Managing Risks
Funders often want to know what you think the risks might be in terms of the success of the project, and what steps you will take to mange those risks or plan how to deal with them should they arise. Even if the funders do not ask about risks it is a good idea for you to think about what the risks are so that you can plan in advance how you will deal with them.
In some cases funders will ask about "dependencies" which are similar to risks. They are really asking how different elements of your project relate to each other if there is a problem with one area of work within the project activity are there other things that will be affected, how will they be affected and how will you reduce the impact of any problems or plan to deal with them should they arise.
So taking account of risks is really about thinking about what could go wrong, deciding how likely it is and what you will do about it if it does.
In its simplest form you have to ask yourself two simple questions (though the answers may be more complicated).
What are the risks and how significant they are?
What can we do to reduce or eliminate those risks?
What are the risks
Risks are those things that could happen that would have a negative impact on the project or activity. In practice you can identify two types of risks;
Direct risks - those that you have some direct control of or that are the direct result of the way you are undertaking the project or activity. An example of this may be a failure to recruit volunteers if they are a part of the project team.
Indirect risks - those that are generated from outside the project and which you have little (but more often no) control of.
A way of answering the question of what are the risks is to do it in two parts, firstly have a brainstorm with those developing the project or activity to ask the question, "what could go wrong?" and secondly discuss how likely is it and how big an impact it would have if it did. You can then create a table and place the risks in the relevant place.
Based on this discussion it is possible to produce a simple table of risks which will be invaluable both for using while you are delivering the project activity and for helping you complete applications where this is asked for.
As an example you may do a risk assessment for the delivery of a three week cricket academy at a cricket club in a city. You decide to break the risks in terms of high, medium or low likelihood of happening and the same three categories for the scale of the impact. The information is gathered into a table as shown below.
Scale | ||||
High | Medium | Low | ||
Likelihood | High | Poor weather prevents an academy day or days happening | ||
Medium | Not getting all the Criminal record checks done on time for the volunteers | Not getting enough support volunteers | ||
Low | Not getting enough young people as participants | Getting too many participants |
Once you have completed the table it may also be useful to note down the nature of that risk so it is easy to identify later on. For instance with the high impact high likelihood issue of poor weather preventing a day happening you may note that the problem is that the day will have to be cancelled and this may impact on the willingness of people to sign up or to come back the following day, a big impact on the outcomes that you are trying to achieve through the project. It may also mean that some participants turn up anyway and that they will need to be looked after despite their being no facilities for them to play cricket.
It is possible that by going through this process, a major risk is identified that wasn't originally apparent, or that a number of high, likely risks are identified which would outweigh the benefits of the project. In this case it is important to fully acknowledge them, and to decide as an organisation whether you still wish to go ahead with the project or funding application. Do remember that by uncovering previously unidentified risks you are helping your organisation to properly assess the viability of the project. If in view of this activity the project does not go ahead, this should be seen as a positive outcome. You may have avoided getting funding for a project that could fail which would have a negative impact when you next apply.
Once you have identified the potential risks you must then decide how you can reduce or eliminate those risks.
Reducing or eliminating risks
Any good project management or project development will assess what the risks are as part of the development of the project. The funders are also interested in knowing how or what may be a problem and that you have thought about these and agreed how you will respond.
For each risk you have identified you should identify what you could do to reduce or eliminate the risk.
So for instance using the example identified in "what are the risks?" there is a perception that there is a high risk of losing a whole day to the weather and this having a major impact on the delivery and outcomes from the project. It is clear that you can do nothing to change the weather so the thing to do will be focused on reducing the impact. So the next question is how to reduce the impact? There are clearly a number of options..:
Book an alternative venue for a small number of participants to use if raining and ensure that there is appropriate transport available to get the participants there
Make sure that the participants are clear about the circumstances that may lead to a cancellation of a day of the academy
Have an agreed cut off time when participants will be informed about cancellation and agree a process to make sure that everyone is contacted
For each risk you should identify what you will do. For the purposes of most applications you will only need to describe the significant risks or dependencies: those that are considered high risk either because of their impact or their likelihood.
