Insure a Church or Temple

How to Insure a Faith-Based Organization

January 6, 2025

Manitoba’s faith-based organizations face specific risks from keeping their members safe to potential liability cases related to the services they provide. Faith-based insurance for churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples protects your people, your services, and your religious organization’s buildings.

Your faith-based insurance should be customized to fit your religious organization’s needs.

What is faith-based insurance?

Faith-based insurance for Manitoba’s churches, religious orders, and faith organizations protects them financially against third-party injuries (congregation members for example) or property damage, lawsuits, theft, fire, vandalism, abuse, and cyberattacks.

It is insurance coverage tailored to your faith community, your staff, volunteers, visitors, your reputation, and your property.

Do faith-based organizations need commercial property insurance?

Yes, it is strongly recommended. Commercial property insurance is designed to protect your Manitoba faith-based organization and its contents from unexpected event such as fire, theft, vandalism, and windstorms.

Commercial property insurance also covers the building’s contents such as computers, furniture, tools, equipment, and inventory.

Do religious organizations need what’s known as slip and fall insurance?

Yes. This type of insurance is called commercial general liability (CGL) insurance.

CGL, or slip and fall insurance, protects your Manitoba place of worship from third-party property damage or claims of bodily injury, such as a parishioner who slips and falls n church property and is injured.

If your place of worship were sued, CGL insurance would cover the legal costs to defend the claim in court, as well as costs to cover damages to compensate third parties.

What kind of risks does commercial general liability insurance help cover?

Injury to a third party who is not your employee
Damage to someone’s property
Damage to rented property
Medical bills if someone is injured
Legal costs and settlement costs of liability lawsuits filed against you
Liability lawsuits related to slander and libel

Without CGL insurance, your religious institution would need to pay any claims on its own.

Does my church’s board of directors need to be protected with insurance?

Directors and Officers (D&O) liability insurance protects your place of worship’s board of directors financially against claims of negligence.

Without the protection of D&O insurance, there could be a severe financial impact to your church, synagogue, mosque, temple, or other place of worship.

Directors and officers insurance protects board directors, officers, trustees, employees, volunteers, and ministry personnel for their personal liability due to actual or alleged breach of duty, errors, or misstatements in their responsibilities.

How much insurance should a religious organization have?

The answer is enough to protect your worshippers, staff, buildings, and services no matter your location in Manitoba.

How much is enough? It depends on your faith-based organization’s budget and risks.

You should make sure that your religious organization has enough insurance to help protect it against financial risks such as lawsuits and for insured perils such as fire and vandalism.

it’s also important to consider how much money can be spent annually on insurance coverage.