Small charity insurance

The cost of your small charity insurance will depend on a number of factors, so Zurich will need to know a bit of information about your organisation and its activities before providing a quote, such as: 

• What’s your charity’s annual turnover? 

• What services does your charity provide? 

• How many staff, volunteers and service users does your charity have? 

• How many events does your charity run each year? 

• Does your charity have any assets, such as money or property? 

• Does your charity carry our regular risk assessments*, training programmes and inspections? 

• Who manages your organisation? 

• Do your staff or volunteers have contact with at-risk children or adults? 

*Remember, you’ll need to retain your risk assessments for evidence in the event of a claim. Visit the Health & Safety Executive website if you need guidance on how to complete effective risk assessments. 

If your organisation has an income under £100,000, get an instant online quote with Zurich here. 

If your needs are slightly more complex, simply request a quote with us and our specialist charity team will get in touch to discuss your requirements. 

Small charity insurance with Zurich can include the following covers: 

• Public liability insurance 

• Employers' liability insurance 

• Material damage cover 

• Business interruption insurance 

• Directors’ and officers’ insurance (including trustees indemnity cover) 

• Works in progress (“all risks”) cover 

• Hirers’ liability 

• Libel and slander 

• Professional negligence 

• Financial and administration liability 

• Personal accident 

• Legal expenses and more 

Get an online small charity insurance quote with Zurich here.

Sadly, it’s not uncommon for people to injure themselves or cause damage to third party property. 

Therefore if you’ll be engaging with the public or running events as part of your small charity’s activities, it may be sensible to have public liability insurance in place to protect your organisation from potentially costly third party compensation claims. 

In the same way as a business, charities and not-for-profits also have a duty of care to staff, volunteers and clients to ensure all activities are conducted responsibly to mitigate unexpected accidents. If your organisation is in breach of this duty - and as a result injury or damage is caused - then any injured party could make a claim against your organisation for the damages. 

Find out more about public liability insurance for small charities here.  

Employers' liability insurance protects charities from financial losses if an employee injures themselves, damages their property or contracts an illness at work and files a compensation claim against the organisation. 

For example, an employee slips in a puddle of water and injures themselves while working because there were no wet floor signs, or develops repetitive strain injury (RSI) because they didn’t have the correct computer safety equipment. 

Regardless of whether you’re a small charity or large organisation, if you employ staff it’s a legal requirement to have employers’ liability insurance in place – and you could be fined £2,500 every day you are not properly insured. 

This applies to anyone where there is a contract of employment in place, whether it is spoken, written or implied, including: 

• Full-time staff 

• Temporary and part-time staff 

• Work experience and apprentices 

• In some instances, volunteers (sometimes volunteers are covered by your public liability insurance) 

Not only will employers’ liability insurance provide cover for compensation payments and your employee’s medical expenses, but it will also cover any related legal fees and costs. 

Visit the government website to find out more about your charity’s legal obligations. 

Trustees have a legal duty to act in a charity’s best interests, especially in relation to their assets, resources, service users, staff and volunteers. 

While small charity insurance itself is not technically a legal requirement, there may be elements of cover that your charity is legally obligated to have – such as employers’ liability insurance.  

Therefore it’s important to properly assess the risk associated with your charity to make sure you’re fulfilling both your duty of care, and your legal obligations.  

Get an online small charity insurance quote with Zurich here.