Page 196 - Demo

HOW DO WE GO ABOUT PUTTING IN PLACE A RISK POLICY?
You need to take steps to identify the risks that your charity faces and then apply some form of scoring process to evaluate which risks are likely to have the greatest overall impact on the charity. Following the completion of this process you can plan how you will deal with those risks.
WHAT RISKS SHOULD WE BE CONSIDERING?
You need to start by considering the context in which your charity operates (which includes its current activity, its past activity and its potential future activity). This will enable you to identify the key risks that you face, but also enable you to consider the other areas where you may face risks. For example, if you operate a care home it is easy to consider that this may involve risks, but it may be more dif cult to think about risks that are dependent upon matters outside of your control such as the effect of political events on your investments. If you have operated an institution in the past you need to think about the residual risks, for example, the potential for historic claims, how you would deal with them and the associated reputational issues.
You have to consider everything. Many charities simply focus on the nancial and safeguarding risks, as these are the most obvious, and fail to consider issues that may be of much greater strategic importance. For example, for many religious institute charities a lot of focus is on declining numbers and managing the nances to ensure that suf cient funds are available to meet the needs of the elder members of the religious institute in the future. However, a focus on this area would not mean that it would be appropriate, for example, to overlook the risk to the future strategy of the charity and whether you are maybe drifting away from your core mission to activity that is outside of your charitable objects.
You need to consider the environment in which your charity operates, not just internal factors but also external factors, such as changing social attitudes, political and legal changes and developments in technology. For example,
the risks associated with computers are no longer con ned to trying to avoid viruses, but extend to inappropriate content, online bullying, fraud and so on.
192 Chapter 10