According to a 1988 study by the Insurance Services Office, lawsuits represent less than a third of total liability claims. Nonprofits work to improve the quality of life, not endanger it. Therefore, the organizations that attend to their risks by striving to protect and conserve their resources actively, reduce their chance of being in the wrong group. Many nonprofits are extremely concerned about their volunteers being hurt while working for the agency. A volunteer injury is a risk that an organization should consider, but not to the exclusion of other exposures.
Any volunteer can suffer a debilitating or permanent injury from their volunteer activities.
However, a greater risk may be that the volunteer harms another person, such as a client, another volunteer, or employee. Anecdotal evidence suggests that volunteer injuries are infrequent and minor. Also, volunteers do not appear to get hurt anymore frequently or severely than employees. The low cost of volunteer accident insurance supports these premises. The perception of a high accident rate may exist because the number of volunteer claims may be higher than employee accidents.