Planning for a Crisis Before One Happens
Tom Rawlings and I are presenting “Planning Now for a Crisis” at CAFO’s 2026 Summit, scheduled for September 23-25. This post hits the highlights of what we’ll be presenting. If you’re in the area, consider joining us at the conference.
A crisis plan is not just an operational tool. It is part of your organization’s legal defense. When a crisis hits a youth-serving organization, the record of how it responded starts almost immediately, whether or not anyone planned for that. Every statement your team issues in the first hours becomes part of that record. So does every decision about who gets suspended, and every gap in your documentation. A plaintiff’s attorney, an insurer, or a regulator will read that record later. Organizations that plan before a crisis can create a record that supports them. Organizations that improvise can create a record that opposing attorneys can use against them.
What You Say Early Can Become Evidence Later
Under pressure, organizations often reach for reassurance, such as “we screen all of our employees” or “we followed our policies.” Those statements feel protective in the moment. In practice, each one hands a plaintiff’s attorney a specific claim to test. If your organization has not audited every personnel file within the first day, you cannot say with certainty that your team screened every employee. Once you have said it, the opposing side’s next move is to find the exception.
A crisis plan solves this before the pressure hits. Build your public statement templates in advance, with your attorney’s review. Leave room in each template for what you actually know, not for what you hope is true. A template that says “we take this seriously and are cooperating with authorities” protects you. A template that asserts unverified facts creates a target.
Isolating the Accused Carries Legal Weight in Both Directions
Suspending or otherwise isolating a staff member or volunteer someone has accused, even on a historic allegation, is a safety decision first. It also carries legal weight on both sides. Failing to act can support a claim that your organization knew of a risk and left it unaddressed. Acting without a documented, consistent process can expose your organization to a wrongful termination or defamation claim from the accused person.
A crisis plan resolves this tension before you face it under pressure. Decide now whether you can afford to suspend with pay. Decide now that you will document the basis for the decision as you make it, not after the fact. Apply the same process every time. Your organization should never have to explain why one employee got treated differently than the last one.
Notify Your Insurance Carrier Immediately, Even If Coverage Is Uncertain
Notify your carrier as soon as an incident could plausibly trigger coverage, even if you are not sure it will. Insurers regularly deny claims on late notice grounds alone, regardless of the merits of the underlying claim. General liability, directors’ and officers’ coverage, and any abuse liability endorsement may all respond differently to the same incident. You do not want to be sorting that out for the first time under pressure.
A crisis plan names who makes the notification call in advance. It sets the expectation that notice goes out in the same window as your mandated report, not after your internal investigation concludes. When you review your plan each year, review your policy triggers alongside it. Coverage terms change, and a plan built around last year’s policy language can leave you exposed.
Documentation Built Under a Plan Holds Up Better Later
Every written statement, incident report, and record your organization gathers during a crisis will likely surface again. It may surface in litigation, a licensing review, or a law enforcement request. A witness statement taken close in time to the event, in writing, holds up better than a recollection gathered months later, after memory has shifted. An organization with a standing documentation habit produces this evidence naturally. An organization without one produces it defensively, months into a dispute, and that gap itself becomes a talking point for opposing counsel.
A written plan should specify who takes statements, where records live, and who controls access. Waiting until a crisis to answer those questions costs you time you do not have. It often costs you the quality of the record itself.
Retention matters as much as collection. Many states have extended the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse claims well beyond what applies to ordinary negligence claims. A record you discard after your standard retention period may still matter years later. Build your retention schedule around your state’s actual limitations period for these claims, not around your general document retention policy.
Your Board Has a Duty to Ask About Crisis Planning Before It Happens
A board’s fiduciary duty of care extends to organizational readiness, not just to financial oversight. A board that never asks whether a crisis plan exists has a harder time defending its own diligence later. The same goes for a board that never reviews one once it does, if a crisis exposes gaps that basic planning would have caught. Put crisis plan review on your board’s calendar once a year and keep the minutes showing that review happened.
Plan Now, Because the Clock Starts the Moment It Happens
None of this legal exposure disappears because your organization means well. Whether a crisis becomes a manageable response or a costly one usually depends on whether your organization planned before it started. It does not depend on how the crisis itself unfolded. Start your planning now to manage a crisis, all while hoping that you will never need any of it.
