The Top 10 of 2021’s RISK eNews
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
By the NRMC Team
In 2021, the world entered the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many nonprofits began to hit their stride. Most risk leaders became more familiar and comfortable approaching risks with a novelty that constantly shifting plans required. The NRMC team was excited to offer our members, readers, and clients practical tips throughout the year. The following pieces were 2021’s most popular articles. We’ve presented them here for quick reference to help your nonprofit springboard into 2022 with salient risk advice!
#1 –Risk Roles in a Nonprofit
The evolution of risk management programs happens in many ways. However, expansion usually involves infusing risk awareness into decision-making and routine activities, including consideration of how new risk-related activities will be dispersed among the team.
#2 – Warning Signs: Channeling Cassandra to Fortify Your Mission
A ripe risk read about real-world “Cassandras” – prophets of myriad disasters, who, like the Cassandra of Greek Mythology, were ignored, ridiculed, and ultimately proven prescient. Melanie describes five reasons why we often rebuke those who warn and how to channel Cassandras in your nonprofit to harness the value of foresight and conversations about what-ifs to safeguard your mission.
#3 – Managing Risks and Reaping the Rewards of Remote Teams
Leaders across the nonprofit sector learned that remote work was possible and practical at a fantastic scale. In this article –from the most recent issue of Risk Management Essentials – Whitney explores how to infuse your remote and hybrid teams with purpose and intentionality, ensuring your teams have a richly rewarding experience.
#4 – Choose Your Own Adventure to Risk and Reward
It’s hard to quiet our inner dialogue. Whether yours takes the form of an imposter complex or simply plants doubt in the path of your plans to solve knotty challenges, the route to reconciliation with that voice isn’t to ignore it. In this risk read, Melanie explores salient topics raised by author Ethan Kross of Chatter – The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It and how they relate to your nonprofit’s risk practice.
#5 – Do This, Not That: 5 Essential Risk Policy Drafting Tips
Agility and flexibility are worthwhile—if not fundamental and essential—aspirations for risk leaders. Yet these aspirations must be bolstered and supported with policies and written communications that are concise, clear, explain ‘why,’ and are devoid of dangerous mixed messages. Bookmark these five tips as you go into the next year, with new resolve to revise and revisit your risk practices and policies.
#6 – Choose Essential: Define Your Singular Risk Priority
Many nonprofit teams adopt multiple “strategic priorities” (note the plurality!) and begin their work by compiling a run-on list of risks in a format called the Risk Register. Imagine the potential for focus and impact if we adopted a single, true priority? What IS the most important priority of your risk management department, function, or team? To borrow from Gary Keller, author of The ONE Thing, what is the one thing your risk team could do that would make everything else easier or unnecessary?
#7 – Whether it’s Pastry or Risk Process, Use a Light Touch for a Perfect Result
Melanie presents two approaches for getting to the essence of risk management: action in the face of risk! If you’re ready for a risk refresh at your nonprofit, review these two tactics, take the self-assessment, and download NRMC’s simple worksheet to get started today.
#8 – Safe and Supported: The Intersection of Psychological Safety and Fruitful Risk Practice
The concept of psychological safety has been gaining traction for several years now, and with good reason! Infusing your organization’s culture with this is an asset you can’t risk ignoring. Erin Gloeckner, former NRMC Director of Consulting Services, explores how psychologically safe teams amplify their risk initiatives, common ways organizations can get derailed, and ten tips for cultivating psychological safety in your nonprofit.
#9 – Make Patience a Prerequisite
When you’re hard-wired to get things done now and never put off until tomorrow what you can wrap up today, it’s hard to be patient! However, risk practices can benefit significantly from timely pauses to put things into perspective. Melanie explores this concept and offers questions to infuse priceless patience into your risk management program.
#10 – Take a Hike! (around Your Risk Landscape)
A nonprofit’s risk landscape consists of features, circumstances and conditions that impact the risks an organization faces and is poised to embrace. Risk leaders should continuously observe and analyze the changing features and facets of their organization’s risk landscape. Read on to review an exercise that will help you identify landscape features, note which has the potential to change rapidly, and how to allocate resources to monitor for changes more effectively.
“First let me congratulate you on a conference well done. I had a great time at the Nonprofit Employee Benefits Conference and walked away with some valuable tools and questions that we’ll need to be addressing in both the short and long term. Thanks to you and your staff for all you do to provide us with quality resources in support of our missions.”
— Scott Brown, Mohonk Preserve
“BBYO’s engagement of the Center to conduct a risk assessment was one of the most valuable processes undertaken over the past five years. Numerous programmatic and procedural changes were recommended and have since been implemented. Additionally, dozens (literally) of insurance coverage gaps were identified that would never have been without the work of the Center. This assessment led to a broker bidding process that resulted in BBYO’s selection of a new broker that we have been extremely satisfied with. I unconditionally recommend the Center for their consultative services.
— Sidney Abrams, BBYO
“Melanie Herman has provided expert, insightful, timely and well resourced information to our Executive Team and Board of Directors. Our corporation recently experienced massive growth through merger and the Board has been working to better integrate their expanded set of roles and responsibilities. Melanie presented at our Annual Board of Director’s Retreat and captured the interest of our Board members. As a result of her excellent presentation the Board has engaged in focused review which is having immediate effects on governance.”
— Pamela Mattel, Basics Promesa Systems Inc
“The Nonprofit Risk Management Center has been an outstanding partner for us. They are attentive to our needs, and work hard to successfully meet our requests for information. Being an Affiliate member gave us access to so many time- and money-saving resources that it easily paid for itself! Nonprofit Risk Management Center is truly a valued partner of The Community Foundation of Elkhart County and we are continuously able to optimize staff time with the support given by their team.”
— Jodi Spataro, Community Foundation of Elkhart County
“The board and staff of the Prince George’s Child Resource Center are extremely pleased with the results of the risk assessment conducted by the Nonprofit Risk Management Center. A thorough scan revealed that while we are a well run organization, we had risks that we never imagined. We are grateful to know that we have now minimized our organizational risks and we recommend the Center to other nonprofits.”
— Marti Worshtil, Prince George’s Child Resource Center
Great American Insurance Group’s Specialty Human Services is committed to protecting those who improve your communities. The Center team has committed to delivering dynamic risk management solutions tailored to nonprofit organizations. These organizations have many and varied risk issues, hence the need for specialized coverage and expert knowledge for their protection. We’ve had Melanie speak on several occasions to employees and our agents. She is always on point and delivers such great value. Thank you for the terrific partnership and allowing our nonprofits to focus on their mission!