PROXY STATEMENT

Introduction

This proxy statement contains information relating to our 2017 Annual Meeting. We will hold our 2017 Annual Meeting at 10:00 a.m., local time, on Thursday, April 20, 2017, at the Heritage Hotel Lancaster, 500 Centerville Road, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17601.

On March 17, 2017, we are commencing the mailing to our stockholders of record at the close of business on March 3, 2017 of:

We ask our stockholders to return their completed proxy cards promptly whether or not they plan to attend our 2017 Annual Meeting in person unless a stockholder prefers to vote in person, by telephone or via the Internet.

We will pay the costs of preparing and mailing our proxy materials for our 2017 Annual Meeting to our stockholders and making those materials available for our stockholders to view on the Internet. We will, upon request, reimburse brokers, nominees, fiduciaries, custodians and other record holders for their reasonable expenses in forwarding our proxy solicitation materials for our 2017 Annual Meeting to the beneficial owners of our Class A common stock and to the beneficial owners of our Class B common stock for whom such persons serve as record holders. We may also solicit proxies from some stockholders in person, by mail, e-mail or telephone through our directors, officers and regular employees whom we do not employ specifically for proxy solicitation purposes and none of whom will receive any additional compensation for performing such services.

Summary of our 2016 Performance

For 2016, our total revenues increased 8.2% and our net income and net income per diluted Class A share increased 46.7% and 50.6%, respectively, compared to 2015. The following table depicts our total revenues, net income, net income per diluted Class A share and net income per Class B share for the three years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014. For further information, we refer you to the financial statements we include in our 2016 Annual Report.

We use the following defined terms in this proxy statement:

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Unless we otherwise expressly indicate, all of the financial information we include or incorporate by reference in this proxy statement for our 2017 Annual Meeting relates to our 2016 fiscal year. Our 2016 fiscal year began on January 1, 2016 and ended on December 31, 2016.

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OUR 2017 ANNUAL MEETING

In accordance with this proxy statement, our board of directors solicits proxies from our stockholders for use in connection with our 2017 Annual Meeting and any adjournment or postponement of our 2017 Annual Meeting. We will hold our 2017 Annual Meeting at 10:00 a.m., local time, on Thursday, April 20, 2017 at the Heritage Hotel Lancaster, 500 Centerville Road, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17601.

What is the agenda for our 2017 Annual Meeting?

At our 2017 Annual Meeting, our stockholders will consider and act upon the four items of stockholder business we propose as follows:

What is the effect of our advance notice by-laws?

Our advance notice by-laws require that a stockholder provide us with a specified period of prior notice of that stockholder’s intention to nominate any candidate for election as a Class A director at our 2017 Annual Meeting or to propose any other item of stockholder business for stockholder consideration at our 2017 Annual Meeting.

Our advance notice by-laws establish a date by which a stockholder must submit a stockholder proposal with respect to our next forthcoming annual meeting of stockholders. That date in general is 90 days prior to the first anniversary of the mailing date of our proxy solicitation material for our prior year’s annual meeting of stockholders. After that date, a stockholder may no longer propose any candidate for election as a director at our next forthcoming annual meeting of stockholders and may no longer propose any other item of stockholder business for consideration and a vote by our stockholders at our next forthcoming annual meeting of stockholders. For our 2017 Annual Meeting, that date was December 21, 2016. For our 2018 annual meeting of stockholders, that date is December 17, 2017. The purpose of our advance notice by-laws is to ensure that we can include in our annual proxy statements, for the information of all of our stockholders, all of the actions we or others propose to present for consideration by our stockholders at our annual meetings of stockholders.

No stockholder has nominated a candidate for election as a Class A director at our 2017 Annual Meeting or proposed the transaction of any other item of stockholder business at our 2017 Annual Meeting. Accordingly, no item of stockholder business other than the four items of stockholder business we describe in our notice of our 2017 Annual Meeting, as well as in this proxy statement, may properly come before our 2017 Annual Meeting or any adjournment or postponement of our 2017 Annual Meeting. As a result, we will not submit any other item of stockholder business, other than procedural matters related to the conduct of our 2017 Annual Meeting, to a vote of our stockholders at our 2017 Annual Meeting.

We are a Delaware corporation. Therefore, the DGCL, our amended and restated certificate of incorporation as currently in effect and our by-laws as currently in effect govern the conduct of business at our annual meetings of stockholders, our relationships with our stockholders and the relative rights, powers, duties and obligations of us and our stockholders, directors, nominees for directors, officers and employees.

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What is the quorum requirement for the conduct of business at our 2017 Annual Meeting?

Our by-laws provide that the presence, in person or by proxy, of not less than a majority of the aggregate voting power of our outstanding shares of Class A common stock and our outstanding shares of Class B common stock as of the record date for our 2017 Annual Meeting voting together as a single class constitutes a quorum at our 2017 Annual Meeting. Because Donegal Mutual owns 72.9% of the combined voting power of our outstanding Class A common stock and our outstanding Class B common stock and all of its shares will be present at our 2017 Annual Meeting, a quorum will be present at our 2017 Annual Meeting. Because a quorum will be present at our 2017 Annual Meeting, our stockholders will have the legal power and authority to conduct the four items of stockholder business at our 2017 Annual Meeting that we describe in our notice of our 2017 Annual Meeting and in this proxy statement.

What is the order of business at our 2017 Annual Meeting?

