Resources for Navigating Uncertainty + Crisis

We're hearing from many Maine nonprofits concerned about their ability to meet their mission in a rapidly changing context of executive orders and funding changes. Below are resources and tangible steps your nonprofit can take to help you prepare for and navigate uncertainty. This post will continue to be updated as we find new resources.

Jump to...

• Safety + Wellness
• Legal & HR Compliance
• Scenario Planning & Financial Modeling
• Crisis Planning & Management
• Nonprofit Advocacy
• Governance, Leadership & Oversight
• For Funders
• Cybersecurity

Safety + Wellness

We are hearing from members concerned about the safety of their staff and board members. Those that aren't thinking about this are likely missing an opportunity and responsibility to support their teams by listening, communicating, and taking proactive steps. Have open and compassionate discussions with your staff about what they need and how the organization can support them.

Here are some practices to consider if you anticipate your staff are at risk of being targets of hostility or violence because of their identities, or because of your organization's mission-related work.

• Remove your office's physical address from your website and other public facing documents.
• Have a standard policy not to share details of staff locations/schedules without permission.
• Remove from your bio details about your families or other identifying information.
• Weigh the pros and cons of having staff feel accessible with the risks of sharing staff names - consider removing staff names & photos entirely from your website if you feel at high risk for personal attacks.
• Utilize a web "scrubbing" service (like DeleteMe, Incogni, or Optery) to remove all mention of identifying information on the web (age, address, phone number - the things you can easily find through a web search).
• Document standard operating procedures (SOPs) regarding emergencies (who to call in various scenarios) and regularly talk through these scenarios with staff.
• Closely monitor all incoming mail, email, voicemail, and social media messages, and make a plan for how you will - if necessary - contact local police and/or the FBI.
• Install security cameras.
• Offer de-escalation training for staff to support them in navigating a situation with a confrontational or hostile participant at an event or who shows up at the office.

In addition, you may have employees or clients who are concerned about their rights related to immigration - make sure your organization understands what to do in the case of a visit from ICE. The National Immigration Law Center offers A Guide for Employers: What to Do if Immigration Comes to Your Workplace. New York Lawyers for the Public Interest and Lawyers Alliance for New York have issued updated guidance to nonprofits outlining best practices for assisting and protecting immigrant clients.

Some additional resources:

• Democracy Protection Network: Offers support across cyber, physical security, communications, and legal for organizations working on democracy. Support may be free or at low cost.
• The Democracy Security Project: Provides trainings on physical, communications, and cyber security, along with 1:1 support through their intake process. Initially for the democracy field, now expanded to serve all organizations.
• Vision Change Win Community Safety Rapid Response Support - free of charge virtual rapid response support to social justice movements, organizations, and leaders dealing with urgent community safety incidents.
• See also Crisis Planning and Cybersecurity below. 
• When Purpose Feels Uncertain: Navigating Well-Being in a Humanitarian Sector in Crisis (Stephen Thompson, Headington Institute)

Legal & HR Compliance

Nonprofit Legal Compliance in an Unfriendly Political Environment (Nonprofit Quarterly)
List of compliance matters to prepare to address a threat.

Scenario Planning & Financial Modeling

12 Urgent Financial Action Steps for Nonprofits: A 2025 Checklist (Steve Zimmerman and Ruth McCambridge, Nonprofit Financial Commons)
This article is intended to help nonprofit organizations take on the first phase of what is likely to be an extended period of financial uncertainty. It is structured as an action checklist designed to build your organization’s agility under turbulent conditions. The first part focuses on the importance of building your ongoing access to unrestricted and liquid dollars, while the second part is about using our network and advocacy to protect ourselves, other nonprofit o 

Nonprofit Scenario Planning (The Bridgespan Group)
Guide to build scenario plans to successfully navigate uncertainty of local, national, or even global events.

Nonprofit Scenario Planning in an Age of Chaos (La Piana)
"Scenario planning, like traditional strategic planning, is premised on a belief that with enough data and a sound analysis, an organization can assign a reasonably accurate likelihood to each potential future it may face. But in an era of extreme unpredictability, data collection and analysis are only the beginning. An organization needs to determine its Must Do’s, Won’t Do’s, and Might Do’s."

Scenario Planning Playbook (Georgia Center for Nonprofits)

True Business Planning for Nonprofit (Nonprofit Financial Commons)
(Video) The distinction between business planning, financial planning, and strategic planning; how to present risks to board members; frameworks to analyze your model and explain to stakeholders.

Risk Assessment Template (Tangelo Tree Consulting)
Identify risks; rate likelihood of occurrence; rate potential impact; identity top risks for further discussion; plan to mitigate risk.

