If you read enough books about crisis communications, or if you talk to enough consultants, you'll find there's a wide variety of opinion about how, exactly, to define a "communications crisis." 

I have my own opinion based on my experience with nonprofits. For me, a communications crisis is what happens when there is significant level of negative emotion surrounding a nonprofit.

Let's start with the obvious: a crisis is when anything really bad happens. 

But a communications crisis is different. A communications crisis is when a nonprofit has to respond publicly because a) something really bad happened, b) there is a substantial emotional component to what happened, and c) a reasonable person may assume that your nonprofit is responsible for the crisis occurring and/or solving it.

It’s also worth noting that a major communications crisis involves responding publicly to something that threatens your nonprofit's ability to carry on.

For example, some of my clients run nonprofits in the human-services field. They serve populations with intellectual/developmental disabilities, behavioral challenges, addiction issues, etc. Now imagine that there is young person being treated on an outpatient basis for addiction by such a nonprofit. Then imagine that this young person dies of a drug overdose. That is a crisis, but not necessarily a communications crisis.

But imagine if the family of the deceased takes to social media and blames the death on the nonprofit where he was being treated. That is a communications crisis.

Or consider this example: a reduction in state funding for programs that serve children with developmental disabilities is a crisis for nonprofits that provide those services. But a reduction in such funding large enough that it requires a nonprofit to close an after-school program is also a crisis for parents. And the emotional reaction of those parents -- particularly when expressed to reporters or on social media -- triggers a communications crisis for the nonprofit.

Things are different in the for-profit world. Certainly an emotional reaction by consumers to something a corporation does can trigger a communications crisis. But so can lots of events that don't involve an emotional reaction, i.e., a decline in operating revenue, a drop in market share, the discontinuation of a product line, etc.

But in the nonprofit world, emotion is the key. That shouldn't be a surprise. Emotions are what drive most of the nonprofit space. Nonprofits market themselves through emotion-generating phrases about "doing good," "serving under-served populations," "righting wrongs", "saving the planet," "protecting children," "supporting veterans," etc. 

Emotion is the language of nonprofits. And when you lose control of how people express their emotions about your nonprofit, you have a communications crisis.    

— by Paul Conley