Charity Public Liability Insurance Guide: Top 3 Things To Know Before Buying
If you’re running a charity, you probably already know that it come with significant legal responsibilities. One of the biggest risks for charities is the risk of causing injury to other people, or property damage, while performing their charitable duties. For instance, charities that cook and deliver meals to the elderly can be held legally liable if one of their food recipients gets food poisoning. This can result in serious legal complications for the charity, particularly if the client falls seriously ill.
Charity public liability insurance is thus a straightforward and affordable way for charities to mitigate these wide-ranging and potentially severe risks. Having a good public liability insurance policy allows charities to perform their duties, without restricting their activities because of a fear of legal liability. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the top 3 things you need to know before you buy charity public liability insurance.
#1. What is charity public liability insurance?
Public liability insurance for charities essentially protects your organisation against legal liability caused by their charitable activities.
Charity public liability insurance covers two main legal liabilities:
- Causing injuries to other people
- Causing property damage
Depending on the exact activities your charity performs, your charity could have greater exposure to one of these two risks (or potentially even both). For instance, if you help to conduct home repairs for low-income families, you run the risk of accidentally damaging their property while performing such repairs or renovations. Your charity can be held liable to pay for these damages.
Charity public liability insurance will pay for the following costs:
- Lawyer’s fees
- Damages awarded by the courts
#2. Why is charity public liability insurance important?
If you get sued for causing injuries or property damage, the cost to your charity is going to be extremely significant. Lawsuits will easily cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, with cases commonly taking years to defend and conclude. The cruelest irony is this: even if you are actually not at fault and end up winning the lawsuit, simply financing a legal defense alone will cost an exorbitant amount of money.
Example 1: Food delivery charity
Let’s say you run a charity that cooks and delivers meals to underprivileged households. If your food causes food poisoning to the people receiving your food, you might very well get sued for causing personal injury. If you don’t have a public liability insurance policy, every dollar of your legal fees and damages awarded will have to come out of your pocket.
Example 2: Home nursing charity
Let’s say you run a charity that provides nursing care to the elderly and terminally ill. Your charity runs a serious risk of causing injuries (or even death) to the people you’re responsible to care for.
#3. How much does charity public liability insurance cost?
| Charity activities (example) | Cover amount (example) | Typical premium |
| Food preparation and delivery | $500,000 | From $250/year |
| Childcare | $500,000 | From $300/year |
| Elderly care | $500,000 | From $300/year |
| Education | $500,000 | From $200/year |
| Medical care | $500,000 | From $250/year |
The above table shows some examples of how much charity public liability insurance might cost you. The examples of charitable activities, and the coverage amounts, are just examples – they are not meant to be exhaustive. Charity public liability insurance premiums can vary significantly based on the nature of the charity in question.
Charities that operate strictly from an office, with limited manual/hands-on medical work done for their clients will experience lower premiums. This might be the case for, say, a charity that simply provides financial assistance to underprivileged households.
Charities that perform more hands-on work for their clients will experience higher premiums. Charities that deliver food to clients have food poisoning liability. Charities that offer medical services have medical malpractice liability and personal injury liability.
Where is the best place to get charity public liability insurance?
Provide’s online platform is the best place to get public liability insurance for your charity. Save up to 25% on your insurance premiums. Because we operate on an online model, our overheads are lower, so we pass every dollars saved back to you.
Get an online quote for charity public liability insurance now.