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Fundraising and ‘friends of’ clubs play a vital role in supporting schools, charities, community groups, and local causes. Whether you are organising events, collecting donations, or managing volunteers, you may be responsible for people, money, and activities that carry risks. Fundraising and ‘friends of’ club insurance is designed to protect your organisation against the unexpected, from accidents at events to claims made against trustees or volunteers.
With specialist cover tailored to not-for-profit groups, Markel Direct helps ensure your fundraising efforts can continue with confidence, knowing your group, its people and its finances are protected if something goes wrong.
Fundraising and ‘friends of’ club insurance is specialist cover designed for voluntary groups that raise funds or provide support for schools, charities, and community organisations. This includes ‘friends of schools’ associations, parent fundraising committees and community led fundraising groups.
These organisations often organise events, handle donations, manage volunteers, and operate under trustees or committee members – insurance is designed to help to protect the club if a claim arises from an accident, allegation, or mistake.
Policies typically include covers such as public liability, employers’ liability, trustee indemnity, and professional indemnity. Fundraising and ‘friends of’ club insurance gives groups peace of mind that they are protected against financial and legal risks, allowing them to focus on supporting their cause rather than managing uncertainty.

An accident during a fundraising event, an allegation of wrongdoing against a trustee or a volunteer injuring themselves while working at a fundraiser could have serious consequences for your organisation. Our specialist fundraising and ‘friends of’ club insurance can provide cover against these scenarios and more, giving you the peace of mind that if something does go wrong, your club will be covered. Many venues, local authorities and schools may also require proof of insurance before allowing events or activities to take place.
Fundraising and ‘friends of’ club insurance covers legal defence costs and claims, safeguards trustees’ personal assets and ensures members, volunteers and the public are protected.
If you have an existing policy with us, please sign in to view your policy documents.
Below you will find examples of the documents provided.
To ensure comprehensive protection against claims, we group our public liability insurance and employers' liability insurance together.
Public liability insurance covers the cost of defending your club or group if someone is injured, or their property damaged, due to your negligence. Without cover in place, the legal fees alone could cost your group thousands of pounds. Cover for £5m.
Employers' liability insurance is a legal requirement if you employ staff or volunteers. It covers against allegations of injury or illness suffered by staff during their employment. If your club or group has employees on a full time, part time or volunteer basis, this cover is essential. Cover for £10m.
Trustee indemnity insurance covers the legal costs and expenses of defending against disqualification as a trustee, investigations or extradition proceedings, protecting the trustee’s personal wealth. If your club or group has trustees, you should give serious consideration to trustee indemnity insurance. Cover from £250k to £1m.
Professional indemnity insurance covers the cost of defending your group against allegations of professional negligence, such as giving poor or incorrect advice to a user of your services.
Entity defence covers your charity against identity fraud, investigations (other than by HM Revenue & Customs), corporate manslaughter and breach of contract. Entity defence is included in your policy at no additional cost when trustee liability insurance is part of your policy. Cover for £25,000.
Property damage insurance covers your buildings, general contents (including stock), computer equipment, tenant improvements and glass (for which you are responsible) against accidental damage (including theft) whilst on your charity's premises. You can also choose to insure your club or group's equipment (such as laptops and mobile phones) on a worldwide basis, and insure against additional trading expenses following an interruption (for example, a flood that means your club or group has to operate from another premises).
Money and personal assault covers loss of money for fixed limits up to a maximum of £250,000 for non-negotiable money (e.g. crossed cheques) and £2,500 for negotiable money depending on the nature of the loss. In addition to this if you, or members of your family, or employees, or members of their family, are injured during a robbery or attempted robbery, we will pay you either £5,000 or £50 per week for 104 weeks (depending on the nature of the injury).
Occupational personal accident insurance helps your group’s volunteers and employees if they are accidentally injured in the course of your activities. It pays a weekly amount for temporary total disablement, or a lump sum if they suffer loss of limbs, sight, speech, hearing, permanent total disablement or death. Limits from £100 per week/£25k lump sum to £500/week/£100k lump sum.
Legal representation and employment disputes protects your group against employment disputes, official investigations and other serious matters, including crisis management, identity fraud, official investigations (excluding HMRC), corporate manslaughter, pollution and data protection issues. Cover for £100,000.
Fidelity insurance protects your group against dishonesty or fraud by volunteers or employees. This could be, for example, if the volunteer who handles your accounts was found to have stolen money from the group’s funds for their own personal benefit. Cover for £50k.
Cyber and data risks insurance protects your group in the event of a targeted cyber attack. It pays the costs of restoring data and equipment, informing clients, meeting ransom demands and loss of your net profit. It also pays your legal defence costs and damages you are legally liable to pay to other parties. Cover from £50k to £250k.
Our insurance is designed to be accessible for not-for-profit groups, with flexible options that allow cover to be tailored to your needs. At Markel Direct, our insurance for fundraising and 'friends of' clubs starts at £3 a month*.
*Price based on a fundraising club requiring £250,000 of professional indemnity and trustees liability insurance.
These frequently asked questions are designed to help you and include questions relating to policy cover, pricing and ‘technical’ terms.
Yes – you don’t need to be a registered charity to get cover for your group. Many of our clients are small charities or community organisations that are new or are too small to be a registered charity.
Yes - the employers' liability and public liability section of the policy provides cover for your volunteers. As long as you purchase this section of cover from us, your volunteers will be covered.
To find out more on insurance for volunteers, read our article here.
Yes - the public liability section of the policy provides cover for charity events (such as fundraising) for up to 500 attendees.
Yes. We cover hundreds of small charities, community groups and clubs that don't have a regular meeting place and instead rotate between different venues, such as members' homes, village halls and community centres.
Established over 25 years ago, we've gained an expert understanding of the risks facing small charities and community groups, and our policies are specially designed to protect you.
We actively support the third sector. Since 2008, we have donated more than £150,000 to our supported charity, Carers Trust, and have supported numerous charity awards including the Third Sector Excellence Awards and Britain's Best Volunteer in partnership with Small Charities Coalition.
We are a division of Markel International, a Lloyd’s and London market insurer that wrote gross premium totals of $2.4bn in 2023. Still not sure? Call us on 0800 640 6604 - one of our insurance experts will be more than happy to answer any questions you have and talk you through the insurance we offer so you can choose the right cover for your charity or group. Alternatively, get a quote now and call us later if anything needs clarifying.
Markel Direct is a trading name of Markel International Insurance Company Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Find out more on the Financial Services Register.
We are a division of Markel International, a Lloyd’s of London market insurer that wrote gross premium totals of £2.4bn in 2023
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