Our by-laws and applicable provisions of the DGCL govern the organization, conduct of business at and the adjournment or postponement of our 2017 Annual Meeting. Our board of directors has designated Kevin G. Burke, our president and chief executive officer, as the presiding officer of our 2017 Annual Meeting. Mr. Burke will call our 2017 Annual Meeting to order and will conduct the business of our 2017 Annual Meeting, including voting upon the four items of stockholder business upon which our stockholders will vote at our 2017 Annual Meeting. Under our by-laws, no other item of stockholder business may properly come before our 2017 Annual Meeting. Mr. Burke, as the presiding officer of our 2017 Annual Meeting, will determine, in his discretion, the order of the items of stockholder business we will conduct at our 2017 Annual Meeting and the procedural manner in which we will conduct the business of our 2017 Annual Meeting.

We have historically conducted the voting on the items of stockholder business we submit for a stockholder vote at our annual meetings of stockholders immediately following the calling to order of our annual meetings and the determination of a quorum by the presiding officer of our annual meetings. We currently intend to follow a substantially similar procedure at our 2017 Annual Meeting. After our stockholders have voted on the four items of stockholder business we describe in this proxy statement, and the inspectors of election our board of directors has appointed have tallied the voting on those four items of stockholder business, Donald H. Nikolaus, our chairman of the board, Kevin G. Burke, our president and chief executive officer, and Jeffrey D. Miller, our executive vice president and chief financial officer, will then discuss our results of operations for 2016 compared to 2015 and our outlook for 2017. After those remarks, the inspectors of election for our 2017 Annual Meeting will announce the results of the voting on the four items of business on which our stockholders have voted at our 2017 Annual Meeting. Then Messrs. Nikolaus, Burke and Miller will, as they deem appropriate in their discretion under then prevailing circumstances, recognize stockholders who wish to ask pertinent questions or make comments.

Who is entitled to notice of, and who may vote at, our 2017 Annual Meeting?

Our board of directors established the close of business on March 3, 2017 as the record date for the determination of the holders of our Class A common stock and the holders of our Class B common stock who are entitled to notice of, and to vote at, our 2017 Annual Meeting. We refer to those eligible stockholders as “stockholders of record” in this proxy statement. Stockholders of record, including persons whom a stockholder of record duly and validly appoints as the proxy of such stockholder of record, may attend, and vote at, our 2017 Annual Meeting.

Each share of our Class A common stock held of record for our 2017 Annual Meeting has the right to cast one-tenth of a vote for each nominee for election as a Class A director at our 2017 Annual Meeting and for each of the other items of stockholder business we submit to a vote of our stockholders at our 2017 Annual Meeting.

Each share of our Class B common stock held of record for our 2017 Annual Meeting has the right to cast one vote for each nominee for election as a Class A director at our 2017 Annual Meeting and for each of the other items of stockholder business we submit to a vote of our stockholders at our 2017 Annual Meeting.

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We reserve the right to request photographic identification, such as a currently valid driver’s license, before we permit a stockholder of record, or a proxy for a stockholder of record, to attend our 2017 Annual Meeting in person. Even if you currently plan to attend our 2017 Annual Meeting and vote in person, we recommend that you vote by proxy using one of the methods we describe in this proxy statement under “How do you vote the DGI shares you own that are registered in your name?” By using one of those methods of voting, we can then recognize your votes even if you later do not, or cannot, for any reason attend our 2017 Annual Meeting and vote in person.

Computershare, our independent stock transfer agent, has prepared and certified a list of all holders of our Class A common stock and all holders of our Class B common stock outstanding as of the close of business on March 3, 2017, the record date for our 2017 Annual Meeting. If your name appears on that certified list of stockholders, you are a stockholder of record entitled to vote in person or by proxy at our 2017 Annual Meeting. For example, you are a stockholder of record if you received this proxy statement and the related materials for our 2017 Annual Meeting directly from us through our mailing agent and not indirectly from another person who is the record holder of the shares you own beneficially, such as a bank, a brokerage firm or other fiduciary or representative.

Our by-laws, in compliance with the DGCL, provide a stockholder of record an opportunity, subject to that stockholder of record’s prior compliance with certain conditions we describe in this proxy statement, during the ten calendar days preceding the date of our 2017 Annual Meeting, to examine, at our principal executive offices in Marietta, Pennsylvania, an alphabetical list of the holders of record for our 2017 Annual Meeting of our Class A common stock and an alphabetical list of the holders of record for our 2017 Annual Meeting of our Class B common stock. We will grant the request of a stockholder of record to make such an examination if:

If a stockholder of record does not make such a written request to inspect our list of stockholders within the ten-day period we describe above or if we make a determination, in our discretion, that the stockholder of record’s request for inspection of our list of stockholders within such ten-day period is not proper or not legally relevant to the four items of stockholder business we will conduct at our 2017 Annual Meeting, we will not permit that stockholder of record to examine the list of the record holders of our Class A common stock and the record holders of our Class B common stock.

If you are the beneficial owner of shares of our Class A common stock or the beneficial owner of shares of our Class B common stock registered in the name of a bank, broker or other fiduciary or representative, which we also refer to in this proxy statement as shares held in “street name,” we consider you the beneficial owner of the shares your bank, your broker or your other fiduciary or representative holds for you, and we consider your bank, your broker or your other fiduciary or representative the stockholder of record of your shares. Your bank, your broker or your other fiduciary or representative will send you separately, as the beneficial owner, information describing the procedure for you to vote your shares. You should follow the instructions your bank, your broker or your other fiduciary or representative provides to you on how to vote your shares held in street name in the manner you determine.

Which of the items of stockholder business we will conduct at our 2017 Annual Meeting do we consider routine and which do we consider non-routine?

