- Conservation Corps/Youthbuild: In the fast-paced, mission-driven conservation corps industry, the intricacies of insurance and bonding and the many variables that influence pricing are often misunderstood. Management often entrusts policies to brokers who often do not understand the range of projects undertaken by corps or Youthbuild organizations, are not familiar with the tools of the trade, cannot fluently explain field activities to carriers, are unfamiliar with AmeriCorps and other national service programs (link to AmeriCorps tab), and who do not represent enough similar organizations to generate volume pricing advantages. Based on Chris Baker’s 23 year career developing conservation corps, Conservation United has developed a full-service insurance and nonprofit bonding program tailored to the unique needs and considerations of the conservation corps industry. Chris offers free basic consultation to conservation corps managers on a range of subjects beyond just risk management and insurance.
- Trail Alliances and Mountain Biking Associations: Organizations that advocate for the development and maintenance of special use or single user trail systems also face unique challenges when represented by insurance brokers lacking direct field experience. Trails organizations use specialized tools such as pionjars/cobras, Swecos, mini-excavators, and griphoists, and should be represented by a broker with in depth knowledge of safety considerations of each. Apart from familiarity with the tools of the trade, Conservation United brings valuable perspective on the implications of working under Cooperative Agreements, Partnership Agreements, and grants as partners to land management agencies. Recipients of federal funding must comply with specific insurance requirements, which are seldom uniform even among various units within the same agencies. Having implemented thousands of federal agreements, Chris Baker has unparalleled knowledge of the exposures and requirements of partners to the federal government, and has been called upon by federal land management agencies to advise on insurance requirements. If your organization serves as one of the hundreds of invaluable nonprofit partners supporting trecreation resource management on our nation’s unsurpassed network of trails on federal, state, or municipal lands, please contact Conservation United to support your risk management and insurance needs.
- Land Trust and Conservancies: Land Trusts and Conservancies overlap with many of the exposures common to other conservation organizations, but with the additional exposures generated from ownership of land, public visitation and recreation, potential disputes over easement boundaries, etc.If your broker is not familiar with workers compensation class codes or package policy rating codes specific to land stewardship, or demonstrates no conceptual understanding of what a conservation easement is, please call Conservation United. We represent a growing portfolio of land trusts and conservancies, with a suite of policies tailored to the industry.
- Wilderness Alliances: Organizations with exposure to remote locations can be difficult to insure unless represented by a broker who can help carriers understand safety precautions and best practices adopted. In the absence of a comprehensive narrative informed by extensive first-hand experience working and coordinating crews in remote natural areas, carriers are reluctant to quote, or add significant discretionary premium across all lines of coverage. Conservation United identifies existing trainings, methods of communication, layers of support provided by the public land management agencies, and other factors that drive an honest narrative of the risks associated with service in remote natural environments. We are familiar with state-specific workers compensation class codes appropriate to wilderness survey and monitoring activities, as well as hands on restoration and general stewardship, aligning your organization with the most accurate and price-efficient ratings.
- Botanical Gardens/Public Gardens/Arboretums: All forms of public gardens share common activities, exposures, and safety considerations with land trusts, but with a much more prevalent exposure to public visitation. Conservation United works with nonprofits that manage botanical gardens and the carriers that represent this unique space to tailor a suite of coverages minimizing exposure to third party liability arising from on premise incidents. As always, Conservation United focusses on helping to connect organizations to training resources and sharing best practice accumulated through constant communication with our portfolio of clients engaged in like organizations to mitigate risk and prevent loss.
- Environmental Education Organizations and Outdoor Leadership Schools: Like many organizations in the conservation sector, Environmental Education Organizations are often penalized in the insurance industry by the assumption of exposure to remote locations, the engagement of volunteers, the use of vans and other large capacity vehicles to transport participants, and engagement of children and youth. Conservation United helps define each organization’s real stakeholders and practices to create coverage tailored and priced to your actual exposures, rather than to a lump assumption of excessive risk.
- Fire Safe Councils and Private Forestry Contractors: Private companies and nonprofits engaged in the critical job of preventing catastrophic wildfire through the implementation of fuels reduction/forest thinning, brushing, support of prescribed burns, etc. face a litany of insurance challenges. Insurance brokers without in depth knowledge of the practices and exposures involved in such work simply cannot exert appropriate control over the application of correct workers compensation class codes, stand little chance of avoiding the assigned risk pool, and offer few options package policies. Conservation United co-founder, Chris Baker, developed the chainsaw training program for multiple conservation corps, achieved USFS chainsaw certification to the B-level, achieved red-card certification through the US Forest Service, served as a Crew Lead for years on fuels reduction/thinning projects, and has participated in both prescribed burns and slash pile burning operations. No broker can represent organizations and companies involved in forestry with anything approaching Conservation United’s knowledge, experience, and credibility. Industry-specific credibility is invaluable in selecting a broker.
- Municipalities: While most cities, counties, and special districts are self-insured, many operate under charters that allow them to seek discounts and insurance support in the independent insurance market. Conservation United works with carriers specialized in supporting general liability, property/auto, and workers compensation policies for cities, counties, and other special districts such as Resource Conservation Districts (RCD’s).
- NonProfit Friends Groups and Alliances: Alliances and Associations serve their membership base by advocating for funding, compiling and sharing best practice, and supporting start up organizations. Their mission is to share resources to maximize efficiency of their specialized member base. Conservation United has developed the “Service United” branch to serves as a resource to any alliance or association seeking consistency, efficiency, and premium discounts for its membership. Our very model is based on aggregating common risks and exposures among multiple organizations with similar activities and risk profiles. Working with alliances is not merely a matter of economy of scale or encouraging bulk pricing discounts. The membership of alliances and associations also provides ideal opportunity to gather loss data across dozens or even hundreds of like organizations in order to provide insurance carriers with a depth of actuarial data to make fully informed decisions. When carriers are fully informed, bias and uncertainty is eliminated from the equation. Carriers who might not understand an industry well enough to accept one organization’s clean loss history as representative rather than as an outcome of good luck will respond positively to a wide view of performance of dozens of similar organizations with continuity of exposures. Working through an alliance or association to develop insurance programs supplemented by risk management solutions creates the consistency that helps insurance carriers understand the industry and set premium at a rate reflective of confidence and comfort in your model. Conservation United specializes in developing tailored insurance programs that associations and alliances promote to your membership.