Charities supporting vulnerable children must maintain public trust. This insight examines key risks and mitigation steps.
Casualty|Crisis Management|Direct and Facultative|Health and Benefits|Reputational Risk Management|Risk and Analytics|Risk Management Consulting
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Whether sick, deprived, or suffering violence or abuse, children at risk are one of society’s greatest responsibilities. The charities that support them are rightly held to the highest standards and may experience acute loss of trust – and income – if their reputations are damaged.
High profile cases that have hit the headlines have shown how quickly the support of the public, stakeholders and corporate sponsors can fall away, along with funding and donations – and how long it can take a charity to fully recover its former standing.
At a time when government funding is being cut and donors are facing a cost-of-living squeeze, any reputational damage can be very costly.
So what can children’s charities and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) do to reduce their risks? A good place to start is to assess where reputational threats are most likely to come from. We’ve identified some key scenarios and steps you can take to prevent risks developing and recover if an incident does happen.
Abuse of minors
It’s an unpleasant reality that wherever you get concentrations of vulnerable groups, you will also find people who want to prey on them. Previous scandals have also heightened public sensitivity to any indication of abuse or exploitation by staff or celebrities. As well as detailed background checks for staff and volunteers, charities need to assess their risks and develop plans for how to manage them.
Understand your risk profile: Think through all of the possible abuse scenarios and how they could happen in your organisation. Develop plans for how to prevent each risk and how to respond if it does occur.
Make early reporting easy: Introduce whistleblowing systems that make it as easy as possible to report any abuse, bullying or harassment without fear of reprisal.
Don’t hide problems: Reputational damage is always worse if it becomes known the organization has tried to hide the details. Being open about any incidents and how they were dealt with can increase confidence in your processes.
Act quickly and decisively: Assign staff to respond rapidly and protect potential victims as soon as abuse is reported. Investigate charges quickly and suspend anyone accused of abuse immediately.
Partner with outside experts: Work with others in your field, such as child advocacy groups, and invite external safeguarding experts onto your board to benchmark and improve your standards.
Bodily injury and unsafe conditions
As well as protecting children from abuse, charities have a responsibility to keep children safe from physical and bodily harm. Risks can range from diseases spread by volunteers, to harm caused by temporary accommodation and accidents during group outings.
Risk assess every activity: Make sure you document and regularly update risk assessments for all aid programs involving children, as well as any events, activities and trips organized for them.
Strengthen health and safety: Develop and enforce detailed procedures on issues such as hygiene and infection control, supervision of children, transport safety, use of equipment and emergency procedures. Schedule regular checks of equipment, vehicles and facilities.
Report and learn from incidents: Have clear procedures for recording, investigating and responding to incidents, including communication with parents or carers.
Misconduct of a charity ambassador
Working with a well-known personality can help raise awareness of a cause, reach new audiences and lift donor income. But if the celebrity is disgraced, it can damage your reputation by association and potentially scare off corporate donors and sponsors – especially if the misconduct involves children or young people.
Do thorough due diligence: Make sure you really know your charity ambassador before you start working with them. Research their previous collaborations, projects, and personal actions. Look at their social media activity and check they don’t have any conflicts of interest.
Monitor and report on what’s being said: Track what your ambassadors are saying – and what’s being said about them – across all media sources. Report it to the appropriate people and escalate issues before they become a problem.
Have a crisis plan: Your plan should cover fast incident response, and how to minimize the financial impact and rebuild your reputation if it’s damaged.
Donor abuse
All charities face dilemmas around fundraising. They need the money generated by volunteers, supporters and professional fundraisers. But in making it easy for large numbers of people to collect on their behalf, there's always a risk that some will commit fraud or abuse.
Have strict vetting and branding authorizations: Carry out detailed background checks on all fundraisers. Keep a public register of your authorized fundraisers and strictly control who can use your branding, badges and fundraising materials.
Monitor and audit fundraising activities: Consider random spot checks, mystery shopper audits and compliance reviews to make sure fundraising meets your standards.
Respond quickly: Be ready with a clear communication strategy, media statements and updates if there's an allegation of fraud or abuse. Maintain open communication with stakeholders and the public about incidents and corrective actions.
Helping you protect your reputation
We have developed a holistic reputational risk management solution, including Polecat risk monitoring that tracks live sentiment and offers insights into public opinion through analysis of social media, to help prevent negative publicity.
Our Reputational Risk Quantification measures likely damage if an incident does occur. Our crisis communications specialists will help you manage the media during and after an event, with Reputational Crisis insurance to cover you for any loss of gross profit you suffer as a result.
