Business Continuity Policy

Type: Operational

Target audience: Employees

1.0 Rationale

OTF is committed to serving its grantees, volunteers and stakeholders. To safeguard the availability of OTF’s essential services in the event of a business disruption or emergency, OTF adopts best practice business continuity planning and management practices.

2.0 Purpose

This policy sets the guiding governance principles that will enable the Senior Leadership Team to develop and implement OTF’s Business Continuity Plan.

3.0 Policy

The CEO is accountable to the Chair and the Board for the business continuity at OTF. 
The Foundation is committed to:

  • Establish a Business Continuity Plan (BCP), or Plans, to ensure business continuity for OTF. The BCP will cover services that are critical to OTF’s operations along with plans and strategies to ensure on-time recovery and risk mitigation strategies.  
  • Ensure the development and maintenance of BCP. The BCP will include an Emergency Response Team that will be responsible for executing the recovery plan and coordinating recovery activities across the organization in the event of a major disruption.  
  • Provide funding for business continuity activities.
  • Conduct annual reviews, updates, and approvals of the Business Continuity Plan(s) and Business Impact Analysis.
  • Provide training and undertake training exercises on the Business Continuity Plan each year.
  • Gain assurances that all suppliers and service providers (existing and new) that are identified as critical, and upon which the organization relies on to support its own mission critical services, have proper BC plans and processes in place. 

4.0 Definitions

  • Business Continuity (BC) – The ability for an organization to plan for and respond to emergency or major disruption to continue delivering products or services at acceptable predefined levels.  
  • Business Continuity Plan (BCP) – A collection of documented procedures and resources that are developed, compiled and maintained, in readiness for use in the event of an emergency or major disruption.  (Similar terms:  Business Recovery Plan, Disaster Recovery Plan, and Recovery Plan)
  • Business Continuity Planning Team – A team responsible for the planning, development and implementation, and periodic review of the business continuity plan and projects.  
  • Business Impact Analysis – A process that identifies and evaluates potential effects of an emergency or major disruption to business operations because of natural or man-made events.  
  • Business Unit – A team of individuals organized to perform specific duties based on the functions performed within the organization.  For example, Communications, Finance, IT, etc.
  • Emergency Response Team (ERT) – A team that prepares and responds to an emergency or major disruption.  
  • Risk Register – A tool that is used to document the outcomes of a risk analysis.