Insurance for Foundations &
Grantmaking Organizations

If you serve on the board of a foundation or grantmaking organization, the risks you carry are personal. Every funding decision. Every dollar managed. Every grant approved. Our program is built around the risks, tailored to how foundations and grantmakers actually operate.

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INSURING NONPROFITS

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ANNUAL COVERAGE

Where Foundation Exposure Really Lives

UNDERSTANDING THE RISK

Most nonprofits face risks tied to programs, events, and people. Foundations don’t. Your work is deploying capital, making grants, managing assets, stewarding donor intent, and your risk lives inside those decisions. That’s why physical exposures like general liability and inland marine are typically modest for foundations. The coverages that matter most are Directors & Officers Liability and Crime Insurance.

Private Foundations

Funded by a single family, individual, or corporation. The board controls distributions, governed by IRS rules on self-dealing and minimum distribution requirements. State attorneys general maintain oversight authority over charitable assets.

Community Foundations

Publicly supported and geographically focused. Often manage donor-advised funds and field-of-interest funds, which creates an additional layer of accountability: not just to the public and to regulators, but to the donors themselves.

Nonprofit Insurance Core Coverages

Two lines of coverage do the heavy lifting for almost every foundation: Directors & Officers Liability and Crime Insurance. Everything else rounds out the program. These two carry it.

Protection for your board

If you sit on a foundation board, you’re personally accountable for how charitable assets are managed and distributed. D&O insurance is designed to respond when someone claims you got that wrong, protecting your personal assets and the institution itself.

Who might bring a claim?

  • Former grantees whose funding was reduced, redirected, or discontinued
  • State attorneys general, who have broad oversight authority over charitable organizations
  • For community foundations: donors alleging their fund was mismanaged or their intent was disregarded
  • Co-founders, board members, or other insiders in governance disputes

Optional Enhancement: Employment Practices Liability (EPLI)

If your foundation has employees, EPLI coverage is available as an add-on to the D&O policy. It responds to employee claims of wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, and other employment-related wrongful acts. Any foundation with staff should carry it. The case for it gets stronger as headcount grows.

More about D&O Insurance

D&O coverage may apply to defense costs, settlements, and judgments arising from covered claims, subject to policy terms, conditions, and exclusions.

If a volunteer or staff member steals from your organization

Foundations hold and move significant amounts of money. That makes them targets, often from the inside. Crime (Bonding) insurance covers direct financial losses from dishonest acts by employees and volunteers, a critical distinction for foundations that rely on unpaid staff, since most generic policies stop at employees.

Coverage Highlights

  • Employee and volunteer dishonesty or theft
  • Forgery and alteration of checks or instruments
More about Employee Crime Insurance

Coverage is subject to policy terms, conditions, and exclusions.

Community Foundation Spotlight: A Distinct Exposure Profile

Community foundations answer to more people than private foundations do. More stakeholders, more potential claimants, more exposure. Here’s where the coverage needs shift.

1

Donor Accountability

When you manage donor-advised funds, donors themselves can bring claims, alleging their fund was mismanaged, improperly invested, or distributed against their stated intent. D&O coverage is the protection that responds.

2

Employment Practices Exposure

Community foundations tend to run larger professional staffs than private foundations. More employees means more employment-related claims, which makes the EPL enhancement to the D&O policy especially worth carrying for this segment.

3

Hired & Non-Owned Auto

Your staff use personal vehicles for foundation business. Standard personal auto policies usually exclude that use. Our General Liability program includes hired and non-owned auto liability coverage to close the gap.

4

Regulatory Scrutiny

As publicly supported charities, community foundations sit under IRS and state charity oversight. D&O coverage may respond to regulatory investigations and related legal defense costs, subject to policy terms.

Rounding Out the Program

Most foundations run lean physically. No program sites, few owned vehicles, modest office space. However, the risks in this section are real and these coverages also offer great protection for nonprofits.

General Liability

If you have an office and hold board meetings, you have premises liability exposure, such as someone slipping at a meeting, or a contractor injuring themselves on your property. Our liability policy covers third-party bodily injury and property damage for office-based organizations, plus hired and non-owned auto.

More about General Liability

Inland Marine / Contents (Property)

If you own computers, office equipment, or other property that you would want replaced if stolen, damaged, or lost, then you need Inland Marine (property insurance). This coverage protects business assets against theft, loss, or damage and coverage extends to items in transit as well as your business property located at an off-site board meeting or event.

More about Inland Marine (Property)

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