Enterprise risk management: The key to your organisation’s longevity

In an uncertain environmental, political, and economic climate, it’s never been more crucial than ever to assess, or re-evaluate the risk your charity is exposed to. Sadly, those once-in-a-lifetime catastrophic events are occurring more frequently and are often interconnected. These big picture risks can impact on a charity at a local level, so preparation is key.

As Ansvar specialises in insurance for charity, not-for-profit and faith-based organisations, we see examples all too often of claims/risks that could have been avoided with proper risk management. Not only do these organisations incur unnecessary heartache, stress, and work for themselves, but those who need them the most are unable to access the support they provide, sometimes for an extended period of time.

Enterprise risk management is an important topic to understand if you want to protect your organisation effectively and avoid the consequences of a claim/risk occurring that could have been mitigated with some attention. In summary – it is framework, supported by a process to support the management of risks within an organisation.

A crucial element of the risk management process is to capture key risks in a risk register to support discussion in your charity.

Why create a risk register

A risk register is a purpose-built document which holds your identified risks, their level of concern, along with what mitigating actions you have put in place.

Having a robust and up-to-date risk register is critical to protecting your charity and your people and provides visibility of a robust audit trail of how you’re managing risks effectively and the actions you’ve undertaken. This can prove invaluable to support your defence in any sort of incident that might occur which could involve litigation.

At Ansvar, we have a free ERM toolkit, complete with a risk register spreadsheet template for you to use and implement.

This spreadsheet has been created by a team with decades of experience, distilled into one easy to use, yet highly detailed resource that guides you through the process of identifying, assessing, and dealing with potential threats; this provides insight to support decision making and areas for focus.

How to make your risk register

You’ll want to set aside some time, and we suggest approximately 3 hours to work with select people from your charity, who can bring different perspectives and areas of concern when it comes to your exposed risks. Not only that, but your colleagues will have different tolerances (appetites) for risk, so the differing opinions will help you see the risks more objectively.

Using the spreadsheet, you can fill in the details as prompted to complete your risk register.

Please remember, a risk register should be a living document that is regularly accessed and referenced; embedded into your organisation and used as a tool to support achievement of strategic objectives.

When you have this document complete, you should review it at least annually, but we recommend quarterly, or following any material change, for a more robust and living document.

Used effectively, and in tandem with our ERM toolkit summary, it will not only help with your decision-making, but it will allow you to confidently make a bigger impact in the community you serve, and reduce the risk of operational losses and disruption.

If you have any questions regarding your risk, we encourage you to contact your insurer or broker to discuss in more detail. The more proactive you can be when it comes to identifying and mitigating your risks, the less likely you’ll be to have an incident, and if the worst did happen, you’ll be more prepared to manage with minimal intervention required.



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