Torch Briefings

Strategic insurance advisory for nonprofit organizations, boards, and missions.

The 2026 Nonprofit Renewal Is Two Markets — and Most Boards Are Reading the Wrong One

By Ryan MeffordMay 22, 2026

The renewal summary will read like a calm market. D&O flat or down, cyber softening. The schedule of endorsements is telling a different story — hardening SAM, umbrella sub-limits, EPLI exposure, and reviver-statute claims emerging years later.

The Volunteer File the SAM Underwriter Is Now Reading

By Ryan MeffordMay 1, 2026

The hardest line on most nonprofit insurance programs in 2026 is not the line most boards are watching. Directors and officers gets the headline. Cyber...

The Donor-List Breach Is Now a Regulatory Event

By Ryan MeffordApril 20, 2026

The nonprofit donor list used to be the most jealously guarded document in the building. In 2026 it is the most regulated. Multiple state privacy laws, an...

The Board Minute That Decided the D&O Claim

By Ryan MeffordApril 6, 2026

The nonprofit director who reads a D&O claim file for the first time always asks the same question. Where is the board minute that documents the decision?...

The Unpaid Board Member's $35,000 Problem

By Ryan MeffordMarch 1, 2026

Here is a number that should concern every nonprofit board member in America: $35,000. That's the average cost to resolve a directors and officers...

The SAM Coverage Crisis No One Is Solving

By Ryan MeffordMarch 1, 2026

The sexual abuse and molestation (SAM) insurance market is broken. Not stressed. Not hardening. Broken.

The Embezzlement Epidemic Hiding in Plain Sight

By Ryan MeffordMarch 1, 2026

One-sixth of all occupational fraud cases in the United States involve nonprofit organizations. The median loss is $76,000 — for religious and social...

Your Volunteers Aren't Covered the Way You Think

By Ryan MeffordMarch 1, 2026

Most nonprofit leaders believe their volunteers are "covered" by the organization's insurance. It's a reasonable assumption — and it's wrong in at least...

Your Donor Database Is a Breach Waiting to Happen

By Ryan MeffordMarch 1, 2026

Your donor management system contains exactly the information identity thieves are looking for: full names, home addresses, email addresses, phone...

Three Years and You're Gone

By Ryan MeffordMarch 1, 2026

The Pension Protection Act of 2006 added a provision that most nonprofit leaders have never heard of but should fear: automatic revocation of tax-exempt...

When Insurance Becomes a Discipline

By Ryan MeffordMarch 1, 2026

A captive insurance company puts the insured in the driver's seat. That's the standard elevator pitch, and it's true as far as it goes. But it doesn't go...

Good Enough

By Ryan MeffordFebruary 1, 2026

The insurance industry has become a race to the bottom. Cheaper quotes. Faster binding. Less thinking. The brokers who win are the ones who process the...