We will transact four items of stockholder business at our 2017 Annual Meeting. Under applicable regulations, we consider the election of four Class A directors, the approval, on a non-binding advisory basis, of

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the compensation of our named executive officers and our proposal to determine the frequency on which we submit to our stockholders the approval, on a non-binding advisory basis, of the compensation of our named executive officers as “non-routine” and the ratification of the appointment of KPMG LLP to serve as our auditors for our 2017 fiscal year as “routine.”

Under applicable rules, a record owner who is not also the beneficial owner, such as a broker, does not have discretion to vote on non-routine matters without voting instructions from the beneficial owner.

What percentage of the aggregate voting power of our outstanding shares of Class A common stock and our outstanding shares of Class B common stock is necessary to approve the items of stockholder business that will come before our 2017 Annual Meeting?

Election of our Class A Directors

The four persons our board of directors has nominated for election as Class A directors are the only nominees eligible for election as Class A directors at our 2017 Annual Meeting and any adjournment or postponement of our 2017 Annual Meeting. Our certificate of incorporation and our by-laws do not authorize cumulative voting in the election of our directors. As the DGCL permits and our by-laws provide, we utilize a plurality of the votes cast standard, and not a majority of the outstanding votes cast standard, in determining the election of our directors by our stockholders. Our certificate of incorporation provides that our shares of Class A common stock and our shares of Class B common stock vote together as a single class in the election of our directors. At our 2017 Annual Meeting, our stockholders will elect as Class A directors the four nominees for election as Class A directors who receive the highest number of stockholder votes at our 2017 Annual Meeting. The four persons elected as Class A directors at our 2017 Annual Meeting will serve for a term of three years and until the election of their respective successors and their respective successors take office.

If you properly submit your proxy and mark Withhold Authority for the election of some or all of our nominees for election as Class A directors, the proxies we have named will not vote your shares for the election of the nominee or nominees as Class A directors as to whom you have withheld authority. We will count the shares for which you have withheld authority to vote for the election of Class A directors as present at our 2017 Annual Meeting for the purposes of determining whether a quorum is present at our 2017 Annual Meeting. Because Donegal Mutual owns 72.9% of the combined voting power of our outstanding Class A common stock and our outstanding Class B common stock and will vote all of its shares for the election of the four nominees for Class A director we name in this proxy statement, our stockholders will elect those Class A nominees (Robert S. Bolinger, Kevin G. Burke, Patricia A. Gilmartin and Jack L. Hess) at our 2017 Annual Meeting to serve as Class A directors for a term of three years and until the election of their respective successors and their respective successors take office.

Approval, on a non-binding advisory basis, of the compensation of our named executive officers

As the DGCL permits and our by-laws provide, we utilize a plurality of the votes cast standard, and not a majority of the outstanding votes cast standard, in determining the approval, on a non-binding advisory basis, of our proposal to approve the compensation of our named executive officers. Because Donegal Mutual owns 72.9% of the combined voting power of our outstanding Class A common stock and our outstanding Class B common stock and because Donegal Mutual will vote all of its shares to approve, on a non-binding advisory basis, the compensation of our named executive officers, our stockholders will approve the compensation of our named executive officers at our 2017 Annual Meeting.

Determination of the frequency of our submission to our stockholders of the approval, on a non-binding advisory basis, of the compensation of our named executive officers

As the DGCL permits and our by-laws provide, we utilize a plurality of the votes cast standard, and not a majority of the outstanding votes cast standard, in determining the approval of our proposal to submit to our

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stockholders the approval, on a non-binding advisory basis, of the compensation of our named executive officers once every three years. Because Donegal Mutual owns 72.9% of the combined voting power of our outstanding Class A common stock and our outstanding Class B common stock and because Donegal Mutual will vote all of its shares at our 2017 Annual Meeting to approve the determination to submit to our stockholders the approval, on a non-binding advisory basis, of the compensation of our named executive officers once every three years, our stockholders will approve at our 2017 Annual Meeting our proposal to submit to our stockholders the approval, on a non-binding advisory basis, of the compensation of our named executive officers once every three years.

Ratification of the Appointment by our Audit Committee of KPMG LLP to Serve as our Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm for 2017

Ratification of the appointment by our audit committee of KPMG LLP to serve as our independent registered public accounting firm for our fiscal year ending December 31, 2017 requires the affirmative vote of the holders of a majority of the aggregate voting power of our outstanding shares of Class A common stock and our outstanding shares of Class B common stock, voting together as a single class, present in person or by proxy and entitled to vote at our 2017 Annual Meeting. Because Donegal Mutual owns 72.9% of the combined voting power of our outstanding Class A common stock and our outstanding Class B common stock and will vote all of its shares for ratification of the appointment by our audit committee of KPMG LLP to serve as our independent registered public accounting firm for 2017, our stockholders will approve at our 2017 Annual Meeting the ratification of the appointment by our audit committee of KPMG LLP to serve as our independent registered public accounting firm for 2017 at our 2017 Annual Meeting.

Broker Non-Votes

Broker non-votes are shares brokers or nominees hold of record in their name for which such brokers or nominees do not have discretionary voting power on the item to be voted upon and may not vote on the item because the broker or nominee has not received voting instructions from the beneficial owner of those shares. Broker non-votes, if any, will not affect the presence of a quorum at our 2017 Annual Meeting, other than being treated as votes present, or affect the outcome of any matter we submit to a vote of our stockholders at our 2017 Annual Meeting.

What are the voting rights of our stockholders?

At the close of business on March 3, 2017, we had outstanding:

In summary:

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At the close of business on March 3, 2017, Donegal Mutual owned of record and beneficially 9,851,025 shares, or 45.7%, of our outstanding Class A common stock, and 4,647,339 shares, or 83.3%, of our outstanding Class B common stock. Donegal Mutual therefore has the right to cast votes that constitute 72.9% of the combined voting power at our 2017 Annual Meeting on each matter we submit to a vote of our stockholders at our 2017 Annual Meeting.

