Be Prepared--Insurance and Risk Management are important!

Before each special event organized by my organization, I make sure the event is covered by our general liability insurance. It takes me a couple of minutes to fill out the form and then fax it to my insurance agent. Amazing how this one activity saves my organization a lot of money. I also take Risk Management precautions and do a walk through of the space before the event.

I just read a Nonprofit Times article about an organization Cars for Kids. Cars for Kids organized a special event--a car show for the past 18 years without insurance. Something went wrong with a car at their most recent event--killing 6 people and now Cars for Kids faces many law suites. What disturbs me is simple Risk Management procedures could have prevented this devastating accident. Also, I know insurance costs seem expensive to some organizations, but Cars for Kids earned almost $100k per year, certainly they could have afforded the $1k for liability insurance.