A Guide to Nonprofit Insurance

Are You Covered?

Non-profit organizations have a lot of the same insurance needs as regular businesses. If you lease office space, for example, you'll need to consider renters insurance that covers theft and fire to protect any office equipment or furniture that the organization owns.

If you're using a vehicle for operations, make sure you have insurance that complies with the regulations of your province, especially if there will be multiple drivers.

Bond insurance should be considered if you have board members or volunteers working with money. You always hope that you can trust the people wanting to help, but sadly that's not always the case.

If your project involves working directly with the public, you may need liability protection in the event that something unexpected or unfortunate happens.

Special Considerations

As a non-profit, there are a few other types of insurance that may be required.

If your organization uses volunteers, you should think about having them covered as part of your original liability agreement. This protects volunteers if they're negligent while performing duties and a client gets injured somehow.

If there are social workers involved in your operation, you'll need to get what is called Social Workers Professional Liability, which covers any unskilled or negligent act resulting in harm to a client.

It's essential for any kind of facility that has a clinic or other medical operation to get Medical Malpractice insurance to protect against a client's lawsuit in the event of any unfortunate incident.

Nobody wants bad things to happen, but that's no excuse for being unprepared. Having the proper coverage can ensure that your good work can go on, even after an unfortunate event occurs.