Volunteer Risk Management

What you’ll learn

• Run the four-step risk-management cycle: identify, assess, control, and monitor
• Score risks on a likelihood × impact matrix and prioritize what to treat first
• Use screening, policy, waivers, and insurance as layered risk controls
• Understand what the Volunteer Protection Act does — and the gaps it leaves open
• Build an incident-reporting habit that turns near-misses into prevention

Course outline

1. 1

   What risk management really means

   5 min

2. 2

   The risk-management cycle

   6 min

3. 3

   The risk matrix: likelihood × impact

   6 min

4. 4

   Screening and policy as risk controls

   5 min

5. 5

   Waivers, liability & the Volunteer Protection Act

   6 min

6. 6

   Insurance: transferring the risk you can’t prevent

   5 min

7. 7

   Incident reporting & monitoring

   5 min

8. 8

   Putting it together: a risk plan that fits on a page

   4 min

Sources & further reading

• Nonprofit Risk Management Center — Developing Risk Management Policies for Your Volunteer Program
• U.S. Government (Public Law 105-19) — Volunteer Protection Act of 1997
• AmeriCorps & U.S. Census Bureau — More than 75.7 Million People Volunteered in America (2023)
• Nonprofits Insurance Alliance — Nonprofit Insurance 101 (D&O, general liability, coverages)
• CIMA (Volunteers Insurance Service) — CIMA Volunteers Insurance — volunteer accident coverage
• LawHelp / D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center — Waivers of Liability for Volunteers of Nonprofits