January 22, 2004 | Read Time: 1 minute
Disaster Recovery Planning for Nonprofits
by Michael K. Robinson
This book offers advice to help charities plan for natural disasters, equipment failures, terrorist attacks, thefts, scandals, and other emergencies. Michael K. Robinson, information-technology director at Creative Direct Response, a fund-raising company in Crofton, Md., writes that nonprofit groups need disaster plans because they rarely have enough reserve funds to carry them through prolonged periods of disrupted services.
Mr. Robinson says a charity’s most important asset is its employees, and that staff members should conduct drills to prepare for fires and other dangerous situations. He also advises charities to obtain contact information for employees and their family members.
One section of the book explains how to protect documents and lists the ones that are especially important to safeguard. In addition to discussing what charities should look for in safes and off-site storage locations for important papers, the author explains different methods of backing up essential electronic files.
An important component of a disaster plan, writes Mr. Robinson, is making sure that crucial tasks can be performed if a group loses access to its office or if some employees are unable to work. He suggests that nonprofit organizations write up brief summaries of how each job is performed—for example, how to process donations—to allow staff members to fill in for missing colleagues.
Publisher: Hamilton Books, 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Md. 20706; (800) 462-6420; http://www.univpress.com/hamiltonbooks; 112 pages; $23; I.S.B.N. 0-7618-2660-2.
