Navigating Disasters and Crises: A Playbook for Social Impact Leaders

In an era marked by increasingly frequent and complex crises, corporate social impact leaders face growing challenges in responding effectively and creating a crisis management plan. Recognizing this, four leading organizations in the social impact space— Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals (ACCP), Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP), Council on Foundations and Points of Light—worked together to develop a powerful new resource: Navigating Disasters and Crises: A Practitioner Playbook for Corporate Responsibility, Philanthropy, and Community Investment Programs.

This comprehensive playbook is designed to empower corporate social responsibility (CSR), philanthropy and community investment professionals with the tools and strategies needed to navigate disaster response in a thoughtful and impactful way. It introduces a forward-thinking framework consisting of five core elements, each illustrated with real-world case studies from industry leaders.

Five Key Elements of the Framework

1. Develop a Crisis Response Process: Establishing a robust process before disaster strikes is essential. The playbook features a case study from PayPal, highlighting its rapid response team’s approach. It also provides guidance on forming response committees, defining decision-making criteria and conducting internal reviews to ensure readiness.
2. Assess the Crisis: Before jumping into action, it’s critical to understand the scope and severity of the situation. Cisco’s case study demonstrates how their response program managed challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and cybersecurity threats. This section includes tips on evaluating employee, market and community impacts to prioritize responses effectively.
3. Determine Whether to Respond: Not every crisis will require or benefit from a corporate response. Using a sample crisis response rubric, this section guides companies in evaluating risks, navigating stakeholder requests and making informed decisions. The insights help social impact teams align their actions with organizational values and stakeholder expectations.
4. Plan Response Actions: A well-thought-out plan is key to impactful disaster response. The Home Depot’s holistic approach to communication—spanning internal teams, external audiences and partners—provides a blueprint for success. This section also covers how to leverage partnerships, craft scalable communications plans and determine engagement methods, such as financial donations or product contributions.
5. Implement the Plan and Measure Results: Effective execution and continuous improvement are crucial. Citi Foundation’s case study showcases how it supports multiple disaster response organizations simultaneously. This section offers practical advice on tracking response progress, evaluating the need for additional investment, determining the duration of engagement and conducting post-crisis debriefs to refine future strategies.

Built on Expertise and Real-World Insights

The framework is informed by the collective expertise of social impact leaders, including insights from 15 chief sustainability officers, corporate foundation professionals and nonprofit executives. It also incorporates findings from virtual focus groups and a review of existing tools and techniques. This ensures the guidance is grounded in the realities of corporate disaster response and tailored to meet the needs of corporate social impact practitioners.

Additional Features

Beyond the framework, Navigating Disasters and Crises provides:

• A Data Overview of Disaster Giving: Trends and statistics to help organizations benchmark their efforts.
• Definitions of Common Types of Disasters and Crises: Clear categorizations to guide response strategies.
• Corporate Disaster and Crisis Management Strategies: Holistic approaches to navigating the internal and external complexities of disaster response.

Ready to Navigate the Complexities of Disaster Response?

This invaluable resource is available for free download and promises to be a game-changer for organizations aiming to enhance their disaster and crisis response capabilities. Whether you’re a seasoned CSR professional or new to the field, the playbook offers actionable strategies to make your disaster response efforts more effective and aligned with your company’s values.

With disasters becoming an unavoidable reality, the time to strengthen your organization’s crisis response strategy is now. Download Navigating Disasters and Crises today and take a decisive step toward building resilience and creating meaningful impact in times of need.

Points of Light Corporate Service Council members, reach out to [email protected] to request access to an exclusive tool that complements the framework and can be adapted to guide your disaster response decision-making.