Disasters strike in every corner of the world, during every season, and on

different scales throughout the year. Nonprofit organizations serve

as key players during these disasters, providing aid and resources to
those affected. Indeed, hospitals, food banks, human and animal shelters,
and other nonprofits are integrated into most response and recovery
efforts during emergencies.
These events are often unexpected by their very nature, leaving little
time, if any, to prepare. That is why it is so important to put time into
planning and preparation long before the disaster strikes.

What is disaster preparedness?

Disaster preparedness refers to the preventive measures taken to reduce the
severity of a disaster’s effects. The goal of disaster preparedness is to lessen the
impact of disasters on vulnerable populations, to ready an organization for an
influx of activity, and to design a coordinated plan that reduces the waste of
resources, time, and efforts. Disaster preparedness has the potential save the
maximum number of lives and property during a disaster, and it aims to return the
affected populations to normalcy as quickly as possible.
Ways to prepare for a disaster
All nonprofit organizations should create thorough documentation that prepares staff in the
event of disaster. Though it may seem difficult or time-consuming to plan for the unexpected,
this seeming inconvenience is far better than finding your organization in a disaster situation,
rendered incapable of helping and serving your community. This list is by no means
exhaustive, but it includes a few important considerations for disaster planning.
Develop a business continuity plan. Business continuity is defined as “the comprehensive
process of planning for, and retooling, the organization’s best practices so that the nonprofit
can function successfully after the crisis has passed, getting back quickly to where it was
before the interruption.” Continuity planning outlines what actions a nonprofit will take before
the crisis situation, the immediate steps to follow after the interruption of service, and the
necessary actions for restoring the nonprofit’s functionality so that they can return to serving
clients in the affected population. Having a well-crafted business continuity plan will help
ensure limited disruption of services to clients. The business continuity plan is an essential
component of the larger disaster preparedness plan.
Define your nonprofit’s purpose, priorities, and principles. When you write your plan, begin
with an explanation of why a disaster plan is relevant to your organization, the people you
serve, and your mission. This succinct explanation will help you and your organization
understand where they fit into the disaster response and recovery efforts later on.
Have disaster web-content ready to go. When asked to give advice to other nonprofits based
on his experience with Hurricane Harvey, Waldner suggested that you “manage your
messaging.” He explained that “we had some of our folks working on messaging, and also
getting everything standardized,” stating that “that was the big piece.” He also recommended
that you “have all of your graphics ready to go for a disaster” in order to “plug and place as
needed.” For instance, he explained how he knew what dimensions he needed for his home
page and Get Connected banner ahead of time. He had also planned content for his
organization’s Twitter and Facebook accounts. Having this information ready will save time
later on by eliminating the need to create materials from remote locations — especially if your
We office is destroyed in the disaster.
Prepare your website. In Waldner’s case, it was vital that his website was ready to go before
responding to the disaster in Houston. When asked for advice on how to prepare one’s
website, he said “be flexible and mindful of your user environment on your website. We were
able to move our website into disaster mode. So, shrinking our Wordpress site, and moving all
of our links to [point towards disaster related information]. also had to buy additional
bandwidth from GoDaddy in the midst of it, and that was already having some precautions set
up.”
Because of these changes, he said, “we were able to get our website up and going, and in that
we were able to manage the influx of volunteers — we had over 60,000 people register
[for Get Connected] in eight days.”
Have a plan for volunteers. If you belong to a voluntary organization, you need to have a plan
for how to manage disaster volunteers. There are two categories of disaster
volunteers: affiliated volunteers and spontaneous unaffiliated volunteers. Affiliated volunteers
work with specific agencies and have been trained in disaster-response techniques. Because
they have training and are known to the agencies, they usually require little supervision.
Spontaneous unaffiliated volunteers (SUVs), on the other hand, are ordinary citizens who want
to help in the aftermath of the disaster. Despite their best intentions, SUVs can be hard to
manage if you do not have a plan for doing so in place. As Waldner mentioned, he had over
60,000 people register to volunteer in only eight days! It is therefore crucial to have a plan in
place for how to manage the large number of volunteers that respond in the aftermath of a
disaster.
Waldner said that one of his best methods for organizing these SUVs was “trying to get ahead
of the news and also utilizing the website.” He explained that “before we took over managing
the George R. Brown Convention Center, there was a line of volunteers around the building
that would take them anywhere from two to three hours just to get in to volunteer. By getting
ahead of the messaging and working on it,” he said, “we were able to schedule volunteer shifts
and get that back under control.”

In conclusion
When any disaster strikes, whether it be a hurricane, flood, domestic terrorism, tornado, or
fire, the situation has the potential to create chaos and confusion. Effective disaster
preparedness helps alleviate some of the chaos wrought by the unexpected crisis. It is critical
to have a written plan in place, and for all staff to understand their role within the plan.
Disaster plans should be revisited regularly to ensure complete understanding within the
organization. If you follow your disaster plan, it is possible for your nonprofit to be able to get
back up and running quickly and begin serving the populations affected by the disaster.