Preparing for disruption - is your disaster recover plan on track?

It seems the world is an angrier place these days — from violent weather to violent people. Whether the havoc comes compliments of Mother Nature or a band of marauding hackers, it’s critical for nonprofits to have a disaster recovery plan in place.

Following are some common questions nonprofits have about creating a strategy for getting up and running in the wake of a disaster.

“Where Do We Start?”

The first step in creating a disaster recovery plan is to identify risks and their potential impact on your nonprofit’s operations. If a major power outage struck your area, for example, would you be able to perform some functions manually for a limited time — or would loss of power bring things to a grinding halt?

By quantifying risks and their impact, you can determine which areas should receive the bulk of recovery resources and how quickly recovery needs to happen.

“Who’s In Charge?”

In the confusion of a crisis, nonprofit leadership can become paralyzed. As part of your planning, make sure that chains of command are established and key leaders are clearly identified. For example, identify who will notify employees and volunteers not to report for work, or to report to another location. Designate someone to manage the retrieval of critical data from off-site storage locations. And assign a spokesperson to communicate with government officials and the media.

Ensure that an up-to-date call list is readily accessible and contains contact information for all staff, volunteers and key vendors. Add some redundancy by making the list accessible through multiple channels — a hard copy as well as a copy on your smartphone, website or other media.

“Where’s the Data?”

Obviously, you’ll want to make sure you have your data backed up somewhere offsite. These days, that typically means some form of cloud storage. It could also be data stored on portable hard drives or flash media and then transported to a secure location, such as a safe deposit box. Or, it might be something as simple as backing up data on a second PC that is stored at an off-site location.

Depending on how urgent the data is, it may make sense to contract with firms that specialize in providing disaster recovery services. These services include disaster recovery hot sites (physical locations where employees can come to work), redundant data storage, and secure hosting services for both web- and non-web-based applications.