Crisis Communications 101: Best Practices for Nonprofits

In an ideal world, your nonprofit would focus solely on its impact. But in the real world, public relations crises happen. In an era of 24-hour news cycles and viral social media discourse, a nonprofit’s reputation can be made or broken in just minutes. The difference between an organization that struggles and one that emerges stronger lies in the level of behind-the-scenes preparation they conduct.

A crisis communications plan gives your team the clarity to act confidently and decisively amid challenging times. Let’s dive into the core strategies you need to stay ahead of the curve and keep your mission on track.

1. Create a chain of command.

During a crisis, you won’t have time to establish a chain of command to approve communications before they’re sent to audiences. Identify the team members who will approve your messaging in advance so everyone knows their role amid the crisis.

Your crisis communications approval chain should consist of:

• Your communications or PR manager and media relations officer. These individuals have the marketing and communication skills needed to quickly create timely messages and send them to your wider audience.
• Your CEO or executive director. Involving your CEO or executive director in major crisis communications is crucial to ensure your messaging stays on brand. They have a deep understanding of your brand and your trajectory, and their steady leadership will be absolutely essential to help your organization weather the storm.
• Your legal team. Depending on the nature of the crisis, you may also involve your legal team to review your public-facing messages.
• Your social media manager. Your social media lead should take charge of “social listening” by monitoring brand mentions and hashtags across X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook to stay on top of public sentiment about the current situation.
• Board members. Since it can take some time to gather for an emergency board meeting, get your board involved after the situation concludes to review and approve your post-crisis communications.

Assign roles within your chain of approval ahead of time so everyone knows who to contact to get their messages approved before sending them. For example, your social media lead may send drafts of Instagram and Facebook posts to your communications manager before posting them. Each message should be approved for accuracy, brand alignment, and consistency.

2. Develop core messages.

As the crisis unfolds, your team will need to develop messages on the fly to respond to the situation. You might post on social media, send emails, hold a press conference, publish a press release, hold a TV or radio interview, or publish updates on your website’s blog.

No matter how they’re being delivered, these messages should:

• Reflect your nonprofit’s core values and leverage your impact story.
  • Example: “Our mission has always been built on radical transparency and the trust of our donors. While we investigate this incident, our priority remains the security of your data and the continuation of our programs in the community.”
• Accept responsibility and take accountability where necessary.
  • Example: “We missed the mark, and we own that. We are currently conducting an internal review to understand where our process failed and are taking immediate steps to ensure this does not happen again.”
• Express concern for those affected by the crisis.
  • Example: “Our hearts are with the families affected by this morning’s events. Their safety and well-being are our only focus right now. We are working around the clock with local authorities to provide direct support to those in need.”

To speed up the process, you can use tools like ChatGPT to brainstorm compelling messages that reassure your audience. You can input specific details about the situation, such as what the crisis entails and who is affected.

However, we strongly advise you to reformat any ideas generated by generative solutions, so each message reflects your nonprofit’s brand and voice. Authenticity is critical in essential communications. Use AI solutions to help generate ideas and build outlines, not draft your entire message for you.

Store your core messages in a central database or spreadsheet so team members can reference them as needed and adapt them into different formats.

3. Identify essential audiences and the best way to reach them.

Another critical aspect of your crisis response plan is identifying the audiences you need to reach and the right messages and platforms to connect with them.

Use these strategies to align your message with the right audience and platform:

• Identify the core groups you need to communicate with. During a crisis, you’ll need to stay in contact with an internal audience of staff, volunteers, board members, and beneficiaries. You must also communicate with external audiences, including donors, grant funders, corporate sponsors, government officials, and other community members.
• Choose the right message for each audience. Use predictive models and audience personas to anticipate the messaging style that will resonate with each audience. For example, some groups, such as major donors, may prefer one or two longer, descriptive messages. Others, like on-the-ground staff and volunteers, may prefer numerous brief updates.
• Choose the right platforms to deliver your messages. Social media is effective for immediate updates. Email is best for longer, more in-depth messages, as are blog posts on your nonprofit’s website. Consider each audience segment’s preferred communication platforms to ensure you reach each group on the channels they use the most.

Create two-way communication channels with your audience members so they can submit questions or concerns via text or a messaging app. Assign a communications team member to manage and respond to these inquiries quickly and efficiently.

4. Choose appropriate spokespeople.

Assign each of your communications team members to an audience. Each team member should own a specific role to ensure your messages reach all audiences, regardless of their preferred communication platform.

For example:

• Your CEO sends an email to your donors, corporate sponsors, and grant funders addressing the situation. They also host a press conference and a Zoom Q&A to answer questions.
• Your legal team works with local government authorities to ensure compliance throughout your crisis recovery process.
• Your PR manager handles ongoing social media and email updates to donors, volunteers, beneficiaries, and other stakeholders throughout the crisis.
• Your media relations officer keeps the public informed through press releases and media interviews.

Leaders like your CEO and board members should take the time to speak personally to vital stakeholders such as major donors and corporate sponsors. Meanwhile, your PR manager and marketing team should create messages for a wider audience to keep the general public informed as the crisis and recovery process unfold.

5. Develop contingency plans.

By definition, a crisis means something has gone wrong. But within the main crisis, you might face additional hurdles that make communications difficult.

Consider the following examples and the issues that arise from them:

• Your community experienced a natural disaster, and you’re navigating power outages or poor cell reception. How will you communicate with other community leaders to determine where assistance is needed?
• You designated a specific board member to play a key role in your crisis communications, only to discover they are at the center of the current crisis. Do you have other people who can fulfill their role?
• During a crisis, you receive new information over time that contradicts your initial messaging. How will you issue corrections, ensure transparency, and present a united, reliable front?

These are just a handful of examples, and it’s up to your team to walk through potential contingencies relevant to your nonprofit’s work. Above all, expect the unexpected and always have a backup plan on hand. Something may occur that your playbook does not address. Maintain open communication with your internal team and allow crisis team members to pivot as needed to address changing circumstances.

6. Partner with experts as needed.

Nonprofit communications experts offer critical stability and expertise during times of crisis. They can quickly get up to speed on the situation and work with your team to send timely, thoughtful, on-brand communications.

Here are a few services nonprofit consultants provide:

• CRM and internal analytics consulting to ensure your technology tools are organized and ready to assist during crises
• Crisis communication consulting to help draft your response procedures
• Post-crisis support to incorporate lessons learned and help maintain your reputation in the community

Consider establishing a relationship with a nonprofit communications expert during times of relative calm. This allows the consultant to better understand your organization’s mission and values, enabling them to provide more effective support during a crisis.

Next steps: Complete the after-action review

The communications that you send out in the 90-day period after a crisis concludes are just as important as your mid-crisis messages. Meet with your nonprofit’s communications team one week after the crisis ends to answer questions like: What worked? What failed? Do we need to update our technology or procedures to deliver faster responses next time? Should we hire an outside consultant to help optimize our crisis communications strategy? Use the next few weeks to identify and deploy the highest-priority fixes to your communications approach.

Above all, your crisis communications should be driven by transparency, accountability, and accuracy. This will help maintain trust with your audience and reassure those impacted by the crisis.