Hurricane season is coming, and disaster season is always already here. Whether it is hurricanes, floods, fires, pandemics, or federal funding cuts, cultural organizations will need emergency support to respond to moments of crisis.
For funders, what does it look like to set yourself up to respond effectively, meaningfully, and responsibly during a disaster? This quick but essential guide can help keep employees paid while organizations are out of operation, and allow infrastructure to be rebuilt and materials to be cleaned and preserved.
1. Have Your Emergency Preparedness Grant Framework Approved in Advance
When emergencies occur, time is of the essence. Funders need to respond quickly to get funds into the hands of people and organizations. However, a rapid response should not require compromising the values, ethics, or integrity of the funding process. One way to safeguard against potential wrong moves when working against the clock is to thoroughly document and communicate the intended response process and procedures.
By having an Emergency Preparedness Grant Framework designed, approved, and put in place in advance by institutional leadership and stakeholders, including board members or trustees, experts, and on-the-ground staff, funders can expedite their action exponentially and follow a well-devised plan that doesn’t overburden team capacity.
Things to consider when developing an Emergency Preparedness Grant Framework:
- Get advanced approval to allocate funds to emergency programming, especially if you plan to use endowed funds. Earmark funds for potential emergencies and consider allocation amounts or stepped emergency funds.
- Get advanced approval to offer unrestricted funds during an emergency. Limiting support to project-based funding will require labor-intensive oversight and documentation, while making it more difficult for grantees to respond to rapidly changing conditions.
- Specify strategies for disbursing awards quickly and without significant infrastructure, such as cash, electronic payments like Venmo or Zelle, or prepaid debit/credit cards.
- Identify strategies to reduce the applicant burden. Streamline the process from application or nomination to disbursement of funds. Create internal emergency guidelines with expanded eligibility requirements, reduced activity restrictions, and straightforward awardee reporting processes.
- Continue to communicate with grantees following the disaster. Create channels for feedback to identify future revisions to your emergency grantmaking process, and to expand the network of help.
- Plan for the long term. Even if the award’s period of performance is short, consider how you will continue to invest in two to five years of rebuilding and repair following a disaster.
2. Identify the Emergency Roles Your Staff Will Take and Provide Training
Flexibility is key when responding to any disaster. Roles and responsibilities change and expand as needed and are often out of the scope of day-to-day operations.
Plan in advance to streamline approval processes by establishing a clear chain of command and designating emergency roles for staff. For example, program officers could be designated as the point people for disasters, especially when providing support to organizations within their areas of expertise (e.g. a program officer in arts and culture might support museums and performance spaces).
Offer organization-wide training to your staff on how your organization plans to respond to a disaster, and make those training materials available in print so staff can be ready to go when needed. Training enables staff and leadership to think through best practices and set in place a plan to follow when staff capacity is limited. Offer training to staff members as a routine practice, and include the emergency preparedness guide and processes when onboarding new staff members. Create periodic calendar reminders and check-ins to keep staff and plans updated.
3. Prioritize Your Awardees & Create Cohort Communities
When a disaster happens, the first people that you can support are often your own awardees. Supporting them with funds during challenging times further strengthens your organization’s relationship with the grantee and the impact of their work.
During disasters, launching a completely new program with an open call can present challenges to both staff capacity and the responsible stewardship of funds. It can be difficult to vet new awardees during disasters, especially with the rise of sophisticated AI and email and telephone scams. Instead, many funders choose to direct their support to their pre-existing network of vetted and known awardees.
As you think about how your funding organization will respond to disasters, consider talking in advance with your awardees about their own experience of crisis. Awardees can offer crucial insights to help ensure your emergency grant programs are aligned with the needs of the communities you work with. You might also consider offering awardees support as they develop their own emergency preparedness plans.
Beyond unrestricted funding, people need community to help respond to and heal from disasters. Consider how your organization could connect awardees in meaningful ways to provide mutual support. Both mutual aid among awardees in the immediate aftermath of a disaster and the facilitation of in-person awardee cohorts can have an exponential impact on the recovery process.
The Time To Prepare Is Now
The question for funders is not if disasters will impact their communities, but when. Being prepared to respond with speed and care will greatly strengthen your ability to support the recovery process.
Sidra Collaborative provides A-Z grantmaking services and bespoke support for grantmakers and grantees with all aspects of emergency response. Our Field Research and Program Design packages can be tailored for emergency preparedness planning. We also offer workshops for staff, including “Responsive Grantmaking in Critical Moments.” We can assist with your plans, provide guidance on allocating resources, create emergency preparedness guides and processes, as well as provide short-term or ongoing program staff and support before, during, and after a disaster. Feel free to contact any of our experienced team members to start the discussion.
Contact us at hello@sidracollaborative.com and read about our range of services on our website: https://sidracollaborative.com/funders/.
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