Donegal Mutual has advised us that it will vote all of its shares of our Class A common stock and all of its shares of our Class B common stock at our 2017 Annual Meeting as follows:

As a result, based on the information Donegal Mutual furnished to us as to how Donegal Mutual will vote its shares at our 2017 Annual Meeting and because the shares Donegal Mutual owns constitute 72.9% of the combined voting power that all of our stockholders may cast at our 2017 Annual Meeting, we anticipate our stockholders will, at our 2017 Annual Meeting:

How do you vote the DGI shares you own that are registered in your name?

If the certified list our transfer agent prepared of the holders of our Class A common stock and the holders of our Class B common stock as of the record date includes your name, you are a stockholder of record and you may attend our 2017 Annual Meeting and vote in person or by proxy on the items of stockholder business we submit to a vote of our stockholders at our 2017 Annual Meeting. If you prefer, you may vote your proxy by mail, telephone or via the Internet by following the instructions we include on the proxy card we sent to you along with this proxy statement and our 2016 Annual Report. The proxies our board of directors has appointed will vote your shares as you direct on any proxy card you return by mail, by telephone or via the Internet. The deadline for stockholders of record to vote at our 2017 Annual Meeting by telephone or via the Internet is 11:59 p.m., local time, on April 19, 2017. The deadline for our receipt of proxies submitted by mail or by express delivery services for voting at our 2017 Annual Meeting is 3:00 p.m., local time, on April 19, 2017.

You may vote by proxy by using one of the following three methods:

Vote by telephone – use any touch-tone telephone to vote your proxy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Have your proxy card available when you call. When requested, enter the control numbers your proxy card lists and then follow the prompts. The telephone number is 1-800-690-6903.

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Vote by mail – mark, sign and date the proxy card we have mailed to you and return it in the postage-prepaid envelope we mailed to you along with our proxy solicitation materials for our 2017 Annual Meeting.

Vote via the Internet – use the Internet to vote your proxy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Have your proxy card available when you access the website. When requested, enter the control number your proxy card lists and then create and submit your ballot over the Internet. The website address for voting via the Internet is www.proxyvote.com.

If a broker, bank or other fiduciary or representative is the holder of record of your shares, see “How do you vote the DGI shares you own beneficially that are registered in the name of another person?” below.

How do you vote the DGI shares you own beneficially that are registered in the name of another person?

If you are not a stockholder of record, but you are a “beneficial owner” of our Class A common stock or our Class B common stock at the close of business on March 3, 2017, which means that the list of our stockholders of record at the close of business on March 3, 2017 our transfer agent prepared does not include your name but instead the name of the bank, broker or other fiduciary or representative who is the holder of record of your shares, you must either direct the holder of record of your shares to vote your shares on your behalf on the items of stockholder business upon which our stockholders will vote at our 2017 Annual Meeting or you must obtain a form of proxy from your holder of record that you may then vote as if you were the holder of record. Your broker does not have the discretion to vote your shares on:

Your broker, however, does have the discretion to vote your shares on routine matters at our 2017 Annual Meeting. The stockholder ratification of the appointment by our audit committee of KPMG LLP to serve as our independent registered public accounting firm for our fiscal year ending December 31, 2017 is a routine matter as to which your broker may exercise discretionary voting power.

If you are a “beneficial owner” of our Class A common stock or our Class B common stock and desire to attend our 2017 Annual Meeting and vote the shares you beneficially own at our 2017 Annual Meeting in person, you must obtain a proxy from your holder of record that you may vote as if you were the holder of record and not direct your holder of record how to vote. Your holder of record is generally the bank, broker or other fiduciary or representative who holds your shares in its name on your behalf.

How does our board of directors recommend our stockholders vote at our 2017 Annual Meeting?

Our board of directors unanimously recommends that each of our stockholders complete such stockholder’s proxy and vote as follows:

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Unless you mark your proxy card to the contrary, the proxies our board of directors has appointed will vote your shares represented by a duly completed proxy for:

May you change your vote after you have voted by proxy but before the commencement of voting at our 2017 Annual Meeting?

Yes. You may revoke your proxy at any time prior to the time when the proxies our board of directors appointed have completed their collection of ballots during our 2017 Annual Meeting. If you are a stockholder of record, you may revoke your proxy by timely:

However, if you attend our 2017 Annual Meeting in person and do not submit a ballot at our 2017 Annual Meeting, our proxies will vote the proxy you most recently submitted to them in accordance with the instructions you provided on that most recently submitted proxy.

If a bank, broker, nominee, other fiduciary or representative or other person is the holder of record of the shares you own, you will need to follow the instructions of the bank, broker, nominee, other fiduciary or representative or other holder of record as to how you may revoke your proxy.

If you have any questions about our 2017 Annual Meeting or voting your shares, please call Jeffrey D. Miller, our executive vice president and chief financial officer, at 1-800-877-0600 or e-mail Mr. Miller at jeffmiller@donegalgroup.com.

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The Beneficial Ownership of our Stock by our Directors and Executive Officers

The following table shows the amount and the percentage of the outstanding shares of our Class A common stock and the amount and the percentage of the outstanding shares of our Class B common stock that each of our directors, each of our nominees for director, each of our named executive officers and all of our executive officers, our nominees for director and our directors as a group owned beneficially at the close of business on March 3, 2017. The total shares shown for each person includes shares the person owned jointly, in whole or in part, with the person’s spouse, or owned individually by the person’s spouse and shares purchasable upon the exercise of stock options that were exercisable as of March 3, 2017 or that become exercisable within 60 days after March 3, 2017. The ownership of each director, nominee for director and executive officer is less than 1% unless the table below indicates otherwise.

