Strengthening preparedness for reputational risk and crisis response

In 2023, di:ga supported FareShare, the UK’s largest food redistribution charity, to strengthen its preparedness for reputational risk and crisis response. We were asked by them to do this having successfully helped them handle a number of sensitive situations around funding, leadership and relationships with others in the sector.

With 18 network partners and 345 regional centres, FareShare – which has recently announced a merger with The Felix Project – operates at scale and under scrutiny. Its federated model involves semi-autonomous regional partners, which means that issues arising in one centre could have national implications. Our brief was to help them anticipate and manage those risks before they became crises.

We designed a three-phase programme, as outlined above. We helped FareShare identify their key vulnerabilities and what, if anything, they could do to reduce them. We worked out a plan for how information should move through the system in a crisis, establishing escalation routes and sign-off procedures, and developing draft template materials, including holding statements and factual briefing notes, ready for immediate use.

Finally, we ran a real-time crisis simulation with the team, designed to build confidence and muscle memory across the organisation, and identify practical improvements. The work gave FareShare a structured, scalable approach to risk — improving alignment between teams, clarifying roles, and ensuring reputational management was built into the organisation’s culture.

Get in touch if you’d like to find out how we could support you: [email protected]