Free · Certificate included

Crisis Management for Nonprofits

Be ready to respond fast and protect your mission when something goes wrong.

38 min Intermediate 7 modules Pass 80%

For: Executive directors and nonprofit managers

What you’ll learn

Map the crisis lifecycle — prepare, respond, recover — and what each phase demands
Build a crisis team with clear roles before you ever need it
Write a communications plan with holding statements, a spokesperson, and a stakeholder order
Tell a reputational crisis apart from a physical emergency and respond to each
Keep the mission running with a business continuity plan, then learn from it with an after-action review

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Course outline

1
What a crisis is — and the lifecycle that tames it
A crisis is any sudden event that threatens your people, your operations, or your reputation — and that you can’t handle with business-as-usual routines.
6 min Quiz Interactive
2
Prepare: risk assessment & the crisis plan
Preparation starts with a risk assessment — a deliberate inventory of what could go wrong.
6 min Quiz Interactive
3
The crisis team & roles
When a crisis hits, you don’t want a committee debating who’s in charge.
5 min Quiz Interactive
4
The communications plan: holding statements & stakeholders
In a crisis, silence is a message — usually the wrong one.
6 min Quiz Interactive
5
Two kinds of crisis: physical emergency vs. reputation
Not all crises look alike. A physical emergency — fire, storm, injury, medical event — threatens bodies and buildings, and the first job is safety. A reputational…
5 min Quiz Interactive
6
Business continuity: keep the mission running
Responding to the emergency is only half the job.
5 min Quiz
7
Recover & learn: the after-action review
When the immediate danger passes, the work isn’t over — it’s the moment to recover and learn.
5 min Quiz Interactive

Sources & further reading

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