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The named executive officers listed below hold stock options to purchase shares of our Class A common stock included in the table above as follows:

Section 16(a) Ownership Reporting Compliance

Section 16(a) of the Exchange Act requires that each of our directors, each of our executive officers and any person who owns 10% or more of the outstanding shares of our Class A common stock or 10% or more of the outstanding shares of our Class B common stock file with the SEC initial reports of their ownership of 10% or more of our Class A common stock or 10% or more of our Class B common stock as well as reports of subsequent changes in that ownership. Such persons must also furnish us with copies of all reports they file with the SEC pursuant to Section 16(a). As a practical matter, we assist our executive officers and directors in completing these filings on a timely basis by monitoring such transactions and completing and filing such SEC reports on behalf of such of those persons who request us to do so.

Based solely upon our review of the Section 16(a) filings our executive officers and directors made with the SEC during 2016 and written representations we received with respect to 2016 from our directors and executive officers, we believe that during 2016 all of our directors and executive officers filed all required Section 16(a) reports on a timely basis, except that one director, Jack L. Hess, has informed us that he did not timely report his acquisition in 2011 of the right to receive 171 shares of our Class A common stock as a result of the May 6, 2011 merger of Union National Financial Corporation (“UNNF”) with and into DFSC. In that merger, each share of common stock of UNNF automatically became by operation of law the right to receive 0.2134 shares of our Class A common stock and $5.45 in cash. Due to an administrative oversight by the independent exchange agent UNNF utilized in the merger, the 171 shares of our Class A common stock that Mr. Hess became entitled to receive as a result of the May 2011 merger were not issued to him until January 5, 2017. Mr. Hess promptly thereafter reported his acquisition of the 171 shares of our Class A common stock.

THE RELATIONSHIP OF DONEGAL MUTUAL AND DGI

Introduction

Donegal Mutual and DGI’s insurance subsidiaries conduct business together as the Donegal Insurance Group in 21 Mid-Atlantic, Midwestern, New England and Southern states. During 2016, A.M. Best Company reported that the Donegal Insurance Group ranked as the 86 ^th largest property and casualty insurance group in the United States based on its net premiums written in 2015. A.M. Best Company has assigned its rating of A (Excellent) to the Donegal Insurance Group. The Donegal Insurance Group has received an A.M. Best rating of A (Excellent) for the last 24 successive years.

Our Relationship with Donegal Mutual

In the mid-1980s, Donegal Mutual recognized the desirability, as a mutual insurance company, of developing additional sources of capital and surplus so it could remain competitive and have the surplus to expand its business and ensure its long-term viability. Donegal Mutual determined to implement a downstream holding company structure as one of its business strategies. Accordingly, in 1986, Donegal Mutual formed us as

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a downstream holding company. Initially, Donegal Mutual owned all of our outstanding common stock. After Donegal Mutual formed us, we in turn formed Atlantic States as our wholly owned property and casualty insurance company subsidiary.

In connection with the establishment of Atlantic States and our downstream insurance holding company system, Donegal Mutual and Atlantic States entered into a proportional reinsurance agreement, or pooling agreement, that became effective October 1, 1986. Under the pooling agreement, Donegal Mutual and Atlantic States pool substantially all of their respective premiums, losses and loss expenses. The underwriting pool homogenizes the risk characteristics of business Donegal Mutual and Atlantic States write directly. Atlantic States receives an allocation of 80% from the underwriting pool and Donegal Mutual receives an allocation of 20%. We do not anticipate any change in the allocation of the underwriting pool between Donegal Mutual and Atlantic States in the future. The business Atlantic States derives from the underwriting pool represents a significant percentage of our total consolidated revenues. However, the percentage of our total consolidated revenues we derive from the underwriting pool has gradually decreased as we have acquired other property and casualty insurance companies that do not participate in the underwriting pool.

Donegal Mutual and our insurance subsidiaries conduct business together as the Donegal Insurance Group, while each entity retains its separate legal and corporate existence. As the Donegal Insurance Group, Donegal Mutual and our insurance subsidiaries share a combined business plan to enhance market penetration and underwriting profitability. As such, Donegal Mutual and our insurance subsidiaries share the same business philosophies, the same management, the same employees and the same facilities and offer the same types of insurance products.

The products Donegal Mutual and our insurance subsidiaries offer are generally complementary, which permits the Donegal Insurance Group to offer a broad range of products in a given market and to expand the Donegal Insurance Group’s ability to service an entire personal lines or commercial lines account. Distinctions within the products Donegal Mutual and our insurance subsidiaries offer generally relate to specific risk profiles within similar classes of business, such as preferred tier products versus standard tier products. Donegal Mutual and we do not allocate all of the standard risk gradients to one company. As a result, the underwriting results of the business the individual companies write directly will vary.

Certain of our insurance subsidiaries paid a total of $13.0 million in dividends to us during 2016. These dividends are one of the sources of the funds we utilized to pay quarterly cash dividends to our stockholders. We paid $14.1 million in dividends to our stockholders in 2016, of which Donegal Mutual received $7.6 million based on its ownership of shares of our Class A common stock and shares of our Class B common stock on the respective record dates for the dividends we paid during 2016.

Our Capital Structure

We have two outstanding classes of common stock, our Class A common stock and our Class B common stock.

Our Class A common stock has one-tenth of a vote per share and our Class B common stock has one vote per share. The relative voting power and equity interest of all of the stockholders of DGI at the time of our recapitalization remained constant.

