Manage risk responsibly.
In writing this blog today, I might be accused of closing the barn door after the horse has left. But all of the warnings for Hurricane Irene coupled with the latest nonprofit embezzlement scandals seemed to cry out for a reminder about preparing for potential risks to your nonprofit organization.
While you can’t avoid every risk or foresee everything that could go wrong, you can take a thoughtful approach to planning for risks that could imaginably happen — and some of the one you couldn’t imagine .
A handy resource is The Nonprofit Risk Management Center, which has a free newsletter published three times a year, a library of free articles and other tools you can purchase.
According to the Center, you can start preparing for risk by 1) completing an inventory of what might go wrong, 2) planning for how you’ll prevent or respond to that potential harm and finally 3) safeguarding your organization from financial ruin in the event something bad still happens.
The Center groups the risks you should inventory into four categories:
- People
- Property
- Income
- Goodwill
Your insurance company, the Nonprofit Risk Management Center, and even professional associations like the Public Relations Society of America can be instrumental in helping you figure out what to worry about (as if we don’t have enough worries already) and how to implement adequate safeguards.
You can get started by taking the short tutorial on the Center’s website.
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Thank you for sharing information on a powerful, helpful resource, Gayle. Planning for key things that may go wrong CAN truly make things just a bit easier if they actually happen.
The Institute of Internal Auditors also offers some good resources (http://www.theiia.org/guidance/standards-and-guidance/). Internal audit is all about minimizing risk, so the standards are helpful to review.
Oh, I don’t think it’s too late to close the barn door! Every day is a new chance for something to happen to anyone of us. The better prepared an organization is to handle and manage risk, the more they are securing their future.
Thanks for sharing this great resource!
Sandy