How to Mobilize in Times of Crisis

When something unexpected happens – from a tragic event in your community to a natural or environmental disaster – it’s important to know how your nonprofit organization should react. Because a crisis can happen anywhere at any time, you must have a plan for how to respond.

While the nature of the crisis situation, proximity to your location, and relevance to your nonprofit can impact how you respond, one thing is certain: You need a plan. Setting a response plan before a crisis will help you better prepare and make a difference in your response. It ensures you know what to do, who on the team to mobilize, and leaves no questions about your organization’s role.

Here, we’ll look at how to mobilize your nonprofit in times of crisis with actionable steps and tips for creating a plan for what-if situations.

Assemble a Task Force

Time is of the essence in any crisis. This is also true of a situation that doesn’t directly involve your organization but that you plan to respond to in some way.

Before a situation arises, assemble a task force to create your crisis plan and serve as points of contact when needed. Depending on the type of crisis plan you are working on, you may have different task force groups for different situations. Commonly, there’s a group that deals with crises related to the organization and another that handles crises that you’ll respond to but may not directly impact your mission.

A task force is often a small group of 12 people or less, including board members, current staff, volunteers, and even outside help, such as a marketing or public relations agency.

The task force is responsible for putting together a rapid-response plan. While you should have a plan outline in place, the group should convene as soon as possible after an event to decide how quickly to respond and in what way. This could include anything from acts of service to help in a situation, providing financial assistance, and how to respond online and on social media.

Your plan should be communicated to the rest of the team. It’s a good idea to send the plan out annually to remind staff, board members, and volunteers about their roles and what to do. It is equally important to communicate the plan again and ensure everyone understands what to do if a crisis happens.

Before any crisis plan is launched, it is important to make sure it is safe for your team to act. Understanding when to respond is an important element of planning and ensures your actions are helpful.

Maintain Trust and Transparency

During a crisis, your organization’s communication is pivotal in maintaining trust with supporters and the community. All communications must be clear, timely, and aligned with your mission.

You can do a few things to remain authoritative, helpful, and trustworthy in a crisis situation.

Craft an Informative Message

Start by providing a status update. Let your audience know how your organization is doing, how the community you serve is impacted, and what steps are being taken. Use specific data to paint a clear picture, and always offer solutions or actions supporters can take to help.

Respond Quickly

People look for guidance and information in an emergency. While it’s important to respond promptly, take the necessary time to digest the situation and gather the facts before communicating. Even if you don’t have all the answers, let people know when and where they can expect updates. This builds trust even in uncertain times.

Focus on People

Messaging should focus on people, not the news of the event or crisis. Communicate with empathy, especially for those affected by the crisis. It’s ok to show stories of individuals or communities impacted by the crisis and how your organization is connected to them.

Be Consistent

Regular updates are crucial. Stick to a schedule. If you promise updates, deliver them on time. Even if there’s no significant news, an update that you continue monitoring the situation reassures people that you’re engaged.

Have a Spokesperson

Designating someone as your organization’s voice during a crisis is helpful for ensuring consistent messaging. A spokesperson must be well-versed in the details of the crisis and can communicate clearly and calmly across different platforms, from social media to press releases. Often, this is a trained media and marketing professional from within your organization; they are likely on your task force.

Launch Campaigns Quickly

When something happens, you need to be ready to react. While you should pause and assess the situation, you should also be ready to deploy your crisis plan quickly. Depending on the nature of your nonprofit, this might include pausing or amplifying fundraising campaigns.

If your nonprofit is part of a crisis recovery effort, fundraising efforts must shift to messaging for this event.

While having a plan at the ready is the key element in launching a campaign quickly, there are some other things you can do to prepare:

• If you know about the potential for disaster—such as a weather event—set up your campaign in advance and have it ready to launch. If the crisis does not emerge, you can wait until next time and consider this a training drill.
• Use a donation and fundraising platform that makes getting campaigns up and running quickly easy. GiveWP donation forms can be created and launched in minutes, improving response times.
• Create a template in your donation platform for crisis campaigns so that you can make small changes and launch quickly, even from a mobile device if necessary.

Finally, it is important to be honest and transparent about what a crisis campaign will be used for and who funds will help. As with any other fundraising effort, donors want to know where the money will go and who will be helped.

Be Strategic About Giving

When major events or crises happen, you may also feel personally compelled to help in addition to what your organization may be doing. Finding the right place to help can be daunting because you want to know that your donation of time, money, or supplies is getting to the people who need it most.

Just like a nonprofit organization needs a strategy in a crisis, you should also give strategically. Think about the following when you are planning how to help:

• Start with existing charity organizations related to the crisis event or situation. You can often find these by reading their mission online or paying attention to news stories.
• Make sure the organization you’re giving to is a registered public 501(c)3, or equivalent in the country in need.
• Look for a nonprofit to help that still needs to meet fundraising or campaign goals. This ensures that donations are needed and help in exactly the way you think.
• Monetary donations are the most helpful in a crisis. While stuff can help, money can ensure specific needs are met without there being too much of one thing and not enough of another.

Mobilizing Quickly Makes a Difference

Having a plan for responding to a disaster can ensure that you act quickly and appropriately. This can make a huge difference for your organization, the community you serve, and you personally.

Almost every organization and community is impacted by some type of event at some point. No matter the scale or timing, having a plan will help you respond efficiently and with care.