Knowing the possible risks you face, and those you may experience, when you’re running a club or NFP organisation is simply the first step. Dealing with them when they’re happening is something you want to avoid entirely.

What you need to establish is risk management, whereby you identify all potential risks, including but not limited to regulatory, statutory and legal requirements, as well as public safety, health and environment, and mismanagement risks.

This involves the following four-step process for all possible risks or problems before they occur.

• Identifying
• Analysing
• Assessing
• Monitoring

Sitting down and thinking about all the possible worst case scenarios isn’t a fun task, and can lead to you wondering why you started your organisation in the first place. It is, however, important in identifying possible risks, as much as working out which ones aren’t relevant to you.

Analysing their impact on you and your organisation is just as important. This helps you to develop strategies to reduce the risk of their occurrence, or avoid them entirely in some cases.

Constantly assessing your procedures, as well as your volunteers, employees, and board members will help you to identify any exposure to risks or any new risks that present themselves. It will determine how well your team are complying, as well as identify any gaps in your procedures, processes, and risk management plans.

Monitoring what’s happening in terms of regulations and laws within your industry, and within charitable organisations and clubs is vital. It will ensure you are meeting all compliance regulations, as well as identifying any risks that may now have presented themselves.

Some of this will be addressed in documents like volunteer agreements and employee contracts, which will cover topics such as behaviour, compliance and legalities. This will refer to such things as personal safety, as well as obligations and repercussions for certain behaviours, amongst other things. Further, more specific information may be included in job descriptions or agreements for specific roles. Following these up with instruction or process manuals, and procedures helps to reduce the unfavourable incidents and lets volunteers and employees know what is expected of them.

Providing adequate training on processes and equipment is essential in reducing risks, as is providing opportunities for counselling, support, or other interventions for the team around you, including volunteers and board members. Sometimes, regular team or one on one meetings is all that is required to ensure everyone is clear on what’s happening and enables them to manage risks themselves, to a degree. Risk management tools for volunteering organisations can provide you with tips and information on establishing risk management plans and processes.

Identifying risks can be a difficult, time-consuming process, and often we want to avoid thinking about the worst case scenario and focus on the positives. Exploring the negatives and developing strategies to deal with, or better still, prevent them can save you and your organisation from fines, lawsuits, unfavourable publicity, and even extinction.

Setting yourself up to minimise risks will help you, even in the short term, and save you from the worst case scenarios entirely.