When crisis/opportunity hits your organization next, you need to be in position to respond quickly to support your colleagues. In recent conversations with a group of your colleagues, we discussed several ways a web site can support your organization in crisis:

1. Start collecting news and publishing facts on your website. Create a separate page, called, for example, "Crisis Update" and link it from a prominent mention on your home or start page. Then update the "Update" page at least daily with news. If people are asking questions and there are no answers yet, post the questions to a separate "Crisis Q&A" page. As others in your organization find answers, post them. Your colleagues, your members or donors, and likely even the media, will appreciate one single up-to-the-minute source for answers.
2. Use the tools you have. When anthrax closed the major Washington, DC mail processing center, the Direct Marketing Association of Washington (dmaw.org) realized it could use its underused web site as a part of its plan to share information. Someone suggested a special e-mail discussion group, since we have a fairly popular one for general purposes. We got it running in two days, and it was a bit hit. Members actually posted messages praising the DMAW for doing it!
3. Save those love notes! Share them with everyone in the organization. Weave them into a document to show to your board when it's budget time.
4. Know which tools you would like to add. Bulletin board software isn't very expensive, but it could take weeks to find and install the right one for your group. Do the research BEFORE the crisis and keep it current, so when someone says, "I wish we had a bulletin board" you can offer an immediate solution.
5. Crises are great times to enlist volunteer support from colleagues and members. Not only will it alleviate some work, you'll gain their support for the future.
6. Share information and tricks with fellow nonprofit webmasters. Wouldn't it be cool to say, "I talked to a guy at the Red Cross' website, and he suggested..."

(this article first appeared in the December issue of "Advancing Philanthropy", the magazine of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (formerly NSFRE).

December 2001