Monday Mixtape 011: Nonprofit Crisis Management & PR Strategies
Here’s your Monday Mixtape, a weekly newsletter from CauseVox designed to jumpstart your week, challenge your thinking, and inspire you to keep at it.
Each week, we’ll hand-pick must-read articles, thinking, resources, and stories for nonprofit fundraisers and leaders and drop it in your inbox. Have suggestions or questions? Let us know at blog@causevox.com. Enjoy this week’s Mixtape!
Two seemingly-unrelated things are on my mind this week.
The first is the Netflix adaptation of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, and the other is PR for nonprofits.
Yeah. It’s weird inside my brain, y’all.
In case you aren’t familiar with the books, movie, or Netflix series, here’s the short summary: The three Baudelaire orphans have the worst luck. Everything bad that could happen does, and they are always facing evil-doers, betrayal, and mayhem.
Most likely, no evil aristocrats are trying to steal your vast fortune, but sometimes, things go very wrong at organizations. Any number of unfortunate events can befall nonprofits.
DEEP BREATH. I know it’s not fun to think about.
The best time to plan for a catastrophe is long before it happens. While the crisis is unfolding, you won’t have time to craft messaging or figure out who exactly should talk to the press. A crisis communications plan ensures that you communicate calmly, thoughtfully, and appropriately.
Most bad things won’t happen to your organization unless your board members are the ill-fated Baudelaires.
^ In that case, I’m not sure a crisis communications plan will help you, and you should, perhaps, increase your liability insurance.
But if the worst does happen, you’ll be as prepared as you can be.
Here’s the Week’s Mix:
“Fortune favors the prepared mind.” –Louis Pasteur
Track #1: 6 Essential Tips For Getting Through Any Nonprofit Crisis, by Joanne Fritz at The Balance
The subheading for this article is, “Your Next Crisis Is Just Around The Corner–Get Ready Now.” This sounds very doom-and-gloom, but Joanne’s tips are solid. She makes a good case for preparing ahead of time, including deciding who your spokespeople are, and providing them with media training.
One of the points that Joanne makes that I think is worth repeating: Crises can take many shapes, including loss of life, accidents, public safety issues, donor data security, accusations of misconduct, lawsuits, and financial crimes. Think outside the box–it increases your chances of having prepared for whatever you encounter.
Track #2: 5 Steps For Building Your Press List by Wendy Hathaway at CauseVox
Establishing relationships with your local media is a best practice even when everything is going well. Media attention can amplify your good stories, increase your reach, and promote campaigns.
Wendy has great tips for researching outlets, aligning your organizational story with different kinds of media, keeping current, and making contact. If something does go wrong, the work you’ve done to create strong press relationships will make interacting with the media a lot less intimidating.
Weekly Wow
Amanda Mulder, the Development Director at 20 Liters, has a lot on her plate. After all, she’s the sole staff fundraiser for an organization that makes dirty water clean for vulnerable families in Rwanda, particularly children, the elderly, and those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
This year, members of the 20 Liters leadership team decided to try CauseVox to fuel their fundraising campaign. Amanda explained it was a natural choice for them because community-driven fundraising has always been their primary development technique.
They ended up activating and rallying 31 fundraisers to raise $19,000 and provide 108 families in Rwanda with clean water. Incredible!! ????
Track #3: Starbucks Late Crisis Response Gives PR Pros a Lesson in Social Listening by Jason Joffe at PR News Online
You’ve probably noticed Starbucks in the news, going into full-tilt crisis management mode after two black men were arrested in one of their cafes. The men were waiting for a friend before ordering, but a manager called the police, who arrested the men on suspicion of trespassing. Video of the encounter went viral, as another example of racial discrimination. Calls for a boycott soon followed.
Jason traces Starbucks’ sequential responses to the incident, and the public’s response to the business. He doesn’t ignore where they get things right, but shows what we can learn from where they went wrong.
Track #4: How To Prepare For A Crisis You Couldn’t Possibly Predict by Chris Clearfield and Andras Tilcsik at Harvard Business Review
This piece is aimed at businesses, but I found it just as applicable to nonprofits. It examines responses to crisis, and what makes people more successful. Slowing down, following a diagnostic process, and taking a broad view of what you’re trying to accomplish help increase effectiveness.
The standout tip for me was that everyone should know something about what everyone else does. If your organization has issues with “siloing” information, then you already know complicated things get when one person holds all the keys to their area of expertise. Cross-training helps teams work together better, fill in gaps, and ultimately, weather a crisis better.
Bonus Tracks
To restore your faith in humanity…
If all this crisis-planning has freaked you out…
By The Way…
Are you thriving as a fundraiser in this new hyper-connected, super-social, chaotic world? Would you like to? Then it’s time to adopt a new playbook: Community-Driven Fundraising.
Join us on Thursday, April 26 at 1 PM EST for a Community-Driven Fundraising live training. We’ll focus on a peer-to-peer approach to fundraising, activating and rallying your supporters, and cultivating new donors while empowering the ones you already have.
Thanks for reading!
– Megan
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P.S. Questions about this week’s mix? Suggestions for next week? Don’t leave me in the dark. Let me know by emailing me at blog@causevox.com.
