Crisis Communications 101 for Nonprofit Organizations
By Rita Yelda, APR
Outreach & Communications Manager, Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed
As we’ve seen with the global COVID-19 outbreak, a crisis can come at any time with little to no notice. A public health crisis, a negative news article, or an angered ex-employee are all situations that can result in negative attention for your organization, if not handled delicately and strategically. Luckily, in the field of crisis communications, the wheel need not be reinvented because lessons in public relations are everywhere. There are tried and true ways to prepare for and adapt to crisis and emergencies that can even potentially make your organization stronger than before the situation began.
First, make sure your nonprofit has a plan in place before any crisis or issue strikes:
Establish a crisis management team that holds regular drills and receives the necessary training.
Develop a crisis management plan that includes a series of “to-do” lists, a chain of command, and the development of informational materials that will be needed (fact sheets, email contact lists, etc.)
Conduct regular crisis research to identify emerging issues with the potential for crisis and try to respond to them before they escalate. This includes paying attention to rumors, setting up Google alerts, and reading comments on social media.
Be prepared to communicate by creating a plan for prompt communications with employees, funders, community members, volunteers, and other key publics.
Along with preparation, there is a right and a wrong way to disseminate information during a time of crisis. Consider who your key publics are and how they will each receive information from your organization. Will employees get an email? And funders get a phone call? As mentioned above, create a plan for who to communicate with and how.
Always remember that your employees, staff, and board members are the community megaphones for your organization. They should always be the first to be informed of an emergency and the steps being taken to address that emergency. Due to their close nature to the organization, if they spread misinformation, it can reflect poorly on your nonprofit.
Be sure to channel all media inquiries to one designated spokesperson who was selected and trained in advance, so that public messaging is uniform. Remember to notify your organization’s receptionist, operators, and others to direct all inquiries to the that designated spokesperson, without giving their own opinions or versions of the situation.
When speaking with the media, always be open and tell the full story. If you do not, someone else will, and you will lose control of the messaging as journalists turn to other sources to fill in gaps. Do not minimize the problem or try to understate the seriousness of the situation, either. Giving the full story upfront stops the truth from dribbling out little by little, creating additional opportunities for negative press headlines.
In your communications, whether internal or external, always demonstrate your nonprofit’s concern for what is happening with the crisis and for those who are affected. At the same time, you can highlight what your organization is doing or planning to do to solve the problem. A word of warning: be careful to not capitalize on the crisis by attempting to get media attention, because this could be interpreted as being self-serving.
As the crisis unfolds at your organization, adaptability is key. Know what success looks like for your nonprofit organization after the crisis or emergency, and then take the steps to get there. The crisis management team may find that adjustments are needed to internal policies at the organization, or that planned strategies for dealing with the situation simply will not work. When the crisis passes, there is another opportunity to assess your organization’s current crisis management plan and make adjustments based on what was learned. Next time, your nonprofit organization will respond to the unexpected even better!