Nonprofit Volunteers: Understand And Mitigate The Legal Risks

Update volunteer policies to prevent lawsuits. Learn how to limit your nonprofit’s liability.

Volunteers help you accomplish your mission with dedication, hard work, and long hours. They can simultaneously generate controversy and liability.

With the pandemic subsiding, organizations are allowing volunteer involvement to resume in full force. Before reopening your doors to this workforce, you need to update your policies and procedures to protect your nonprofit from harm. Your volunteers may spread COVID-19, cause injuries, or take improper actions toward clients or employees.

Your organization, and you personally, may be liable for negligently selecting, monitoring, or retaining volunteers who cause harm. Some disgruntled volunteers have successfully claimed that they were actually employees and are due wages, back pay, and benefits for two or three years under federal Fair Labor Standards Act requirements.

• What laws and regulations govern the use of volunteers?
• What can make a volunteer or an intern into an employee in the eyes of the law?
• What is your potential liability for negligent volunteer management?
• What policies should you have for volunteers?
• Is your nonprofit liable for acts of volunteers toward others?
• How can you prevent lawsuits by volunteers?