November 27, 2003 | Read Time: 1 minute
Better Safe: Risk Management in Volunteer Programs & Community Service, by Linda L. Graff, helps nonprofit managers identify and control their liability should volunteers be involved in accidents or other trouble while doing charity work. Ms. Graff, president of a nonprofit-management consulting firm in Dundas, Canada, that bears her name, writes that many nonprofit groups rely on volunteers to perform tasks that a decade ago would have been reserved for paid employees. Volunteers also now have more direct contact with the people the groups serve, including frail, sick, and other vulnerable individuals, she says. With this shift, she writes, nonprofit organizations may increasingly have to deal with injuries to clients and volunteers, breaches of confidentiality, and damage to property—all of which might lead to lawsuits or harm to the charity’s reputation. This guide offers suggestions on how nonprofit groups can decide which activities to discontinue or alter, and how they can use waivers, permission slips, and insurance policies to transfer some liability.
Publisher: Linda Graff and Associates, 167 Little John Road, Dundas, Canada L9H 4H2; (905) 627-8511; ll.graff@sympatico.ca; http://www.lindagraff.ca; 200 pages; $25.