The principal benefit to us from our two-class capital structure is our ability to issue our Class A common stock or securities convertible into or exchangeable for our Class A common stock for financing, acquisition and compensation purposes without materially adversely affecting the relative voting power of any of our stockholders, including Donegal Mutual.

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Every holder of our Class A common stock and every holder of our Class B common stock who owns shares of our Class A common stock or our Class B common stock has purchased our Class A common stock or our Class B common stock with the prior knowledge and consistent disclosure by us that Donegal Mutual has, since our formation in 1986, held majority voting control of us and intends to maintain that majority control for the long-term future. Our board of directors believes that Donegal Mutual’s majority voting control of us is in our long-term best interests and the long-term best interests of Donegal Mutual.

As a result of a review that occurred in March 2017, both our board of directors and Donegal Mutual’s board of directors reaffirmed their respective belief that the Donegal Mutual-DGI structure and the inter-company relationships between Donegal Mutual and DGI and its insurance subsidiaries we describe in this proxy statement continue to be appropriate for the respective businesses and operations of Donegal Mutual and of DGI and our insurance subsidiaries. Our board of directors reaffirmed in March 2017 that preservation of the relationship between Donegal Mutual and us and our status as a public company of which Donegal Mutual owns 72.9% of the combined voting power of our Class A common stock and our Class B common stock is in the best interests of all of the constituencies that we and Donegal Mutual serve, including:

We believe our relationships with Donegal Mutual we describe in this proxy statement provide the Donegal Insurance Group with a number of important business benefits, including the following:

We refer our stockholders to our Form 10-K Report for our fiscal year ended December 31, 2016 for further information about our business strategies and our relationship with Donegal Mutual.

Our Strategy to Maximize Stockholder Value

A fundamental goal of our board of directors and management is to maximize stockholder value over the long-term. We conduct our operations with this fundamental goal in mind. Our business strategies seek to maximize stockholder value by improving operating efficiencies as well as pursuing internal and external growth

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in order to enhance the long-term, cost-effectiveness and operating profits of our businesses. Our board of directors and management regularly evaluate our business strategies and concentrate on improving our long-term, sustainable earnings. We focus on:

The Coordinating Committee

Donegal Mutual and we maintain a coordinating committee that consists of two members of our board of directors, neither of whom is a member of Donegal Mutual’s board of directors, and two members of Donegal Mutual’s board of directors, neither of whom is a member of our board of directors. The purpose of the coordinating committee is to maintain a process for an ongoing evaluation of the fairness of the terms of all transactions between Donegal Mutual and its policyholders, on the one hand, and our insurance subsidiaries, us and our stockholders, on the other hand.

Any change to an agreement between Donegal Mutual, on the one hand, and us or any of our insurance subsidiaries, on the other hand, or any new agreement between Donegal Mutual, on the one hand, and us or any of our insurance subsidiaries, on the other hand, is also subject to the applicable provisions of the Pennsylvania Insurance Company Law of 1921, as amended, and the PHCA, as well as the laws of the other states of domicile of our insurance subsidiaries.

The coordinating committee will only approve a new agreement between Donegal Mutual and us or Donegal Mutual and one or more of our insurance subsidiaries or a change in an existing agreement between Donegal Mutual and us or Donegal Mutual and one or more of our insurance subsidiaries if:

After the coordinating committee approves the new agreement or the change in an existing agreement, our board of directors and Donegal Mutual’s board of directors must each approve the new agreement or the change in an existing agreement.

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The coordinating committee meets annually during the first two months of each year to review each continuing agreement and each on-going transaction between Donegal Mutual and us or one or more of our insurance subsidiaries, including the various reinsurance agreements between Donegal Mutual and our insurance subsidiaries. The purpose of this annual review is to examine the results of these reinsurance agreements over a period of several years and to determine if the results of the existing agreements between Donegal Mutual and us and our insurance subsidiaries over an extended time period remain fair and equitable to us and our stockholders and fair and equitable to Donegal Mutual and its policyholders or if Donegal Mutual or if we should mutually agree to certain adjustments. In the case of these agreements, the adjustments typically consist of adjustments to the reinsurance premiums, the level at which the reinsurance attaches and the reinsurance reinstatement premiums. The intent of any changes is to achieve relative parity between Donegal Mutual, on the one hand, and us or one or more of our insurance subsidiaries, on the other hand, over a period of several years. These agreements are ongoing in nature and will continue in effect throughout 2017 in the ordinary course of our business and the business of our insurance subsidiaries and in the ordinary course of the business of Donegal Mutual.

Robert S. Bolinger and Richard D. Wampler, II are our members of the coordinating committee. Certain biographical information about Messrs. Bolinger and Wampler appears later in this proxy statement under the caption “Election of Directors.” Dennis J. Bixenman and John E. Hiestand serve as Donegal Mutual’s members of the coordinating committee. Certain biographical information about Messrs. Bixenman and Hiestand is as follows:

Mr. Bixenman, age 70, has been a director of Donegal Mutual since 2008. Mr. Bixenman retired in 2012 as vice president and senior consultant of Williams & Company Consulting, Inc., an environmental and business consulting firm with its headquarters in Sioux City, Iowa. Mr. Bixenman is a certified public accountant with extensive experience in auditing and preparing financial statements. Mr. Bixenman beneficially owns 47,555 shares of our Class A common stock. He owns no shares of our Class B common stock. As director compensation in 2016, Donegal Mutual paid Mr. Bixenman cash fees of $69,300 and granted him a restricted stock award of 500 shares of our Class A common stock with a value at the time of issuance in January 2016 of $7,040. Mr. Bixenman received $500 in cash fees as compensation from Donegal Mutual for the meeting of the coordinating committee he attended as one of Donegal Mutual’s members on the coordinating committee during 2016.

