Welcome to those who have come here through a referral from the Association of Leaders In Volunteer Engagement. We are happy to be a partner with AL!VE, and look forward to working with you to protect your great volunteers. This page includes information about our unique program, and a link to the application that you can either submit online, or print out to mail with your payment.
When you are ready to enroll your volunteers, please use this application for AL!VE members.
The inexpensive solution to volunteer protection
Sometimes, volunteers have accidents — injure someone, get hurt themselves, or have an auto accident. Usually, their own insurance is not enough to take care of the damage.
Volunteers can be covered by a nonprofit organization’s own general liability policy and (in some states) workers’ compensation policy. There can be problems with this approach, however. Some considerations:
• Should a volunteer have a liability claim during their volunteer assignment, the available limits of insurance under your commercial general liability policy would be reduced, leaving the organization itself with reduced protection. Your claims experience also would be affected, which could result in a rate increase. CIMA’s Volunteers Insurance Service (VIS®) program allows you to protect your organization’s available limits, and its claims experience, too.
• Unless the insurance carrier is willing to remove, or materially amend, certain common exclusions, if you include volunteers as insureds you have eliminated the volunteer’s protection against a claim brought by another volunteer, or an employee. But by removing volunteers as insureds, and instead protecting them through our program, you preserve the volunteer’s insurance protection in this type of claim situation.
• As far as protecting volunteers who drive is concerned, the organization’s own commercial auto policy often provides no protection. In that case, without our program’s excess auto liability coverage the volunteer would have to rely totally on his or her own insurance for liability. Even if volunteers are included as insureds, the organization would be sharing its available limits of liability, and claims experience, in the event of a claim.
The VIS program allows the nonprofit organization to improve its insurance protection by separating the risks volunteers represent, and do it very inexpensively.
Coverages we offer
To protect your volunteers, our program offers the following three coverages separately or combined:
• Up to $50,000 in medical expense reimbursement as a result of a covered accident – at a cost of $4.40 per volunteer per year;
• Up to $1,000,000 in volunteer liability insurance during their volunteer assignment – $2.15 per volunteer per year with a minimum premium of $100;
• For those volunteers who drive during their volunteer assignment, each accident limit of liability is subject to the limits outlined in endorsement VIS219, and will not exceed $500,000 – $7.75 per volunteer per year with a minimum premium of $100.
Total cost per volunteer if all coverages are elected: $14.30 per year.
The only other cost involved is the required annual $140 fee that the organization pays for membership in VIS. (NOTE: State taxes and fees may apply to liability premiums and the membership fee. They are indicated on the application.)
View the policies.
Details on membership in VIS.
Frequently asked questions about our volunteer insurance program.
Forms – Coverage details, information sheet, claim form, sample volunteer roster.
Need more information?
Call us at 800.222.8920, or leave an e-mail message for one of our staff to call you about the program.
Directors and officers liability coverage also available
VIS also offers very broadly written and competitively priced directors and officers (D&O) liability coverage. Click here for more information, and to apply for coverage.