Risks in relation to volunteers

Risks specifically related to volunteer involvement include:

• Accidents, injury or death of a client or client’s family member, volunteer, paid staff or member of the general public.
• Substandard performance by volunteers resulting in harm to clients, users, participants, or the public.
• Client or volunteer abuse (physical, emotional, financial).
• Volunteers exceeding role descriptions, skills, boundaries or authority.
• Misleading or wrong advice and information given to clients or the public.
• Breach of confidentiality.
• Volunteers inappropriately speaking for/misrepresenting the organization.
• Loss or damage to property.
• Theft, misappropriation of funds, fraud.
• Governance-related risks, including trustee liability.

If any of these risks materialise, they can lead to further risks:

• Damage to organisational credibility and reputation.
• Loss of public trust and support.
• Loss of financial reserves or funding.
• Loss of users, members, paidstaff and volunteers.
• Decreased ability to raise funds or recruit paid staff and volunteers.
• Increased insurance costs or withdrawal of insurance.
• Legal claims.

Clearly, these are all things that any voluntary organisation – long before we ever heard the term risk management – would have wanted to avoid. The newest risk, however, is the last one – being sued. Fear of litigation and of liability is the new element in the mix. Three main types of liability are identified (read next section).