Mr. Hiestand, age 79, has been a director of Donegal Mutual since 1983 and has been a self-employed provider of insurance administrative services for over 20 years. Mr. Hiestand served as a director of Central Savings and Loan Association in Columbia, Pennsylvania from 1982 to 1992. Mr. Hiestand beneficially owns 37,080 shares of our Class A common stock. He owns 157 shares of our Class B common stock. As director compensation in 2016, Donegal Mutual paid Mr. Hiestand cash fees of $67,400 and granted him a restricted stock award of 500 shares of our Class A common stock with a value at the time of issuance in January 2016 of $7,040. Mr. Hiestand received $500 in cash fees as compensation from Donegal Mutual for the meeting of the coordinating committee he attended as one of Donegal Mutual’s members on the coordinating committee during 2016.

Inter-Company Transactions

Donegal Mutual provides facilities, personnel and other services to us and our insurance subsidiaries pursuant to a service agreement that has been in effect since 1986. Donegal Mutual allocates certain related expenses to Atlantic States in accordance with the relative participation of Donegal Mutual and Atlantic States in the underwriting pool. Our insurance subsidiaries other than Atlantic States reimburse Donegal Mutual for those services for their respective personnel costs and bear their proportionate share of information services costs based on their written insurance premiums compared to the total written insurance premiums of the Donegal Insurance Group. Donegal Mutual’s charges for these services totaled $122.4 million in 2016, compared to $108.5 million in 2015.

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Donegal Mutual and Atlantic States may amend or terminate the pooling agreement, as we describe in an earlier portion of this proxy statement, at the end of any calendar year by mutual agreement, subject to approval by the coordinating committee and approval by the respective boards of directors of Donegal Mutual and Atlantic States. Neither our board of directors nor Donegal Mutual’s board of directors contemplates any change in the pooling agreement.

In addition to the pooling agreement, our insurance subsidiaries, in the ordinary course of their businesses, have various reinsurance agreements with Donegal Mutual that are renewed annually. The coordinating committee reviews these reinsurance agreements annually so as to achieve relative parity between Donegal Mutual and our insurance subsidiaries between the reinsurance premiums Donegal Mutual charges our insurance subsidiaries for the reinsurance and the losses Donegal Mutual incurs under the reinsurance it provides to our insurance subsidiaries over a period of several years. We believe the reinsurance arrangements between Donegal Mutual and our insurance subsidiaries are no less favorable to our insurance subsidiaries than the terms and conditions of reinsurance available to our insurance subsidiaries from independent reinsurers. These reinsurance agreements include the following reinsurance agreements:

In January 2017, the coordinating committee met and determined that the proposed terms of these reinsurance agreements for 2017 were fair and equitable to our insurance subsidiaries and our stockholders and fair and equitable to Donegal Mutual and its policyholders. Accordingly, the coordinating committee unanimously approved the continuation of the terms of such agreements and transactions, with non-material adjustments, through the next scheduled annual review during the first two months of 2018.

We refer you to Note 3 of the Notes to our Consolidated Financial Statements we include in our 2016 Annual Report for further information about the reinsurance agreements between Donegal Mutual and our insurance subsidiaries. The intent of these catastrophe and excess of loss reinsurance agreements is to lessen the effects of a single large loss, or an accumulation of smaller losses arising from one event, to levels that are appropriate given the size, underwriting profile and surplus capacity of each of our insurance subsidiaries.

Union Community Bank

We own 48.2% and Donegal Mutual owns 51.8% of DFSC. DFSC owns Union Community Bank, or UCB, a Pennsylvania state-chartered savings bank.

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Because DFSC owns UCB, Donegal Mutual and we, as the two owners of DFSC, as well as DFSC, constitute grandfathered unitary savings and loan holding companies regulated under the Home Owners’ Loan Act, or HOLA. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, or the Board, supervises and regulates grandfathered unitary savings and loan holding companies, including Donegal Mutual, DFSC and us.

No person may acquire control of a grandfathered unitary savings and loan holding company without complying with regulatory requirements under either HOLA, if the acquiror is a company, or the Change in Bank Control Act (the “CBCA”), which can apply to any kind of acquirer, including an individual. The Board regulations under the CBCA establish a rebuttable presumption of control applicable to any person who wishes to acquire more than 10% of any class of voting security of a grandfathered unitary savings and loan holding company that has a class of voting securities registered under the Exchange Act. We are such an entity.

We do not consolidate the financial statements of DFSC and its wholly owned subsidiary, UCB, with our financial statements.

At December 31, 2016, UCB had total assets of $536.2 million, total deposits of $451.2 million and total loans of $349.4 million. UCB had net income of $2.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2016, compared to net income of $2.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2015. Donegal Mutual and UCB are also parties to a customary administrative services agreement. Under this agreement, Donegal Mutual provides various services, principally internal audit, investment, information technology, administrative support, facility and equipment maintenance services and purchasing, to UCB, subject to the overall limitation that the costs Donegal Mutual charges to UCB for these services may not exceed the costs of independent vendors for similar services and further subject to annual maximum cost limitations the administrative services agreement specifies. Donegal Mutual and we also conduct routine banking business with UCB in the ordinary course of business of the Donegal Insurance Group.

The Risk Management Committee

The Donegal Insurance Group maintains a risk management committee that consists of 14 officers of Donegal Mutual, eight of whom are also officers of DGI. The purpose of the risk management committee is to assess and monitor the major strategic, operational, regulatory, informational and external risks that affect the business the Donegal Insurance Group transacts and the internal and external resources of the Donegal Insurance Group for assessing and controlling such risks. The Donegal Insurance Group’s risk management committee meets quarterly, and annually evaluates its performance of its responsibilities. The risk management committee submits reports to our board of directors no less frequently than quarterly.

