Coronavirus: What Your Charity Needs To Do To Prepare

Hygiene Arrangements

• Ensure adequate arrangements are in place, both on a day-to-day basis and in the event you may need to deep clean.

Planning & Contact Lists

• Ensure that your contingency plan and emergency contact list are up-to-date.

Insurance

• The Government has made coronavirus a “notifiable disease”, which is required by many insurance policies. Check if you’re covered.
• If not, you could consider buying cover extension, but it’s likely to be very expensive.
• Does your insurance cover people when home working, or require specific checks to be carried out, before they do, or require you to advise them of any home workers?

Travel, meeting and event schedules

• Review travel, meetings and events that are planned, and consider contingency options that may be needed.
• For board meetings check your constitution allows remote participation (such as by phone or video link) and quorum.
• If you have an AGM coming up, consider encouraging members to vote by proxy.
• For foreign travel, check the FCO website. The Travel Health Pro website might also be useful.

Fundraising and Income

• Hong Kong has been in the grip of coronavirus, since Jan 20, 60% of NGOs in a survey report income is down by a third. The UK is not the same, but 45% of total income is from the public, with small and very large charities the most reliant on this.
• The immediate impact is likely to be on street and Door-To-Door collections and/or fundraising events. If you have retail shops, visitor attractions or deliver other paid-for services, consider the financial impact of any potential disruption. Check how critical funding bids, or grant payments might be, in case of possible delays in these being processed.
• To try and help, 2 new Charity Excellence funder lists have been created, with links to funder websites - 60+ health and 90+ social welfare. There are also existing funder lists for hospices, and those working with older people and the disabled, plus funders that support smaller charities, hard to fund causes and core funding applications.
• Not income and most of us have at least 80% mandatory relief anyway, but some good news in the budget for charity retail, museums, galleries and sports organisations - business rates have been suspended for this year.
• And, if you’re lucky enough to have investments, consider the potential risks of the recent market falls becoming protracted.
• Here’s the IoF guidance for fundraisers and events advice from the Fundraising Regulator.

Finance

• Review your income forecasts, assess any cost increases and consider reviewing your expenditure.
• This Charity Excellence resource includes 30+ ways to reduce cost, without cutting into core activities.

Resilience

• The sector is already hard-pressed and, potentially, the coronavirus could trigger a recession. If you have any financial concerns, confirm that you have a reasonable expectation you will be able to continue meeting your liabilities as these fall due - pay your bills?
• Warning indicators to think about - income streams are uncertain, or may be substantially impacted by coronavirus, limited cash at bank and few assets that can easily be liquidated, heavy dependence on a single income stream that may be at risk, multi-year funding due to end soon, with no replacement funding yet in place, spending restricted income on core costs or unplanned spending of reserves, free reserves well below target, or no free reserves.
• If you do not have a reasonable expectation of being able to pay your bills, advise the Board and seek professional help. There are potentially serious personal risks to trustees who continue to ’wrongfully trade’, whilst insolvent.

IT Systems

• Do you have adequate access to conference or video calling, for remote meetings and home working. Has any software been set-up and do participants know how to use it.
• Before buying workspace collaboration/meeting software, check what’s available free for charities. I like Zoom, but there are others, such as Slack. In response to the coronavirus outbreak, Asana is offering charities free licences to its work management tool.
• For home workers, check their broadband is strong enough and they have adequate anti-malware, such as an up-to-date virus checker and firewall. Consider using a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
• Here’s a guide to holding online meetings.

Specialist Requirements

• Ensure you are aware of any additional requirements, such as in education or social/health care?

Scams

• Sadly, it had to happen. There are reports of fraudulent sellers of face masks and coronavirus-themed phishing emails. People are understandably worried and panic buying has made some resources scarce. However, don’t let those pressures blind your common sense.

Resources

• Latest information and advice.
• Acas: Advice for employees and employers.
• Acas: Homeworking guidance, including checklist and policy template
• Gov.UK: Guidance for employers.
• Gov.UK: Social or community care and residential settings.
• Gov.UK: Educational settings.
• Gov.UK - Residential care, supported living and home care
• Gov.UK: Decontamination in non-healthcare settings.
• NHS: Fit for travel advice.

Can you help?

The CEF works on a community collaboration basis. Can you help me help others by adding to this resource? If so, comment below, including any links.

With thanks to Sarah Critchley and Rebecca Curtis Moss for making this resource more useful for everyone.