Holiday Event Planning and Volunteer Safety: Where the Risks Hide in Seasonal Programs

A corporate team of 12 spends a Saturday sorting toys for a toy drive in a warehouse your organization borrowed for the season. One volunteer, who never received an orientation, lifts a boxed bicycle alone and strains his back. Holiday programs bring in new people, new tasks, new spaces, and food service at the same time, and each change carries risks the regular program doesn’t. Plan for those changes, and confirm how your volunteer insurance applies to them, before the first shift. 

Who Volunteers During Holidays, and What Do They Know?

Holiday programs draw one-day corporate groups, families, and first-time volunteers who never attended a full orientation. A volunteer who skips orientation doesn’t know the safety rules for the task or whom to ask for help, so he or she improvises. An improvised lift or climb can end in an injury. 

For a one-day group, compress orientation into a briefing at the start of the shift. Cover the tasks, the safety rules for each one, the hazards in the space, and whom to report to. Then assign one experienced volunteer or staff member to each team. VIS recommends having veteran volunteers train new ones. A team lead also gives a new volunteer someone to ask before improvising. Build the briefing into your onboarding process for seasonal volunteers.

Short service doesn’t remove the need for background checks for volunteers who work with vulnerable clients, drive vehicles, or handle money. A gift shop for children, home deliveries to clients, and cash collection at a holiday event all put volunteers in those groups, even for one day. Run the same background checks you use for the regular program, so the organization can show it screened every volunteer it placed in those roles. If the organization skips the check and a volunteer harms a child or client, the organization may be held liable for the harm.

VIS partner Sure Check Background Screening guarantees to provide its services to VIS members at a rate 10% lower than the rate it offers any non-VIS organization, and continues that discounted rate as long as the VIS member remains a client of Sure Check. Click here to access the Sure Check page for VIS members. (Current VIS membership is confirmed before the discounted rate is applied.)

Where Do Volunteer Injuries Hide in Holiday Programs?

Once volunteers arrive, the tasks themselves differ from the routine. Donations may be heavy, decorating puts volunteers at height, and borrowed spaces have hidden hazards, all of which can lead to injuries. Each injury prevented keeps a volunteer healthy and avoids an accident claim. Plan each task before the shift:

• Heavy and bulky items: Teach volunteers to lift with their legs, not their backs, and limit loads to what one person can lift safely. Assign two volunteers to bulky items, and provide hand trucks, dollies, or other materials-handling equipment.
• Stairs: Volunteers should keep one hand free for the handrail and take two trips with smaller loads rather than carrying anything that requires both hands.
• Decorating: Provide ladders or step stools so volunteers don’t stand on chairs or tables.
• Borrowed or temporary space: The regular occupants know where the hazards are, but your volunteers don’t. Walk the space before the first shift. Clear boxes, clutter, and extension cords from walkways, and check for poor stairway lighting, loose handrails, and other trip hazards.

At the toy drive, a second volunteer and a dolly would have split the weight of the boxed bicycle, and the volunteer who lifted it alone might have avoided the strain.

What Risks Do Holiday Programs Create for Guests and Clients?

The season’s risks also affect guests and clients. A holiday meal can include dishes that volunteers cooked at home, then drove to the event and kept warm or cold until serving time. Each step gives bacteria time to grow if the food sits at the wrong temperature. FoodSafety.gov’s guidance for events and seasons advises holding hot food at 140°F or above and cold food at 40°F or below. It also advises discarding perishable food left at room temperature for more than two hours. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) covers the same steps for volunteer cooks in its guide Cooking for Groups: A Volunteer’s Guide to Food Safety. Share the guide with every volunteer cook before he or she prepares a dish.

Because a holiday meal passes through several volunteers’ hands, assign one person to own temperature control from drop-off to serving. Give that person a food thermometer and the authority to discard any dish that falls outside the safe range. If a guest becomes ill or is burned by a hot dish, the allegation can name the volunteer who prepared or served the food, and that volunteer will need a defense.

Holiday deliveries add a driving exposure. Every volunteer who delivers gifts or meals in his or her own car needs the same background check as a regular volunteer driver, including a current motor vehicle record and proof of personal auto liability insurance. 

How Does Volunteer Insurance Apply to a Holiday Program?

Planning reduces the season’s risks, but a volunteer can still get hurt or face a claim. VIS volunteer accident insurance covers volunteers who are injured while volunteering. The volunteer who strained his back at the toy drive is an example.

VIS volunteer liability insurance defends volunteers against allegations of bodily injury or property damage, such as a claim that a volunteer knocked over a display and injured a guest. For delivery drivers, VIS excess automobile liability insurance provides up to $500,000 above a volunteer’s personal auto policy, which pays first.

How the organization insures its volunteers affects its own coverage, too. Volunteers insured under the organization’s own liability policy share its limits, so a volunteer’s claim from a holiday event reduces the protection left for claims against the organization. Insuring volunteers separately keeps those claims off the organization’s limits. (For more information about the value of insuring volunteers separately, also see our videos in the “Watchables” section on the VIS home page.)

Plan for the Season Before the First Shift

Holiday risks come from the season’s changes: who shows up, what they lift, where they work, and what guests eat. Before the first shift, match each change to its planning step. Brief new volunteers and assign team leads, screen volunteers in sensitive roles, provide lifting equipment and two-person carries for heavy donations, walk every borrowed space, name one owner for food temperatures, and complete a driver file for every delivery driver. Then confirm your volunteer insurance covers the season’s volunteers and drivers.

Plan for the season’s new volunteers, tasks, and spaces before the first shift. To protect your volunteers with VIS volunteer accident and liability insurance, click “Get volunteer insurance now” on the VIS home page or call 800.222.8920. For details about the specialized volunteer insurance VIS offers, click the “VIS is…” tab at the top of the page and scroll down to the FAQ section.

VIS members enjoy 24/7 access to the “VIS Vault” of risk-management resources, including dozens of “Preventer Papers” addressing injury prevention and vehicle safety. These documents are very useful for small-group safety training or for giving to volunteers individually. Find VIS vendor partners and other member resources under Member Benefits.

About the Author

William R. Henry, Jr. is Vice President and Director of Member Benefits at Volunteers Insurance Service Association, Inc. (VIS), where he leads membership development and delivers risk management solutions tailored to volunteer-based organizations nationwide. A recognized authority on volunteer risk management, he is a frequent speaker and author on best practices for safe and effective volunteer engagement. He is accredited by the International Association of Business Communicators. With a background in communications, journalism, and public affairs, Henry brings a strategic perspective to supporting nonprofit organizations across the United States.

About VIS

Volunteers Insurance Service Association, Inc. (VIS) is a membership organization serving more than 3,500 volunteer-based nonprofit organizations and public entities nationwide. VIS is the only association that offers these three insurance programs designed specifically for volunteers: volunteer accident, volunteer liability, and volunteer excess automobile liability.

If you are interested in protecting your volunteers through the unique VIS insurance program, please click on the “Get volunteer insurance now” link on the home page, or call 800.222.8920. For more information on VIS’s risk-management resources for members and our vendor partners, click on the “Member Benefits” tab.