A crisis can take many forms and represent significant risk for an organization’s ability to continue ordinary operations, as well as for its image, its client base and its short- and long-term financial performance. Effective planning and response will help you navigate a crisis successfully. Here five tips to get started:

1. Have a plan. Once a crisis occurs it’s too late to begin planning. Create an emergency response plan that takes into account all possible risks, from accidents and abuse to newer risks like active shooters and emerging health issues. Make sure you utilizes all necessary resources when creating your plan.
2. Widen your expertise. It’s impossible to handle a crisis alone. You need a wide range of resources both inside and outside your organization, ranging from medical professionals and grief counselors to public relations professionals and attorneys.
3. Create a crisis communications component to your plan. This includes establishing one spokesperson and defining his/her specific responsibilities, and establishing protocols for handling the media and for managing and monitoring social media.
4. Communicate open and honestly. Take control of your situation and be first in communicating with the families of the children you serve. Open, accurate and rapid communications goes a long way in building and maintaining the trust and respect of your community and clients.
5. Distribute, practice and update the plan. Your plan does not do any good sitting on a shelf. It should be widely circulated, understood by everyone involved and practiced. The plan should also be reviewed and updated on a regular basis.

Kimball Communications recently announced the signing of four new clients in the insurance, non-profit and tourism industries.

The clients include:

• The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation: IICF is an international nonprofit that unites the collective strengths of insurance industry professionals to give back to their communities through grants, volunteer service and leadership. IICF also hosts the largest diversity-agenda conference within the insurance industry, the Women in Insurance Global Conference. Kimball Communications has been hired to promote the 2017 conference, its speakers and related thought leadership to global business media as well as insurance and philanthropic trade press.

• Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia: Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum has hired Kimball Communications to craft a multi-channel story offering a behind-the-scenes perspective on the innovative creation of a new exhibit. This upcoming exhibit will explore the influenza pandemic that gripped the city (and the world) from 1918-1919.

• Pennsylvania & Indiana Lumbermens Mutual Insurance Companies (PLM): One of the country’s largest insurers specializing in lumber and wood-related businesses, this Philadelphia-based company has asked Kimball Communications to develop a comprehensive public relations campaign. This integrated campaign will promote PLM’s expertise among its target audiences with regular media coverage, as well as engage those audiences on social media to generate, grow and maintain awareness.

• Angel Flight East: A non-profit providing compassion flight services for those in need in the Mid-Atlantic and northeastern U.S., Angel Flight East partnered with Kimball Communications to enhance awareness of its mission among pilots, business leaders, healthcare providers, patient communities and social workers using media relations, event promotion and thought leadership strategies.

“Our expertise and track record of success within the insurance, non-profit, arts and tourism spaces will serve each of these clients well, and we’re happy to support the important work they do,” noted agency President Gary Kimball.