For a historic preservation organization, crisis management usually means managing an advocacy crisis, such as an impending building demolition. But preservation organizations also face internal crises. An internal crisis can paralyze or even destroy an organization.

Here are some examples of possible internal crises:

• The sudden loss of a regular sponsor
• The sudden death of your executive director
• Embezzlement of funds by your treasurer or a staff member
• Catastrophic damage to your office, including the loss of office equipment and critical files
• A costly and humiliating lawsuit against a staff or board member

Plan for a Crisis

The key to managing an internal crisis is to plan for it. Your internal crisis plan should be established within your organization's bylaws. It should lay out what should happen when your organization is faced with a potentially disastrous internal problem.

The plan should include strategies for managing the problem in both the public and internal spheres. It should include a clear description of the ad hoc committee that will be responsible for thinking through and making decisions about the crisis.

Get Insight from Others

If your organization's bylaws have already been written without an internal crisis plan, you should form a board committee to update your bylaws. This committee might want to invite board members from another nonprofit organization that has dealt with an internal crisis. These board members can provide insight about all the possible consequences of a crisis. It will be better for your group to learn indirectly from another group's mistakes than sort through a huge mess, without any context or insight, later.

Learn More

Historic Preservation Advocacy Guide

Find more how-to articles about historic preservation advocacy.

Nonprofit Management Education Center

You can learn more about nonprofit operations from the Nonprofit Management Education Center offered by the Center for Community and Economic Development, which is part of the University of Wisconsin Division of Cooperative Extension. This resource includes a library of articles and an Organizational Assessment Tool.