesses do not solely address economic issues, issues of health, community or injustice but also address cultural preservation, protection, and persecution based on identity. We are proud and honored to serve such a diverse, and such an amazing, group of creative, intentional businesspeople! Every day we marvel at the work being done by our clients all over the globe in large and small ways.

Thank you for what you do.

On behalf of us all.
If we can be of service or benefit to you using our expertise to help you do a better job overseas while keeping you and your staff safe, please give us a call or email us at [email protected] and say hi. For “Whenever you save a life, you save all humanity.”

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