How to Organize Chaos: A Guide to Rapid Response during Emergencies
Our world is constantly faced with the threat of natural disasters, conflict and unforeseen emergencies — and also shifts in legislation impacting cultural, societal and political issues.
In these situations, every second counts when it comes to fundraising and getting in market right away while issues are top of mind for donors (and prospective donors!).
Having a rapid response communications plan in place can help communicate an organization’s role, get out a strong call to action as well as drive fundraising to support the overall mission.
And while these moments of rapid response can be chaotic – there are ways to be proactive to ensure that when disaster strikes … you’re not pulling your hair out wondering which way to go.
Wondering where to start? We’ve got you covered!
When developing a rapid response plan, it is critical that the organization’s mission and programmatic work is directly tied to the crisis, so the communications are authentic, and do not come across as opportunistic.
While the specific plans may vary depending on the organization and the crisis, it’s critical to identify the communication channels and messages for building out the response framework.
The first preparatory step comes with budgeting for the year. If your organization historically encounters urgent situations that require pivots, having a budget reserved for additional emergency initiatives will allow for decisions to be made more quickly should an urgent situation arise.
From there, it will be important to consider a “surround-sound” approach to maximize reach and impressions by leveraging different platforms and channels:
Emails
As full details may not be available early on, consider a brief and direct message for the first email to inform your audience that the organization is mobilizing for the emergency.
Expand upon the message in subsequent emails as more information becomes available.
Don’t have images yet? Don’t let that stop you. Get creative with stats and infographics, but don’t delay getting that first email out as quickly as you can. You can always do a resend once images are in.
Website
On your homepage hero, highlight the crisis and drive to more content and detail on a blog or a dedicated landing page of information.
If possible, implement a lightbox also driving to the information or donation page.
Organic Social Media
Twitter – optimal platform for rapid response messaging. It can sustain a high volume of updates and real-time news.
Facebook – optimal platform for community engagement on the rapid response. Share news AND a strong call to action. We recommended posting once a day when issues are unfolding rapidly to keep your community up to date.
Instagram – optimal platform for illustrating the issue – particularly stories. We recommended posting 1-3x each week (or as needed) during a period of rapid response to an urgent situation.
Paid Media
Update creative and messaging during the urgent event to bring the organization’s mission front-and-center.
If CTV or DRTV are part of the media mix, consider increasing the media buy for additional exposure.
Telemarketing and Canvassing
Update scripts right away to include the crisis to amplify the organization’s case for support.
Brief callers and canvassers on the organization’s role and how critical it is for donor support so that they can accurately get this message across to donors in their conversations with them.
Direct Mail
Depending on the crisis, an urgent-gram may be warranted. Consider the time required to secure stock as well as the in-home date, and determine if the emergency may still be relevant when it arrives in mailboxes. First-class postage may be necessary to expedite delivery if your budgets allow.
To limit the need for additional data processing, you may be able to pull data from the most recent final mail file to recode more quickly.
If an urgent-gram mailing is not possible, or there is some uncertainty on how long emergency will remain in media attention, look to updating messaging in existing upcoming direct mail campaigns (if appropriate) to speak to the emergency efforts, or include this on an additional insert component. The latter option will allow your messaging to be as up to date as possible without adding additional expense if the emergency may not have long enough legs for a direct mail campaign of its own.
Because the minutes that follow a crisis response are precious, identify what can be preplanned in advance like email templates, lightbox, and ad graphics to enable quick and effective donor and supporter communication without adding incremental work when the crisis occurs.
Also, consider expanding your target audience in the appropriate channels to include donors who have previously responded to similar emergencies in the past. Take this even a step further by messaging to them to appeal to their prior motivation for giving.
While these recommendations will ensure that a plan is in place – remember that a rapid response communications plan should be regularly reviewed, updated, and measured to ensure its effectiveness.
Flexibility, adaptability, and clear lines of communication are key to successfully managing and responding to crisis situations should you ever need to!
Cover Image Source: www.freepik.com/free-vector/ participation-women-abstract-concept-vector-illustration