Not-for-Profit Insurance
Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane & Canberra

A not-for-profit’s purpose does not fully describe its activities. An organisation may provide support services, run events, sell goods, operate premises and coordinate volunteers within the same year. List the programs actually delivered, the people involved and where they take place. Explain activities involving children or vulnerable participants with appropriate care and detail. Fundraising dinners, outreach visits and practical workshops can present different exposures from office administration. The insurance submission should reflect the work on the ground, including occasional activities that may be important to the organisation even if they generate little or no income.

Identify the legal entities, committees and groups through which the work is carried out. Explain the relationship between paid staff, volunteers, members and contractors. Volunteers may undertake driving, handling equipment, providing advice or supervising activities, and those roles should not be treated as identical. Describe property owned or borrowed, goods held for distribution and funds administered for particular programs. A charity or community label does not establish which people and assets are insured. Ask how the proposed arrangements treat those interests and distinguish public liability, personal accident, management liability and other covers that may be relevant.

Grant and funding agreements can specify activities, reporting, use of funds and insurance expectations. Keep those documents available alongside venue, service and partnership agreements. Identify what the organisation has promised to deliver and what happens if a program changes or stops. A funding body’s request for a certificate does not mean the policy covers every contractual obligation. Ask about assumed liabilities and the treatment of activities carried out jointly with another group. If the organisation relies on a partner’s insurance, clarify the actual arrangement rather than assuming all participants and work are included under the partner’s name.

Governance records can help explain how decisions and spending were authorised. Retain appropriate committee minutes, delegations and financial records, with access arranged for continuity when officeholders change. Employment, safeguarding and privacy issues may need different policy sections and careful review of exclusions. The handling of donor and beneficiary information should be described accurately, particularly where staff use shared platforms or volunteers access records from personal devices. Insurance does not substitute for suitable program management, but a clear account of the organisation’s controls and responsibilities makes it easier to discuss the scope and limits of the proposed arrangements.

An incident report should be usable by the people delivering the program, including volunteers who may attend only occasionally. Explain who receives reports, how urgent matters are escalated and where records are kept. Preserve factual accounts, relevant activity plans and communications while handling personal information appropriately. A participant injury, a complaint about service delivery and an allegation about use of funds may follow different response paths. The person coordinating insurance should be able to identify the relevant policy without making promises about claim acceptance or allowing the reporting process to depend on a single committee member.

Before renewal, review new programs, larger events and changes in funding or service locations. Update the list of assets and any goods held in storage for distribution. Consider what would happen if a key venue became unavailable or the organisation lost access to its membership system. Handover notes should include insurance contacts, policy documents and unresolved matters when officeholders leave. A change in committee can otherwise cause important information to disappear between renewals. The review should connect the organisation’s current programs with its people, contracts and practical dependencies so the cover discussion remains grounded in the work it actually performs.