Charity Fundraising Events: Manage Risk and Stay Safe
Many charities are heavily reliant on fundraising, and events are a common way of raising vital money. But how should your charity plan for these events, manage the risks involved and ensure that you are adequately covered by insurance?
Charity events help raise essential funds to support your charity work and spread the word of your cause. However, hosting events does come with risks. These risks depend on numerous factors and that is why thorough event planning and risk management are vital.
The primary risks that you must manage as part of your charity event are:
- Injuries to staff, volunteers, participants or attendees
- Financial loss due to unforeseen circumstances
Your risk assessment should include a thorough review of all the risks related to your event. Remember, you may have to take extra precautions around children or vulnerable service users. In addition, you should identify any high-risk aspects – alcohol provision, on-site transportation or machinery, and sports or obstacle courses – and ensure you thoroughly assess these risks.
Once your risk assessment is complete, do whatever you reasonably can to mitigate and reduce the risks. However, it is impossible to entirely remove all the risks associated with your event. This is where insurance steps in to protect your charity.
If you already have Public Liability insurance, there may be some cover for events already included. You should check your policy wording to understand the breadth and depth of cover provided under your Public Liability. Specialist Charity Public Liability insurance will often provide more cover for events than non-specialist policies and you may be able to host most of your fundraising events with the cover provided by your charity insurance. If not, the cover might easily be added to your existing policy for a small additional premium.
If your policy does not provide adequate cover for the event, you should contact a specialist charity insurer or broker who will help you find suitable cover.
Turning to the second of the main risks, Events Cancellation insurance can protect your organisation from the financial losses occurring from some unforeseen circumstances. The sort of issues that event cancellation will help with include cancellation or postponement due to inclement weather or the cancellation of a key person or speaker. Remember, the weather gets more predictable closer to the event and so the premium might increase the later you take up the cover. Or the event’s cancellation might become uninsurable. So take this cover out early!
If you have any questions or concerns relating to your events, don’t hesitate to get in touch with CaSE Insurance. As charity insurance specialists, we can help you provide the cover you need
Extra Resources
Health and Safety Executive guidance on Managing an Event: http://www.hse.gov.uk/event-safety/managing-an-event.htm