Your organization provides valuable services in the community. And you want to be able to continue to provide these services without jeopardizing your organization with high risks. The fact is legal claims involving a wide variety of legal issues against nonprofit organizations have increased considerably in the United States—lawsuits are common. Your organization, your volunteers, and your board must be protected from legal liabilities through adequate nonprofit insurance. Actions, inactions, and negligence caused by you, your organization, employees, directors, officers, or volunteers can cause harm to others or their property. Ensure that you’re appropriately protected with the right coverage. Here’s why.
You Could Damage Someone’s Property or Accidentally Hurt Someone
No matter how carefully your employee or volunteers are, they could potentially damage a person’s property or accidentally cause physical harm. Commercial General Liability is the first place to start when it comes to nonprofit insurance. It covers medical expenses and legal fees if members of your organization hurt someone and it also covers the cost of repairs to damaged property.
Someone Could Crash
If your nonprofit organization owns vehicles then you need them to be covered with Commercial Auto Coverage, which is essentially the same as the insurance you purchase for your own personal vehicle. This will cover you for liability for damage to other vehicles, property, or injured drivers when you’re at fault, and possibly for physical damage of the vehicles owned by your organization. No one expect to get into a car accident, but it happens, and you should be protected through this nonprofit insurance.
In addition, if your volunteers or employees use their own vehicles on behalf of your nonprofit organization, then you should purchase Nonowned Auto Liability Insurance to protect yourself if other people involved in the accident come after your organization for damage or medical costs.
Errors and Omissions Happen
Social Service professional Liability coverage is a type of nonprofit insurance that should be purchased by nonprofit organizations that offer professional or peer counseling activities. It will protect you from negligence and errors or omissions.
Your Board of Directors Isn’t Perfect
From time to time, your board of directors might make the wrong decisions or take wrongful actions. Directors and Officers Liability insurance can help you protect your organization and your board members from these intentional acts. A policy should include broad coverage for all types of employment-related actions, such as failure to hire, discrimination, harassment, and wrongful termination. Chances are your directors and officers aren’t employment experts, so there’s a high risk that such a mistake will occur, and if you are sued because of it, you want to be protected.
People Steal
You don’t want to think that your employees or volunteers would steal from your nonprofit organization, but it does happen. Some people will take advantage if given the opportunity. Fidelity coverage can offer you a source for recovering funds that were embezzled by dishonest employees.
Your Workers Could Get Hurt
No matter how careful your students, volunteers, and participants are, accidents happen. And if you’re not covered for them, you’ll be on the hook for the medical costs. Student/Volunteer/Participant Accident Coverage provides limited coverage for injury to these types of workers on a no-fault basis.
The Volunteer Protection Act Doesn’t Fully Protect You
Even if you’re covered by the Volunteer Protection Act, you should still purchase nonprofit insurance. This Act has many limitations to the immunity that the laws provide, such as the exclusion of protection for willful volunteer acts, for claims involving a vehicle, for claims alleging a violation of the civil rights law, and for claims involving a volunteer that doesn’t have liability insurance. It’s important to realize that these exclusions exist and that they represent a large percentage of the claims filed against nonprofits in the United States. Purchase nonprofit insurance to ensure that your organization and its members are adequately protected.
