Are you prepared for the day your executive director is led away in handcuffs? When auditors discover that the multi-million gift from that wonderful widow has gone missing?  Or when “60 Minutes” comes knocking on the door asking difficult questions?

It’s not just the BPs, Goldman-Sachs and Toyotas who need a plan.  Crises large and small can and do occur in nonprofits and, hopefully, if handled promptly and well damage can be mitigated.

Sunday’s New York Times carried two articles well worth a read.  The first –a piece on the doping investigation of Lance Armstrong and its possible effects on his Livestrong Foundation – reminds us of the stakes and complexities involved when a good cause and its popular champion come under siege.

The second, a well-reported piece titled “In Case of Emergency:  What not to do.” is a helpful primer of  communication “do’s” and “don’ts” as seen by a range of crisis managers in the professional PR priesthood.

Of course, there’s anything but universal agreement on how best to handle a crisis, but one thing is universal and certain:  Some plan is better than no plan.

As we’ve seen from the BP crisis, there are many ways to get things wrong, but what are the few basic things that every organization faced with a crisis has to get right?

For a no-nonsense look at why so many of the old chestnuts that pass as ‘solutions’ may be far more harmful than helpful, I commend Eric Dezenhall’s brief guide in the current issue of the publication Ethical Corporation.

Dezenhall, who heads the crisis management firm Dezenhall Resources in Washington, D.C. has been labeled ‘the pit bull of public relations’ by Business Week because of his ‘take no prisoners’ stance in handling crises for his clients.  While the types of clients he generally defends aren’t my cup tea, his advice strikes me as powerful and effective.

Among his points:

• Think twice about relying on the old ‘chestnuts’ like “Get out in front of the story”…”Fess up and apologize”…”Speak with one voice”…and “A crisis is an opportunity.”  Instead…
• Become familiar with case studies of effective crisis management — especially those that defy conventional wisdom — and he cites several examples.
• Determine where your situation lies on the continuum between repentance and defiance.  When you are guilty, repent; when you are innocent, push back.
• Allow for the unexpected, it is vanity to believe all variables are foreseeable.
• Given the choice between a good crisis plan and good leadership, pick a good leader.

My sense is that even in this world of the 24-hour news cycle and the blogosphere not many nonprofits have crisis plans of the ‘bad news’ type.  Only plans for dealing with natural disasters, political contingencies, and other mission-related emergencies.

Here’s to a crisis-free week.

Roger