Imagine walking into your nonprofit’s common area to shouting, scuffling, and crashing objects. As you make your way past the stunned and frightened faces, you see that one of your employees is in a fistfight with a parent of one of your clients.
The police arrive, and both men are arrested. Now your team is a mess, your clients are witnesses, and they are saying that your employee threw the first punch.
What do you do?
As anyone who’s worked in customer service knows, disputes can arise when individuals are frustrated or upset, but your nonprofit and your mission depend on your staff’s ability to keep a cool head with an angry client or team member, de-escalate tense situations, and prevent them from escalating into a confrontation.
Let’s explore a scenario of physical assault involving a nonprofit’s employee and discuss some steps and practices you might consider adopting to help your own organization avoid a similar situation.
The Nonprofit:
A nonprofit operated a seasonal youth theater program that worked with children from 8 to 14 to put on live musical performances during the summer months.
Housed in a historic community theater, the nonprofit employed a director, choreographer, music director, as well as a handful of stagehands, set designers, and prop managers.
The Incident:
One morning, the director posted the casting list for the summer’s production to the online portal where the performers and their parents could access it.
That afternoon, during pickup at the end of the day, a parent was upset that their child had not been cast in the part they wanted and stormed up to the director and demanded an explanation.
Witnesses reported the following:
- The parent was speaking loudly and standing very close to the director, face to face.
- The director asked the parent to step back, which only resulted in the parent raising his voice further.
- The director shoved the parent away from him.
- The parent came back at him, and a fistfight broke out.
- Parents and staff members pulled the two apart and police were called.
No major injuries were reported, but both the parent and the director were taken into custody.
The nonprofit’s executive director then gathered signed witness statements, requested cell phone footage of the incident, and created an incident report.
The Legal Action:
The parent filed a lawsuit against the nonprofit and the director, claiming that, by shoving him, the director had assaulted him and initiated the fistfight.
The Coverage:
As soon as the nonprofit was notified about the legal action, they alerted their broker, who began the process of making a claim on the nonprofit’s Improper Sexual Conduct and Physical Abuse (ISCPA) policy with Nonprofits Insurance Alliance (NIA).
NIA’s claims examiners began reviewing the events and circumstances surrounding the incident — including witness statements, police reports, video recordings, and the nonprofit’s records and training procedures.
The Result:
The claims examiners concluded that, since the director had been the first to make physical contact, there would be some likely liability exposure, and the parent could reasonably claim to have been acting in self-defense.
The matter was resolved through settlement discussions.
What Did the Nonprofit Do Right?
In this situation, there were several things that helped this nonprofit be prepared to protect itself.
Incident Reports & Documentation
The nonprofit had longstanding procedures in place around incident reports and recordkeeping. Staff members were trained on these procedures and the nonprofit regularly held refresher sessions.
In this case, as soon the incident occurred, the nonprofit’s executive director knew to document, identify, and gather important details, including:
- The who, what, where, and when of the incident
- Witness statements (and their contact information)
- Video recordings of the incident
- A completed, signed incident report
Doing this quickly, while the details were still fresh, helped NIA establish a clear timeline of events, identify potential witnesses, and review the nonprofit’s actions and processes to spot any potential liabilities.
Quick Activation of the Claims Process
As soon as the nonprofit was notified it had been named as a defendant in the lawsuit, the first thing they did was to notify their insurance broker, who then activated the process of making a claim on their ISCPA policy with NIA.
This was important because it enabled NIA to be involved in the process from the early stages, assessing potential liability around the incident, and preparing to defend the nonprofit — before legal action was even filed.
How Can Your Nonprofit Protect Itself?
Your mission doesn’t change because someone is upset — so you and your staff keeping a cool head in a tense situation, knowing how to de-escalate a situation, and resolve conflicts peacefully is critically important.
Here are some things to think about when considering your nonprofit’s approach to conflict resolution and prevention.
Safety Protocols & Procedures
The last thing you want is for a problem to catch you off-guard and unprepared — so what can help you keep everyone (and your mission) safe?
Here are just a few policies and procedures you might consider as part of your overall risk management plan.
- Conflict Resolution Process: When a new client signs up for your nonprofit’s programs or services, include an introduction to the appropriate way to make complaints or settle disputes as part of the orientation process — and have them (or their guardians, as necessary) sign it.
- Check-in Procedures: Limiting the points of entry and egress to your facility and requiring all clients, staff, volunteers, contractors, and visitors to sign in and sign out can help you be sure that the people on-site are supposed to be there. It can also provide you with an early indication if someone is angry, agitated, or otherwise upset.
