Articles

As a charity leader, you know how important your organisation's reputation is. Unfortunately, reputational risks threaten charities just as much as any other organisation. They can occur as a result of:

• Financial errors or misconduct.
• Safeguarding failures or allegations of abuse.
• Data breaches.
• Conflicts of interest.
• Social media misuse.
• Environmental or social issues that contradict your mission or values.
• Offensive conduct by staff or volunteers.
• Allegations of discrimination or harassment.
• Misleading communications.
• Association with influential partners or endorsers who are caught up in a scandal.

Though reputation can be a difficult thing to manage when breaches occur or allegations are made, there are several steps that charities can take to reduce and better manage these risks:

• Adding reputational risks to your risk register.
• Practising good governance and implementing strong policies.
• Drawing up a crisis management plan.
• Committing to transparency and accountability.
• Managing stakeholders and carrying out due diligence on potential partners.
• Providing adequate training on regulatory issues, cyber and data protection procedures for staff and volunteers.

Lastly, insurance also plays a part in managing reputational risk. Policies such as cyber reflect the need to cover the cost of PR and legal work that help mitigate reputation damage. Other liability covers again can also cover the financial, legal or crisis communication costs associated with reputational risk.

Read our full guide on managing reputational risk here.