Simple Steps Can Help Charities Plan for Disasters

By Nicole Wallace

The everyday crises that charity leaders face often leave them with little time or money to devote to

planning for fires, floods, terrorism, or other catastrophes. But disaster-response experts say making such plans doesn’t have to be hard. Among their suggestions:

Find a model. Andrew S. Lang, a consultant in Bethesda, Md., who works for BDO Seidman, an accounting and consulting company in Chicago, recommends looking at what other charities have done or at sample disaster-recovery documents available on the Internet. “You don’t want to reinvent the wheel,” says Mr. Lang, who has written a booklet on disaster planning for nonprofit groups. “It’s very hard to think about everything that ought to be considered without having some sort of a guide.”

But David Ward, director of facilities and capital planning at City Center, a nonprofit theater in New York, cautions charities against following another organization’s example so closely that they overlook their own particular needs. He hopes to strike the right balance of providing suggestions but not dictating a solution in a guide he is helping to prepare for the Museum, Library & Cultural Properties Facility Group of Greater New York City. “You’re really tempted to write a fill-in-the-blanks cookbook,” he says of the group’s effort. “But we don’t think that that’s terribly useful, because it stops people from really thinking about their own facility and examining it.”

Seek support from the top. For disaster planning to be effective — and actually get done — a charity’s chief executive or its board has to decide that planning is a priority, says Mr. Ward. “If the impetus just comes from the staff, they’re going to have so many daily pressures on them that it’s always going to take a back seat,” he says.

Name a point person. While it’s important to have representatives from different departments working on a disaster-planning committee, Karen Sebesta, director of administration for Arc Hennepin-Carver, a Minneapolis charity that provides services to people with developmental disabilities, says it helped her organization to have one person take the lead, set deadlines, and push the process forward.

She says taking this step can help organizations overcome what is often the biggest challenge in developing a disaster plan: finding the time. “Nobody has any idle time,” Ms. Sebesta says. “This is one more thing on top of everything else.”

Take stock. Mr. Ward of City Center says nonprofit leaders should look over their offices to identify ways to reduce the amount of damage that might occur should disaster strike. He says that simple measures, such as making sure that sprinkler systems and fire extinguishers are in good working order or that furniture in an outdoor courtyard is tied down, can go a long way toward limiting damage.

Review insurance coverage. Many charities don’t really understand what their insurance policies cover, says Mr. Lang, the consultant at BDO Seidman. He recommends that charities review the terms of their coverage carefully as they develop disaster plans. “People tend not to think in terms of disaster preparedness when they’re buying their insurance, and they should,” he says.

Identify an alternate site. Charities should arrange a backup location in case they cannot gain access to their offices after a disaster, says Mr. Lang. Waiting until after an emergency hits might be too late. “When you need it, other people will probably need it too,” he says.

Be concise. Bigger isn’t necessarily better, cautions John C. Patterson, senior program director at the Nonprofit Risk Management Center, in Washington. “Other than taking up space on the bookshelf and getting dusted every now and then, it probably doesn’t have a lot of utility,” says Mr. Patterson of the hefty plans he’s seen some charities put together. He encourages nonprofit leaders to create plans that are small enough to be carried easily, because disasters don’t necessarily happen during business hours, and managers may need to use the plan from their homes or other locations.

Pick a starting point. When the National Geographic Society, in Washington, first started thinking about how to keep its operations going after a disaster, members of the planning committees spent a lot of time “spinning their wheels,” says Stephen R. Vick, the organization’s vice president of financial planning.

Overwhelmed by the number of issues that they wanted to tackle, managers couldn’t decide where to begin. Mr. Vick says the committees only started to gain traction when they decided that they would tackle one or two discrete projects, and then go from there.

“There’s probably not one obvious place to start,” he says. “It’s almost like a circle — no matter where you start there’s always something before you and after you. But grab something, and do it.”