Planning for the Unknown: Risk
Awareness for Nonprofit Organizations
by Michele Braun, Director,
Institute for Managing Risk, Manhattanville School of Business
The leaders of every nonprofit
organization know that they face risks:
challenges to delivering services, ensuring sufficient funding,
specialized staffing for mission-driven services, facilities, technology,
perhaps the local political environment, existing laws and regulatory changes,
to name only a few. How do leaders, with
their plates already full—or overflowing—address these risks and manage them
accordingly? What tools are there for
nonprofit leaders to decide which risks to take, which to manage and how to
manage them?
Importantly, the very first step in
the International Standards Organizations’ risk management framework (ISO
31000) is to establish the context. For
nonprofits, the context includes that they have goals and missions other than
financial profitability; they have clients to service, parks to maintain,
students to educate, for example. The
beginning, or the first step, is to consider your specific organization and its
goals.
Here is the thing: there is risk in every activity, and your
organization should be taking some risks.
Frankly, if you don’t take any risks, you will fail to achieve your
goals. However, your organization should
choose its risks, selecting those that are necessary to achieve its
mission. These choices require being risk aware, and they are part of the
process of managing risk and determining which risks to avoid and how to do
so.
On June 15, 2016, we’ll talk more about how to do this,
focusing on strategy, finances, and risk management planning in the context of
running a not-for-profit organization.
Join the Non-Profit
Management Center and the Institute for Managing Risk to consider Preparing for the Unknown: Managing Risk in Non-profit Organizations, A
Program for Executives and Board Leaders.
For more
information see this link.
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