Insurance for organizations that exist to help people.
Societies, charities, community groups and the volunteers who run them. Your board members are personally exposed for the decisions they make.
Build the society file Talk to a broker See what’s coveredReady to quote? Build the organization file: your programs, your board, your funder wording, one question at a time. Build the file →
Liability, directors’ cover, property, abuse and event cover
Charities, societies, community groups and volunteer boards
What programs you run, who they serve, and any funder requirements
What insurance does a non-profit society need in BC?
Three things carry most of the risk. General liability covers anyone hurt at your premises, your events or your programs. Directors and officers cover protects the people on your board, who can be named personally in a claim. Property cover looks after whatever you own or occupy. If you run programs involving children, vulnerable adults or physical activity, abuse and participant liability need to be looked at deliberately rather than assumed.
A single liability claim can end a small society outright. The organization has no reserves to absorb it, and the directors who volunteered their time can be named personally in the same action. The Province of BC is clear that a society stands on its own: “Societies are independent, democratic organizations that are required to comply with the Societies Act and their own constitution and bylaws.” Its own duties, its own liability, its own insurance. Read the Province on not-for-profit organizations (opens in a new tab).
Being a volunteer does not reduce the exposure. It only means the person carrying it is not being paid.
Cover shaped around how you actually operate.
Property and contents
Your building or unit, equipment, donated goods and anything stored for a program.
Abuse liability
For organizations working with children, youth or vulnerable adults. Frequently excluded elsewhere and specifically underwritten.
Volunteer and participant cover
People helping you are not employees, and the way they are covered has to be arranged rather than assumed.
Events and fundraisers
Galas, markets, runs and street festivals, including the certificate the venue or the city will demand.
Three things boards get wrong.
None of these are unusual. All three turn up in claims against small societies every year.
Assuming volunteers are covered
Volunteers are not employees, so WorkSafeBC and your liability policy treat them differently. It needs checking, not assuming.
Grant conditions nobody read
Funders and municipalities often require specific limits and to be named. Send us the agreement rather than guessing.
Yes, budget is the constraint. Here is how we handle that.
We would rather tell you what to cut than sell you everything.
Most societies are working with money raised a hundred dollars at a time, and every premium dollar is a dollar not spent on the work. So we start from what would actually end the organization, usually a liability claim or a board claim, and we build outward from there.
Where a cover is nice to have rather than necessary for your situation, we will say so. That is a better long-term relationship than a policy you resent every year.
How this can play out.
A volunteer at a community event trips a guest carrying hot drinks. The society has no liability cover because the budget went to programs. One claim ends an organization that took fifteen years to build.
Organizations across the Lower Mainland.
We also arrange cover for supportive and social housing operators, a class many insurers will not quote at all.
Where non-profit cover gets tested.
A society’s policy assumes the organization runs the way its constitution says. The gaps appear where volunteers, events and money move faster than the paperwork.
The event that outgrew the certificate
Cover set up for a hall and two hundred people does not stretch to the stage and beer garden added last week. The venue’s certificate wording is the checklist.
Volunteers doing staff work
Drivers, food handlers, people working at heights: volunteer roles carry real exposures. Wordings can treat undeclared work differently from the bake table.
Minutes that stop at the vote
Directors and officers cover leans on the record. A board that wrote down the vote but not the homework hands a plaintiff the silence.
Grant conditions promised, not met
Funders write insurance demands into agreements: limits, named parties, abuse cover. Signing without matching the policy is a quiet breach, and the money is already spent.
One evening a year, match the policy to the event calendar and the funder agreements, before the season starts, not after the incident.
What boards and executive directors ask us.
Do volunteer board members really need insurance?
Yes. Directors can be named personally in claims about decisions the board made, and serving without pay does not change that. The cost is set against what it protects, so ask for the number before you decide.
Are our volunteers covered if they are injured?
Not automatically, and not in the same way employees are. Volunteers sit outside WorkSafeBC coverage in most cases, so how they are protected needs to be arranged deliberately.
Our funder requires specific insurance. Can you match it?
Send us the funding agreement. Grants and municipal agreements usually specify limits and require the funder to be named, and the wording is precise.
We work with children. What do we need?
Abuse liability needs to be addressed specifically, and insurers will ask about your screening, supervision and two-adult policies. Those questions are worth answering well. They improve both your terms and your practice.
We only run two events a year. Is an annual policy worth it?
Sometimes not, event-by-event cover can be the better answer for an occasional organization. We will tell you which is cheaper for your situation rather than defaulting to the bigger policy.
Can you help a society that has been declined?
Yes. Habitational and social-service organizations are among the hardest classes to place, and it is work we do. Send us the letter.
Not the question you had? Build the society file and set out your own situation in plain words. A licensed broker reads it and replies in writing.
The questions behind the questions.
Tell us what your organization does.
What you run, who it serves, and what any funder or landlord requires of you.
WE WILL TELL YOU WHAT YOU CAN SAFELY GO WITHOUT
Running a fundraiser or gala? event insurance covers the certificate the venue will ask for.
Societies handling donations and grants are exposed here. crime & employee theft.
Boards asking about directors cover can build the file in a few minutes: the board questions are already in it. Start here →