4 Reasons Your Youth Sports Board Needs D&O Insurance

Every youth sports board makes decisions that affect kids, families, and money. You volunteer your time to serve on the board of a youth sports league. You show up to meetings. You help make decisions about budgets, schedules, and policies. You do it because you care about the kids in your community.

However, here is something most board members never think about. If someone sues the organization over a decision you helped make, your personal assets could be at risk.

That is where Directors and Officers (D&O) insurance comes in. While it is not the most talked-about coverage in youth sports, it is one that every youth sports board should understand. At Bene-Marc Youth Sports Insurance, we have been protecting youth sports programs since 1973, and we have seen how D&O coverage can make the difference between a manageable situation and a financial crisis for volunteers.

D&O insurance protects the individual board members, officers, and directors of an organization against claims arising from the decisions they make in their leadership roles. In other words, this is different from general liability, which covers bodily injury and property damage. D&O specifically addresses allegations of mismanagement, breach of fiduciary duty, wrongful termination, discrimination, and other claims related to organizational governance.

Think of it this way: general liability protects against what happens on the field. D&O protects against what happens in the boardroom.

First, most youth sports organizations are nonprofits, and most board members are volunteers. But being a volunteer does not make you immune to a lawsuit. If a disgruntled parent, former coach, or vendor sues your organization over a decision the board made, the individual board members named in the lawsuit could be personally responsible for legal fees and damages without D&O coverage.

In other words, your personal savings, your home, and your assets could be on the line, all because you volunteered to help run a little league. For a closer look at how coverage protects volunteers, see our post on how youth sports insurance covers volunteers.

Next, youth sports boards handle money. Registration fees, sponsorship funds, equipment purchases, facility rentals. When you are managing a budget, even a modest one, there is always the chance that someone will question how the money was spent.

D&O coverage protects board members if they are accused of financial mismanagement, even if the accusation is unfounded. After all, the cost of defending yourself against a lawsuit can be significant, regardless of the outcome.

Moreover, good board members are hard to find. And once people learn that they could be personally exposed for the decisions they make as volunteers, many of them walk away. D&O coverage sends a clear message: we protect the people who protect our kids.

If you want to attract experienced, community-minded leaders to your board, showing them that D&O insurance is in place is a meaningful way to demonstrate that your organization takes governance seriously.

Finally, many youth sports organizations skip D&O coverage because they assume it is expensive. In most cases, it is a small addition to your overall insurance package. Considering what it protects, your volunteers, your board, and the personal assets of the people who keep your program running, it is one of the best investments a youth sports organization can make. New to insuring a program? Our step-by-step guide on how to insure a youth sports team walks through the basics.