It is impossible to clearly foresee the future, and no matter how well you run your nonprofit organization, mishap is bound to strike at some point. It is important to be prepared for disaster.

The first step is to acknowledge that there are some things in your organization that could go awry. The website could crash, an event could get snowed out—these sorts are common mishaps, and you need to be prepared to deal with them. Having a plan prevents panic if and when averse situations do occur.

When disaster does strike, do not overreact. Some disasters are uncontrollable. For example, if an event did get snowed out, there really isn’t anything a fundraiser can do to make the snow go away in a few hours. The best approach here is the thoughtful one—it is much better to calmly assess the setbacks of a situation than to fly into an emotional rage when something goes wrong.

On the other hand, when you see a problem that could spell disaster somewhere down the road, fix it immediately. If your direct mail efforts are tanking, don’t wait until your losses blows up in your face, find out what’s wrong and fix it while the problem is still small. Taking small preventative measures like this prevent unnecessary future disasters.

Finally, when something goes wrong, make sure it doesn’t happen again. The benefit of hindsight allows you to look at every factor in a disaster. Why not use it to your benefit and and analyze your mistakes to figure out how to minimize damage in the future?

The fundraiser who takes precautionary steps for his nonprofit’s protection prevents long-lasting negative effects of disaster.

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