The responsibilities of the risk management committee on behalf of the Donegal Insurance Group include:

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

Our board of directors maintains corporate governance guidelines to assist the committees of our board of directors in the discharge of their respective responsibilities. Each committee of our board of directors has a written charter that sets forth the purposes, goals and responsibilities of the committee as well as the

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qualifications for committee membership, procedures for the appointment and replacement of committee members, committee structure and operations and committee reporting to our board of directors. Each of the committees of our board of directors, in its discretion, and at our expense, may retain other advisors, including, but not limited to, legal and financial advisors, to assist the committee in the discharge of the responsibilities of the committee as set forth in its charter. You may view the charters of our executive committee, our audit committee, our nominating committee and our compensation committee on our website at www.donegalgroup.com. The charters of the committees of our board of directors provide our stockholders with a description of the manner in which the committees of our board of directors operate.

The Composition of our Board of Directors

Our by-laws provide that the number of members of our board of directors shall not be less than seven nor more than 12. Our board of directors annually fixes the number of members of our board of directors within these limits, and may increase or decrease the size of our board of directors from time to time. For 2017, our board of directors has fixed the number of members of our board of directors at 11. Our board of directors consists of three classes, with the three-year terms of one of the classes expiring at three successive annual meetings and upon each member of the newly elected class of directors taking office.

We constitute a “controlled company” under applicable NASDAQ regulations because Donegal Mutual owns more than a majority of the aggregate voting power of the outstanding shares of our Class A common stock and the outstanding shares of our Class B common stock. As a controlled company, we are exempt from a number of NASDAQ corporate governance requirements, including the NASDAQ requirement that a majority of the members of our board of directors be independent.

The composition of our board of directors is, however, subject to the corporate governance rules of the PHCA. The PHCA requires that the board of directors of a Pennsylvania-domiciled insurance company or of a company that controls a Pennsylvania-domiciled insurance company, such as we do, maintain a committee or committees that undertake certain corporate governance responsibilities. The PHCA further requires that the members of these committees be solely directors who are not officers or employees of the Pennsylvania-domiciled insurance company or its holding company and who do not own beneficially a 10% or greater interest in the voting stock of such insurance company or its holding company. We maintain an audit committee, a compensation committee and a nominating committee whose respective memberships satisfy the requirements of the PHCA.

Pursuant to the PHCA, the committees of our board of directors must annually discharge each of the following responsibilities:

We expect our directors to attend all meetings of our board of directors, all meetings of the committees of our board of directors on which they serve and all meetings of our stockholders. We further expect our directors to devote the time necessary to fulfill their responsibilities as directors. During 2016, each of our directors

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attended 75% or more of the total number of meetings of our board of directors and of the meetings of the committees of our board of directors on which that director served. All of the members of our board of directors attended our 2016 annual meeting of stockholders.

The Committees of our Board of Directors

Our board of directors has delegated some of its authority to the following four committees of our board of directors:

Each of the committees of our board of directors reviews its charter annually.

Our board of directors also maintains a special committee that we discuss elsewhere in this proxy statement.

The following table shows the number of meetings each committee of our board of directors, other than the special committee which did not meet during 2016, held in 2016 and the attendance of the members of those committees at the meetings of the committees on which they served. Mr. Berlucchi, Mr. Burke and Mrs. Gilmartin did not serve as a member of any of the committees of our board of directors during 2016.

The Executive Committee

Members: Messrs. Hess, Kraft (Chairman) and Nikolaus. The executive committee has the authority to take all actions that our full board of directors can take, consistent with the DGCL, our certificate of incorporation and our by-laws, between meetings of our board of directors.

The responsibilities of the executive committee include:

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The Audit Committee

Members: Messrs. Bolinger, Hess, Huber, Mahan and Wampler (Chairman). Each member of the audit committee satisfies the independence requirements of the SEC and the PHCA and is in compliance with applicable provisions of the PHCA and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Each of Messrs. Hess, Huber and Wampler is a certified public accountant and each constitutes a designated financial expert member of our audit committee.

The responsibilities of the audit committee include:

The Nominating Committee

Members: Messrs. Bolinger, Kraft, Mahan (Chairman) and Wampler.

The responsibilities of the nominating committee include:

The Compensation Committee

Members: Messrs. Hess (Chairman), Kraft, Moore and Wampler. Our compensation committee and the compensation committee of Donegal Mutual meet jointly from time to time. The members of the Donegal

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Mutual compensation committee, as of the date of this proxy statement, are Messrs. Berlucchi (Chairman), Michael K. Callahan, Hess and Kraft. Following these joint meetings, our compensation committee meets and makes compensation determinations with respect to the compensation of our named executive officers and our other officers and senior employees.

The responsibilities of our compensation committee include:

See “Executive Compensation Discussion and Analysis” for further information.

The Coordinating Committee

We refer you to “The Relationship of Donegal Mutual and DGI – The Coordinating Committee” for information as to the responsibilities of the coordinating committee and the identity of its members.

The Special Committee

Members: Bolinger, Huber, Mahan (Chairman), Moore and Wampler. None of the members of the special committee serves as a director of Donegal Mutual. The special committee operates under a charter our board of directors established, and, from time to time, reviews stockholder proposals and evaluates other matters from the perspective of our stockholders other than Donegal Mutual. The special committee did not meet during 2016.

The charter of the special committee provides for the following principal responsibilities of the special committee: