Your board is made of volunteers, and ERISA and the state do not care that they are volunteers.
We cover charities, churches and community organizations, including the volunteers who are neither quite staff nor quite public, the board itself, and the abuse exposure that comes with serving vulnerable people.
Tell us the situation.
One licensed human replies the same business day — not five agents, not an auto-responder. If the policy you have is already the right one, we will tell you.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
Send us what you have. We’ll tell you if it’s right.
Your current policy paperwork, a renewal notice, or nothing at all. A licensed agent reads it and replies the same business day.
What nonprofit businesses actually need.
Directors and officers
Claims against board members over governance, finances and employment decisions.
Without it — Volunteer board members are personally exposed and hard to recruit without it.
Abuse and molestation
Allegations involving children, elderly or vulnerable people in your care.
Without it — Excluded from general liability, and the claim that closes organizations.
General liability and property
The premises, the contents, and injury to visitors and participants.
Without it — A building open to the public most days of the week.
Employment practices
Claims by staff and, in many forms, by volunteers.
Without it — Small organizations with informal HR are where these claims start.
Crime and fidelity
Theft of funds by an employee, volunteer or board member.
Without it — Cash handling by rotating volunteers with little segregation of duties.
Workers compensation, including volunteers
Paid staff, and volunteers where the state permits you to elect them onto the policy, which most do.
Without it — A volunteer is not an employee by default, so an injured one has no comp claim and sues the organization instead.
Professional liability
Counseling, case management, teaching, clinical and social services, where the harm comes from what you did FOR someone rather than TO them.
Without it — General liability answers for injury and damage, never for a service that failed the person it was meant to help.
Hired and non-owned auto
Staff and volunteers driving their own cars on your behalf: client transport, deliveries, collections, the run to the venue.
Without it — The most under-bought coverage in the sector: volunteers drive constantly, their personal policies exclude it, and the organization is the deep pocket.
Special events and volunteers
Fundraisers, festivals and off-site activity, plus volunteer injury.
Without it — A volunteer hurt at your event is usually not covered by workers comp.
Business cyber
Donor records, payment details and mailing lists, plus the wire fraud aimed at organizations that move grant money.
Without it — A donor database is exactly the list an attacker wants, and notifying it is the cost that follows.
Umbrella
Excess limits above the liability and auto policies, which grantors and landlords frequently require by name.
Without it — One serious injury at an event or in a vehicle exhausts a primary limit on its own.
The claims we actually see.
Ordered by how often we see them, not by how dramatic they are. Each one names the coverage that answers it — and the policy people wrongly assume already does.
Most common
A staff member sues the board over a dismissal
Covered by Directors and officers, and employment practices
Not the scandal people imagine. Employment disputes are the commonest D&O claim a nonprofit sees, and they are brought against board members personally. Volunteer status is not immunity.
Most common
A volunteer is injured doing something for you
Covered by Workers compensation, where volunteers are elected onto it
A volunteer is not an employee by default, so they get no comp benefits, and their only route to being made whole is suing the organization. Electing them onto the policy converts that into a defined benefit.
Common
Funds are taken by a staff member, volunteer or trustee
Covered by Crime and fidelity
No liability or property policy answers theft by your own people. Cash counted by rotating volunteers with no segregation of duties is the textbook exposure.
Common
A volunteer crashes their own car on organization business
Covered by Hired and non-owned auto
The most under-bought coverage in the sector. Volunteers drive constantly, their personal policies exclude the trip, and the organization is the party with assets.
Rare, catastrophic
An abuse allegation involving someone in your care
Covered by Abuse and molestation
Excluded from general liability, written claims-made rather than occurrence, and surfacing decades later, so a lapse or a reset retroactive date can strand the entire history.
Find the page for what you actually are.
Every one of these is written for that specific operation — the coverages it needs, the questions underwriters ask it, and what it usually gets wrong.
- Human Services Agencies
A human services agency serves people who cannot fully look after themselves: adults with developmental disabilities, children in foster placement, families in crisis, people in recovery. The insurance follows that responsibility. Professional liability covers the care decisions and the case management, abuse and molestation covers the allegation every agency dreads, and the auto policy covers a client in a staff member's passenger seat. The market is a group of specialty carriers who ask detailed questions about supervision, restraint, training and funding, and who price the agency on its answers. We place the package for day programs, residential providers, family services, behavioral health and community agencies, nonprofit and for-profit alike.
- Volunteer Accident Coverage
A nonprofit, congregation, league or event that uses volunteers needs volunteer accident insurance because neither of its other policies pays a hurt volunteer’s medical bills: workers compensation covers employees, and general liability pays only when the organization was at fault. The policy pays the volunteer’s medical costs after an on-duty injury, no fault required, usually as excess over their own health plan, and it is one of the least expensive policies an organization buys.
- Nonprofit Directors and Officers
A nonprofit's directors and officers can be sued personally for the decisions the board makes: a dismissed executive director, a donor who says the gift was misused, a member denied something the bylaws promised, a regulator asking about the finances. Directors and officers coverage defends the board and the organization for those claims, and in practice it is also the employment practices policy most nonprofits rely on, because the most common D&O claim against a nonprofit is from an employee. We place it for charities, associations, foundations, congregations and community groups, and the first question on the application is the one that decides the price: how many employees.
- Social Workers
A licensed social worker faces two kinds of claim: the malpractice suit that says the counseling, the assessment or the referral caused harm, and the licensing board complaint that can end a career without ever reaching a courtroom. Professional liability for social workers is written for both, and the board-defense coverage is the part to read closely. We place it for clinical social workers in private practice, for agencies and group homes, and for the many social workers who carry their own policy alongside an employer's, because an employer's policy defends the employer first.
- Churches & Religious Organizations
We cover churches, temples, mosques and synagogues: the building, the volunteers, the ministry programs, and the abuse exposure that comes with youth and pastoral work.
- Animal Shelters & Rescues
The adopter injured weeks later is the claim shelters do not see coming. We cover that, animal bite liability, foster homes, and the professional exposure that comes with placing animals.
- Food Banks & Pantries
We cover food banks, pantries, soup kitchens and meal programs: product liability on donated food, the volunteers who handle and drive it, and the premises the public lines up at.
- Youth Sports Leagues
Participant injury and abuse and molestation are the two claims that actually arrive, and they are excluded by different clauses. We cover leagues, clubs and youth teams for both.
- Social Services Nonprofits
We cover shelters, counseling agencies, human services and community organizations: professional liability for the help itself, abuse exposure with vulnerable clients, and habitational risk where you house people.
- Arts & Cultural Nonprofits
We cover theaters, museums, galleries, choirs and community arts organizations: public audiences, borrowed collections and works on loan, volunteer technical crews, and performance rights.
- Associations & Membership Organizations
Certification and standards work carries real liability, and so does a disciplinary decision. We cover trade associations, professional bodies, clubs and membership groups, including member data and events.
- Thrift Stores & Charity Retail
A nonprofit policy alone does not cover the trading operation. We add product liability on donated goods, volunteer injury, and the donation door itself.
- Private Schools
We cover private, charter and independent schools: abuse and molestation, board and educators liability, student transport, athletics, and the property itself.
- Daycare & Childcare
Abuse and molestation exposure decides whether a childcare business is insurable at all, ahead of licensing or transportation. We cover daycares, preschools and home childcare.
- Funeral Homes
Some mistakes cannot be undone, which is what professional liability is for here. We also cover the vehicles and the preneed money you hold for years.
- Group Homes
We insure group homes, children’s homes and short-term residential programs. Your funder sets an abuse and molestation limit, and most policies quietly will not carry it. Send us the contract and your current paperwork, and we will tell you whether what you have meets it.
- Hospice Agencies
We insure licensed hospice agencies: professional liability for clinical and comfort-care decisions, the abuse and molestation coverage that in-home care of dependent adults requires, volunteers named as insureds, and the auto exposure of a staff that drives all day.
- Adult Day Care
We insure adult day programs and adult day health care centers. Participant transport is usually the largest exposure, licensing and funders set the abuse and molestation limit, and your tax status decides which carriers will even quote.
- Summer Camps
An underwriter prices four things first at a camp: water, transport, animals and overnight stays. We add participant accident coverage to keep small injuries out of the liability policy, at the abuse and molestation limit parent contracts now require.
- Charter Schools
Your authorizer’s agreement sets the limits, and your board answers to a district. We cover both, plus abuse and molestation for a campus full of children, and we will tell you whether a commercial policy or a pooled program is the better buy.
- Vocational & Technical Schools
Your students practice on the public and your equipment is the curriculum, but the largest claims are about what was promised at enrollment. We insure culinary, cosmetology, design, media, music and technology programs.
- Mental Health Clinics and Facilities
We insure outpatient mental health clinics, counseling centers and community behavioral health programs, covering the clinical work, abuse allegations, client records and board, written to what your license and payer contracts require.
- Domestic Violence Shelters
We insure domestic violence shelters, safe houses and survivor programs, including the abuse, intrusion and privacy exposures, with certificates and endorsements that keep a confidential location confidential.
- Homeless Shelters and Transitional Housing
We insure emergency shelters, navigation centers, warming centers and transitional housing programs, written to the HUD grant terms and city contracts that fund them.
- Affordable and Low-Income Housing
We insure nonprofit housing owners, tax credit properties and supportive housing, with the property, liability and resident services coverage your lender, investors and public funders require.
- Community Action Agencies, Head Start and Weatherization
We insure community action agencies and the programs they run, including Head Start classrooms and buses, weatherization crews in clients’ homes, and the tripartite board, written to the federal rules that fund them.
- Youth Centers, Clubs and Y’s
We insure youth centers, after-school programs, local Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCAs and YWCAs, including abuse and molestation, pools and gyms, vans and field trips, and the board.
- Museums and Cultural Institutions
We insure museums, historical societies and cultural institutions, including the borrowed objects on your walls, the historic building around them and the board that decides what stays in the collection.
- Land Trusts and Conservation Organizations
We insure land trusts and conservancies for the risks easement defense coverage leaves out: visitors on your preserves, volunteers with chainsaws, prescribed burns, property and the board.
- Private Colleges and Universities
We insure small private colleges, seminaries and specialty colleges, from campus liability and residence halls to educators legal liability, abuse coverage for minors on campus, and cyber.
What our nonprofit clients ask us.
Should our volunteers be on the workers comp policy?
In most states you can elect to cover them, and where you can, you usually should. The default position is that a volunteer is not an employee, so an injured volunteer has no comp claim, which sounds like a saving until you follow it through. Comp is the exclusive remedy: an employee hurt at work gets medical and wage benefits and gives up the right to sue. A volunteer gets neither, so their route to being made whole is a liability claim against your organization, argued in public, with your D&O and general liability defending it.
Do we need professional liability if we do not charge for anything?
Payment is not what creates the exposure. Reliance is. If your organization counsels people, manages cases, places children, advises on benefits, teaches, runs a clinic or a helpline, or makes recommendations somebody acts on, then the claim available against you is that the service was done badly and caused harm.
Why does a volunteer board need D&O?
Because volunteer status is not immunity, and the defendants are individuals. Nonprofit boards get claims over employment decisions, misuse of restricted funds, failure to supervise, contract disputes and, where the organization sponsors a retirement plan, fiduciary duty. Some states offer volunteer protection statutes and they are partial, do not cover defense costs, and do not stop the suit being filed. In practice the strongest argument is recruitment: serious board members ask whether you carry it before they join.
Are our volunteers covered if they get hurt?
Usually not, and this catches almost every organization. Workers compensation covers employees, and a volunteer is not one, so a volunteer injured while working for you generally falls outside comp and outside your general liability, which covers your liability to others rather than injury to your own people. Some states allow volunteers to be elected onto a comp policy, and volunteer accident coverage exists as a separate purchase. Decide which route you want before somebody falls off a ladder at the fundraiser.
What do underwriters ask a church or youth organization?
About abuse controls, first and in detail. Background checks and how often they are refreshed, two-adult rules, whether any adult is ever alone with a child, sightlines into rooms, bathroom and transport procedures, overnight trip policies, and how a complaint is recorded and escalated. Those answers decide the limit, the deductible and frequently whether you can be written at all. Organizations that have the policies written down and followed get materially better terms than those that describe good intentions.
We hold a big annual fundraiser. Is that included?
Sometimes, and not reliably. A general liability policy usually covers activities at your own premises; a festival in a park, a gala at a hotel or anything with rides, inflatables, alcohol or a large crowd is often outside it or subject to conditions. The venue will also require to be named. Tell us about the event well in advance: a one-off special events policy is cheap and quick, and it is the single most common thing a nonprofit discovers it needed the week before.
Does a restricted-funds problem count as a claim?
It can, and it is one of the more common nonprofit D&O allegations. Spending grant or donor-restricted money on general operations, even with good intentions during a cash crunch, invites claims from funders, regulators and sometimes the attorney general, and those land on the board. Clean fund accounting is the control; D&O is what funds the defense if somebody says the accounting was not clean.
Commercial insurance is 96% of what we do — it is not a department here, it is the whole business. Not ready to talk? The guides answer the questions this page raises in more depth. Already insured with us and need a certificate or a policy change? Ask the service team rather than starting a quote — it is faster and it goes to the people whose job it is. We also write home and auto, which is usually cheaper alongside the business policy than apart from it.
Handed a lease, a vendor packet or a client contract with insurance requirements? Paste it into the COI Requirements Decoder to see what each one means for your business, or read what the requirements mean.