Is your nonprofit's IT department prepared for a disaster?

Earthquakes, wildfires, floods and terror attacks are just a few examples of emergencies that a nonprofit might have to face. Your nonprofit may find itself providing emergency services, offering vital services such as first aid, transportation and counseling. The community might also call on you to help secure food and shelter for the people affected or act as liaison with local government or the military.

But what about your own operation, your client files, employee data, network and hardware? Drafting an organized and detailed disaster plan can help minimize the loss of valuable data or equipment. It can also help you to recover from an emergency more quickly and begin to help clients get through the crisis.

TechSoup.org recently held a disaster preparedness online event and compiled a collection of samples, templates and resources produced by other organizations to help nonprofits create a disaster plan.

Contributions included disaster emergency planning templates from the British Library, the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York and the California Preservation Program. Other contributions included Tech Republic’s Practical Disaster Recovery Planning: A Step-by-Step Guide; and TechSoup’s Restoring IT Infrastructure Manual for Disaster Recovery.