After a year without events, we can all appreciate just how important and effective they are for raising valuable funds for your charity. Events are particularly effective ways of raising funds because they offer the donors a little something in return, some fun or glamour for their donation.

In this blog post we will share our top tips for running a safe event, and why we highly recommend getting insurance to cover your event.

Perform a risk assessment

It’s important that you perform a risk assessment when planning an event, so you can understand and minimise any risks before they happen.

An insurance broker will be able to give you more specific advice depending on the event you plan on executing but here’s some general guidance from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) to get you started:

• Identify the hazards
• Decide who could be harmed and how. Are there any children or vulnerable adults taking part?
• Evaluate the risks and decide on control measures
• Record your findings and implement them
• Review your assessment and update if necessary

Find a good insurance broker

We highly recommend at least speaking to an insurance broker to see what they have to say regarding how risky they think your event could be. They may be able to offer advice on how to lower any risks, as well as help you find the best insurance cover.

A good broker will also be able to help show you how to set up an incident management procedure in advance and make sure everyone knows how to implement it, as well as deciding whether medical care on-site is warranted.

You can’t afford not to

We know the cost of an event will be a big part of your planning process, but one of the best choices you can make when organising an event is to take out specific insurance to cover your charity and those involved should something go wrong.

We all hope you’ll never need to make a claim and that your event is a huge success, but if it doesn’t, you’ll be so grateful that you had the forethought to protect yourself and your charity.

As a specialist charity event insurer, Ansvar has seen claims that show us just how wrong things can go, leading to traumatic and heartbreaking events such as a child losing a limb on a water slide, or death during a sponsored bike ride, where an accident saw a cyclist be crushed under an oncoming car. If something goes wrong at your event, whether it’s malicious damage or an accident, the cost can far outweigh any income you make.

Some further guidance

If you’re looking for more information and guidance on event fundraising, we recommend visiting the Chartered Institute of Fundraising (CIOF) where there are plenty of useful tips and links there to help you keep your event as safe as possible

Do the work now, so you can enjoy your event on the day

Once you have everything in place before the event, you’ll be able to sit back, relax, and enjoy the event, safe in the knowledge that your patrons are protected and you’re covered for any unavoidable accidents.

Sarah Cox is the Managing Director of charity and faith insurance specialist, Ansvar, the sponsors of this piece.

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