- Proper Supervision: Any time clients are on-site, you want to be sure that you’ve got an appropriate number of trained personnel present. This not only keeps your clients safer, but it can also provide your team with witnesses and backup in the event of an incident.
- ‘Three-Person’ Rule: Consider a policy that discourages one‑on‑one meetings behind closed doors. Use a second staff member when feasible. This can help avoid misunderstandings and improve documentation of sensitive conversations.
- Incident Reports: Keeping detailed incident reports can help protect you in a variety of ways. Even for minor bumps and scrapes, be sure your team knows to record:
- What happened
- Who was involved
- Any and all care given
- Who was notified
- Any other relevant details
Review the incident report with the parties involved, have them sign and acknowledge it, and give them a copy.
NIA Resources:
- All nonprofits insured by NIA get free access to My Risk Management Plan — online tools to help you create a risk management plan that reflects your organization’s unique needs, priorities, and culture.
- NIA offers all insured nonprofits access to free risk management consulting services to help them identify and mitigate key risks across their organizations.
The Right Training
You, your staff, and your volunteers are your best lines of defense against a disagreement spiraling into a physically violent confrontation — or your best hope of de-escalating the situation if it’s heading that direction.
Knowing what to do in a situation, and how to keep cool in a heated situation, doesn’t always come natural to everyone. Consider if your staff might benefit from training including some or all of the following:
- De-escalation techniques: Equips staff with practical communication, emotional regulation, and situational awareness skills to calm agitated individuals, reduce tension, and safely resolve conflicts before they escalate into verbal or physical confrontations.
- Conflict resolution skills: Builds staff competence in identifying disagreements early, listening actively, managing emotions, and negotiating fair, respectful solutions that address underlying interests, strengthen relationships, and prevent disputes from escalating into ongoing conflict or formal complaints.
- Mediation training: Prepares staff to serve as neutral facilitators who guide disputing parties through structured dialogue, clarify perspectives, manage emotions, and help reach mutually acceptable resolutions while preserving relationships and minimizing the risk of escalation or formal grievances.
- Recognizing when emergency help may be needed: Train staff to recognize warning signs and follow your emergency procedures.
Screening Your Team
You want to be able to count on your staff and volunteers to keep a cool head when things get heated — so you want to make sure that you’ve got qualified people on your team that are placed appropriately in their roles.
Including reference checks, and (when appropriate) background checks consistent with applicable law, can help confirm qualifications relevant to the role.
Call references and ask about job‑related behavior in conflict situations, and response under pressure.
NIA Resource: To help you be sure you’ve got the right people in the right positions at your nonprofit, NIA-insured nonprofits get a 40% discount on screening services from IntelliCorp.
Documentation & Recordkeeping
Documentation and recordkeeping is relevant for all risks: If questions arise about what happened, clear documentation can help establish the facts.
That’s why it’s smart to document carefully — your processes, your procedures, times, dates, decisions, attendance, client check-ins/outs, incident reports, security footage, and more.
Keeping good records not only helps your team stay more organized, but if your nonprofit ever needs to defend itself in court, your records can serve as proof that:
- You operated responsibly and in good faith
- Your policies, training, and procedures complied with the law
- Rules, policies, and procedures were consistently and equitably applied
- Everyone understood their responsibilities and duties
- Staff acted and responded appropriately
Strong recordkeeping practices can provide you with evidence to present in court, which can help put you in a much stronger position to defend your mission and your good name.
Conclusion
As nonprofits, we all want to do our best for the communities we serve, but you simply aren’t going to be able to please everybody all the time. Eventually, someone — rightly or not — is going to be upset or angry with you.
How you react matters.
When someone is unhappy with you or your nonprofit, getting angry back at them solves nothing — it only makes the situation worse for all parties.
Making sure your team knows how to resolve conflicts peacefully, de-escalate tension effectively, and protect the people in your care is essential to building a reputation of trust with your community.
That means it’s important to treat every person that comes through your door professionally, with kindness, empathy, and respect — even if they’re not always doing the same for you.
From the Claims Files stories are for general information only. They are simplified examples and do not guarantee coverage, a defense, or any specific outcome. Some losses described in this series may not be covered.
Coverage depends on the specific facts and on the terms, conditions, and exclusions in your policy. Contact your insurance broker or agent for guidance, and follow your policy’s claims reporting procedures if an incident may involve a claim.
This story is not legal, medical, financial, or professional advice. In an emergency, contact local emergency services first. Any risk management practices mentioned are general suggestions and may not apply to every nonprofit. Follow all applicable laws, licensing rules, and reporting requirements.