What to Watch and Do as Your Nonprofit Enters a Chaotic 2025 (Nonprofit Financial Commons)
(Video) Nonprofit leaders and experts examine key financial trends that nonprofits need to navigate an uncertain landscape.

Scenario Budget Planning Template (Propel Nonprofits)
Think through different possibilities and consider the impact on your programs and organization.

Cash Flow Management & Cash Flow Template (Propel Nonprofits)
Management strategies to help your nonprofit prevent cash flow shortages, and a template to help you understand the ebbs and flows of your cash.

Cash Flow Management: A Tactical Review for Nonprofits of All Sizes (Nonprofit Financial Commons)
(Video) Tools to use for projections and forecasts, and tactics to manage cash after you have identified a potential problem.

Understanding Nonprofit Markets (Nonprofit Financial Commons)
Framework through which leaders can segment the market, develop a shared understanding of relevant forces, and prioritize the most pressing market-based challenges they face.

Do You Have the “Right Revenue?” (Spectrum Nonprofit Services)
Explore “right” revenue as a way of analyzing and deepening your understanding of the connection between financial resources and mission impact. 

The Power of Possibility: Exploring Greater Impact Through Strategic Partnerships
Includes discussion prompts for using times of financial crisis or adapting to change as starting points for considering strategic alliances and restructuring.

Crisis Planning & Management

Beacon - provides coordination services and strategic support for pro-democracy and grassroots organizations and individuals facing legal, public relations, digital, and physical threats due to their civic or elections related work, including at the national and state-wide levels.

Business Continuity Planning Worksheet (Nonprofit Risk Management Center)
A Business Impact Analysis (BIA) identifies the impact of downtime for various activities and processes. Your BIA should help you determine which functions must continue without interruption, which can be scaled back or shuttered temporarily, and the desired timeframe for recovery and restoration. 

The Future is Now: Preparing for the Unknown Crisis (Nonprofit Risk Management Center)
Tips on creating a practical and actionable crisis management plan

How to Simplify and Streamline During a Crisis (Nonprofit Risk Management Center)

Navigating Through Times of Financial Crisis (Nonprofit Finance Fund)
Assess your nonprofit’s potential financial risks and create a plan to respond to them.

Mapping Our Social Change Roles in Times of Crisis (Deepa Iyer)

Indicators of Financial Crisis: Organizational Self-Assessment (The Foraker Group)

Identifying and Mitigating Nonprofit Risk with a Six-Step Crisis Communication Plan (Blue Avocado)

Forecasting Nonprofit Finances & Pivoting Programs in a Crisis: Download Spreadsheet (Blue Avocado)

Resiliency Strategies for Nonprofits in Times of Political and Financial Instability (Nonprofit Quarterly)

Six Steps for Pivoting in a Crisis (Nonprofit Quarterly)

Advocacy

Share your story with your elected officials
If your organization or the communities you serve are facing challenges, let your partners in government know! (Representative Jared Golden, Representative Chellie Pingree, Senator Susan Collins, Senator Angus King). MANP's Resources for Advocacy page includes tips for contacting policymakers. 

Share your story with MANP
How would a significant delay or reduction in funding affect your nonprofit’s ability to operate or serve your community? Please share your story via this brief form. 

Governance, Leadership & Oversight

Leading During Traumatic and Triggering Events (Diversity, Equity, Inclusiveness Consulting)

Emergency Succession Plan Template (Propel Nonprofits)
Craft an emergency response plan should your Executive Director become ill or temporarily unable to perform their duties.

Governing in a Time of Crisis (Propel Nonprofits)
10 actions for boards.

Revisiting the Financial Oversight Role of Nonprofit Boards (Nonprofit Financial Commons)
(Video) The real financial governance challenges of nonprofit boards and how they can function more effectively through redirecting efforts and redefining duties.

Beyond Financial Oversight: Expanding the Board’s Role in the Pursuit of Sustainability (Nonprofit Quarterly)
This article stresses that sustainability and engagement with the work is essential for nonprofit boards as they approach the future.

How Board Members Can Learn to Spot the Red Flags (Propel Nonprofits)
Rather than expecting board members to instantly recognize a problem in the making, let’s encourage boards to learn to ask the questions that will lead them there.

The Board’s Financial Leadership (Nonprofit Financial Commons)
(Video) Recorded webinar to help nonprofit boards understand their fiscal leadership, including fiduciary duties, committees, audit, legal forms, and internal controls.

Boards in Times of Adaptation (Propel Nonprofits)
(Video) Recorded webinar.

Resources for Funders