What is charity event insurance?
Charity event insurance refers to a range of cover types designed to protect your charity event – whether it’s a gala night, celebrity auction or charity walk. These cover a range of possible eventualities like event cancellation, and liability cover for injuries, accidents and loss or damage to property.
Every charity’s different, and depending on your size, purpose and supporters, you’re likely to have unique needs and concerns when it comes to fundraising.
This type of cover strictly applies to events that are being held on behalf of your charity. For the day-to-day of running your fundraising operations, we also offer business insurance for charities.
Do I need charity event insurance?
One of the largest and most rewarding parts of charity fundraising is its calendar of events – both from a reputational and financial standpoint. Whether you’re holding a vintage sale or a music concert, raising awareness as well as funds is always the goal.
If events are a regular part of your charity’s work, the additional security that comes with organising insurance will mean you can focus your efforts on making the events themselves a success.
Do I need public liability insurance for a charity event?
Public liability as part of your charity event insurance covers you and your organisation for the potential costs in defending of actual or alleged injuries to attendees or damage to property during your event.
Public liability insurance for charity events isn’t a legal requirement in the UK, but is likely to be required by the venue.
When should I get charity event insurance?
If you’re planning a charity event and want to make sure you’re protected, you may want to consider taking out a policy as soon as possible. That way, if the unexpected throws a spanner in the works at any time in the build up to your event, that may lead to an unavoidable cancellation, the cover will be in place to help you financially and aid with the costs of rescheduling.
How much charity event cover will I need?
We offer cover up to £10 million for both public liability and employers’ liability. There are various things to think about when it comes to cover limits, such as the size of the venue, the number of expected attendees and any arrangements you may have in place for special guests as well as members of the public.
A craft fair at the village hall is unlikely to require as much in cover limits as an all-day music event, but either way our policies aim to be flexible enough to meet the needs of any charity event organiser.
What’s included in your charity event cover?
There may be all kinds of risk associated with holding a charity event – ensuring it can happen at all whilst meetings the needs of venue operators and attendees alike. Our charity event insurance can help shoulder the burden by providing a choice of cover in the three key areas of risk in events: cancellation and disruption, property damage, and liabilities.
Charity event cancellation and disruption insurance
Calling off an event at the last minute because of circumstances beyond your control carries risks to your finances. This kind of cover, as part of an overall risk management plan, can help provide protection against the worst that may happen.
Key features include:
- Cancellation, abandonment, curtailment, or rearrangement including to another time or place
- Cover available on a full-revenue or expenses-only basis
- National mourning cover included for events where the death or funeral occurs in that country and coincides with the dates of the event (persons under 70)
You can also choose to add the following options:
- Adverse weather cover for events outdoors, or in temporary structures of marquees
- Enforced reduced attendance
- Non-appearance (key featured persons)
- Terrorism extension available
Charity event property cover
A successful event is all about the people who attend. But with people come accidents. Charity event property insurance protects the items you buy, borrow or hire for your fundraising event. This can cover almost anything from furniture to audio-visual equipment to marquees.
Key features include:
- Cover for property owned, borrowed or hired for the event
- Includes transit to, from and whilst at the event, including loading and unloading
- Continuing hire charges cover for hired equipment.
Public liability insurance for charity events
When something goes wrong, you don’t always see it coming. But if someone is injured or their property damaged as a result of your charity event, they might blame you – and you could be held liable. Hiscox public liability insurance ensures you have cover in place if the worst should happen.
Charity event insurance FAQs
Do different types of charity events require different cover?
Not necessarily. While every event may be subject to different cover limits, the core foundations for covering a charity event are consistently the same: the safety and wellbeing of attendees, the protection of the venue and property, and the event proceeding as scheduled. You may need different limits depending on the expected size and scale of the event, but otherwise charity event insurance in this form should provide for the most common eventualities that event organisers may face.
Do I need employers’ liability insurance for volunteers?
In most cases, yes. Although you may not be paying volunteers a salary to work for you, their defined role as representatives of your organisation makes you liable for their wellbeing. If a volunteer becomes ill or injured through their work with you, you may be found liable for a claim.
Revenue from our charity dinner is made up of cover price and donations, how much can I insure?
You can insure for revenue from ticket sales and sponsorship because you will have the records to account for this income if the event is cancelled. However, funds you would expect to raise on the night may be uncertain and are not always insurable. That’s why charity events usually only insure pre-booked revenue.
The exception to this would be for an annual event – for the same cause and at the same venue, with the same audience expectation. Here you could use previous evidence to display your track record for ‘on the night’ fundraising, which underwriters might consider covering a proportion of. Talk to our team about whether funds you expect to raise on the night can be covered for your particular event.