Building a resilient charity – lessons from 2024
01/06/2025
As charities look ahead to what 2025 has in store, many will be reflecting on a challenging and turbulent 2024.
With increasing demand on their services, along with rising energy prices and financial pressures, many charities are being forced to do more with less, while adapting to an ever changing risk landscape.
Faced with these challenges, organisational resilience – the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt and respond to change – is critical. Here, we look at some of the key risk trends from 2024, and the implications for organisational resilience.
Climate-related risks
2024 was another year hit by extreme weather events. In January, Storm Isha left hundreds of thousands without power, while the year ended with the cancellation of a number of New Year’s Eve events - including Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations - following Met Office wind and rain warnings. In between, the UK also saw its hottest February and May on record.
How can charities improve their resilience to climate risks?
Building resilience is about having a clear understanding of how your people, property and activities could be affected by a range of different climate scenarios, and planning accordingly. Consider the following to help prepare for extreme weather events:
- Planning – Create a short, medium and long-term picture of how, where, and when your charity might be affected by different climate risks, what the impacts might be, and who might be affected. Review and update risk assessments accordingly.
- Response – Inform your people of the plan so they’re clear about roles and responsibilities in an extreme weather scenario. Make sure to test your response plans.
- Recovery – Have a clear and straightforward process for gathering and reviewing information after an extreme weather event. Use a ‘risk-based’ approach when dealing with climate risks. This means finding a way to identify, asses, understand and take action to stop the event from happening again. A good example of this is taking down details of property damage
Cyber risks
Cyber incidents have made regular headlines in 2024, not least at the year-end, when the US Treasury Department announced it had fallen victim to Chinese state-sponsored hackers.
But cyber threats haven’t just occurred at an international level, nor have they always involved sophisticated attacks by malicious groups. A survey published in 2024 by the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology found that one-third (32%) of charities experienced some form of cyber-attack or breach in the previous 12 months.
Schools have also fallen victim to cyber-attacks in 2024. In June, Billericay School in Essex declared a significant critical incident when it was targeted. The criminals managed to access the names, addresses and medical notes of children.
Schools, charities and the public sector are becoming more frequently attacked by cyber criminals. See what Arun Banerjee from Zurich Risk Solutionshad to say in this Insurance Times article.
How can charities improve their cyber resilience?
Human error is a factor in most incidents, so providing appropriate and timely cyber security training and guidance to staff is perhaps the best way to build cyber resilience. This should include advice on how to identify, prevent and report common threats, such as phishing attacks. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology survey found that charities who have experienced a cyber incident in the last year, 84% have been the victim of phishing.
The Charity Commission has some useful cyber security guides and resources tailored to different sizes of charity, including information on phishing attacks and other threats, such as ransomware.
Electric vehicles and charging infrastructure
The Labour government’s 2024 election manifesto included a commitment to restore a 2030 deadline for phasing out new petrol and diesel vehicles, a move which should speed up the already rapid growth of the electric vehicle market.
Electric vehicles (EV) and their charging facilities can present risks that need to be understood, managed and mitigated. These risks can include fire hazards from overheating EV batteries or electrical faults as a result of incorrectly installed or maintained charging stations.
How can charities improve their resilience?
Ensure you have an appropriate review system including risk assessments, inspections and regular maintenance. In relation to EV charging stations, risks should be designed out where possible before installation, for example, by ensuring charging stations are compatible with existing electrical systems, and are installed in an appropriate location, ideally well away from buildings and not in a place that will make firefighting challenging, for example in an underground car park.
Your risk assessment should cover any training or guidance that employees, volunteers or visitors may need to manage charging points safely, for example instructions on how to use and store charging cables, and how to identify and report damaged cables.
Reflections on a challenging 2024 – and hope for the future
While the risks above vary greatly, most if not all have the potential to financially impact charities, at a time when many find themselves being asked to stretch their resources further than ever before. A 2024 Charity Commission study puts this into context. It found that the percentage of people donating to, or fundraising for, charities fell from 62% in 2020 to 47% in 2024. Over the same period, the percentage of people being supported by charities – including receiving financial help – trebled from 3% to 9%.
Taking steps to build organisational resilience will not only help your charity to identify and prepare for risks on the horizon, it may also help protect you from some of the financial impact these risks have, so that you can continue to deliver on your purpose, and continue to make a difference to people and communities.
How can Zurich help?
We’ve published a range of guides, articles and other resources covering many of the topics discussed above.
- Articles on climate change risk topics
- Articles on cyber risk topics
- Risk Insight: Electric vehicle charging
Zurich Resilience Solutions (ZRS)
ZRS has teams of experts covering areas such as climate resilience, cyber risk, and electric vehicle infrastructure. We can help you better understand your exposure to these risks and give you guidance on ways to manage and mitigate them.
To find out more, email zrs.enquries@uk.zurich.com
