---
title: [BCM] [ACF] [E1] [C10] Identifying Critical Business Functions
description: [BCM] [ACF] [E1] [C10] Identifying Critical Business Functions
image: https://blog.bcm-institute.org/hubfs/SPD%20Graphic%20Folder/SPD%20E1%20Morepost/%5BBCM%5D%20%5BSPD%5D%20%5BE1%5D%20%5BC10%5D%20Identifying%20Critical%20Business%20Functions.jpg
---
.
[](http://www.bcm-institute.org/)
- [Home](https://www.bcm-institute.org/)
- [About Us](https://www.bcm-institute.org/about-us-3/)
- [A President’s Perspective](https://www.bcm-institute.org/about-us/a-presidents-perspective/)
- [Our History](https://www.bcm-institute.org/about-us/our-history/)
- [Our Advisory Council](https://www.bcm-institute.org/about-us/our-advisory-council/)
- [Customers’ Testimonials](https://www.bcm-institute.org/about-us/customers-testimonials/)
- [Credential Verification](https://www.bcm-institute.org/about-us/credential-verification/)
- [Courses](https://blog.bcm-institute.org/blog/course-fees-for-blended-learning-courses-master-catalog)
- [ISO 22301 Business Continuity Management System Audit](https://blog.bcm-institute.org/audit/business-continuity-management-audit-courses)
- [ISO 22301 Business Continuity Management](https://blog.bcm-institute.org/bcm/business-continuity-management-courses)
- [Crisis Communication](https://blog.bcm-institute.org/crisis-communication/crisis-communication-courses)
- [Crisis Management](https://blog.bcm-institute.org/en/crisis-management/courses)
- [IT Disaster Recovery](https://blog.bcm-institute.org/it-disaster-recovery/courses)
- [Operational Resilience](https://blog.bcm-institute.org/operational-resilience/courses)
- [Operational Resilience Audit](https://blog.bcm-institute.org/operational-resilience-audit/courses)
- [Certification](https://blog.bcm-institute.org/certification/types-of-certifications-offered)
- [ISO 22301 BCMS Audit Certification](https://blog.bcm-institute.org/certification/business-continuity-management-audit-certification)
- [ISO22301 Business Continuity Management Certification](https://blog.bcm-institute.org/bcm/business-continuity-management-certification)
- [Crisis Communication Certification](https://blog.bcm-institute.org/crisis-communication/crisis-communication-certification)
- [Crisis Management Certification](https://blog.bcm-institute.org/en/crisis-management/crisis-management-certification)
- [IT Disaster Recovery Planning Certification](https://blog.bcm-institute.org/it-disaster-recovery/it-disaster-recovery-certification)
- [Operational Resilience Certification](https://blog.bcm-institute.org/operational-resilience/operational-resilience-certification)
- [Operational Resilience Audit Certification](https://blog.bcm-institute.org/operational-resilience-audit)
- [Seminars](https://blog.bcm-institute.org/meet-the-expert/mte-webinar-mainpage)
- [Store](https://www.bcm-institute.org/store-2/)
- [Contact Us](http://www.bcm-institute.org/about-us/contact-us/)
-
-
##### Resilient Support: Implementing Business Continuity Management at ACF
# \[BCM\] \[ACF\] \[E1\] \[C10\] Identifying Critical Business Functions
[](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/4458e6b5-c212-45ab-899e-445b65b8f22d)
Business Continuity Management (BCM) ensures an organisation can continue delivering its most important activities at an acceptable level during disruptive incidents.
An essential step in developing an effective Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) is understanding which activities matter most to the organisation and which to prioritise for continuity and recovery.
For **Asia Community Foundation (ACF)**, this requires more than identifying departments or organisational units.
The focus should be on the business functions and supporting processes that enable ACF to fulfil its philanthropic purpose, meet commitments to donors and nonprofit partners, administer and disburse funds responsibly, maintain regulatory and governance obligations, and protect the integrity of its operations.
ACF operates as an independent charitable organisation and giving platform headquartered in Singapore.
Its activities include grantmaking and advisory services, donor-advised funds, collaborative or impact funds, and other mechanisms that facilitate purposeful giving across Asia.
Its operating model consequently involves donors, nonprofit and social-impact organisations, financial institutions, professional advisers, technology providers and other partners across multiple jurisdictions.
This model has significant continuity implications.
A disruption affecting ACF may not be confined to its internal operations.
Delayed grant processing, inability to access donor or grantee information, interrupted financial transactions, unavailable technology systems, or communication breakdowns may affect donors, grant recipients, and programmes that ultimately support communities across Asia.
This chapter establishes an initial catalogue of **Critical Business Functions (CBFs)** for ACF.
The catalogue provides a foundation for the subsequent Business Impact Analysis (BIA), risk assessment, continuity strategy development, recovery planning and testing activities.
[](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/fbb42012-8f64-401c-a56c-d84bdcfeee14)
[Moh Heng Goh](https://blog.bcm-institute.org/ebook/author/moh-heng-goh) Sep 24, 2026
###### Business Continuity Management Certified Planner-Specialist-Expert
### [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/bac56002-b686-44ff-9216-12ae95bda0f0)
### eBook 1: Chapter 10
[](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/fbb42012-8f64-401c-a56c-d84bdcfeee14)
### What are ACF’s Critical Business Functions Concerning Business Continuity Management?
#### Introduction
[![\[BCM\] \[ACF\] \[E1\] \[C10\] Identifying Critical Business Functions](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/3893111/a5ea9cb8-0f14-4831-88e5-de8d8fc0fbb6.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/a5ea9cb8-0f14-4831-88e5-de8d8fc0fbb6)
An essential step in developing an effective Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) is understanding which activities matter most to the organisation and which to prioritise for continuity and recovery.
For **Asia Community Foundation (ACF)**, this requires more than identifying departments or organisational units.
The focus should be on the business functions and supporting processes that enable ACF to fulfil its philanthropic purpose, meet commitments to donors and nonprofit partners, administer and disburse funds responsibly, maintain regulatory and governance obligations, and protect the integrity of its operations.
ACF operates as an independent charitable organisation and giving platform headquartered in Singapore.
Its activities include grantmaking and advisory services, donor-advised funds, collaborative or impact funds, and other mechanisms that facilitate purposeful giving across Asia.
Its operating model consequently involves donors, nonprofit and social-impact organisations, financial institutions, professional advisers, technology providers and other partners across multiple jurisdictions.
This model has significant continuity implications.
A disruption affecting ACF may not be confined to its internal operations.
Delayed grant processing, inability to access donor or grantee information, interrupted financial transactions, unavailable technology systems, or communication breakdowns may affect donors, grant recipients, and programmes that ultimately support communities across Asia.
This chapter establishes an initial catalogue of **Critical Business Functions (CBFs)** for ACF. The catalogue provides a foundation for the subsequent Business Impact Analysis (BIA), risk assessment, continuity strategy development, recovery planning and testing activities.
#### **ISO 22301 and Critical Business Functions**
[](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/025644f4-ea7b-4f5c-8cbe-d32728cdca3f)ISO 22301:2019 establishes requirements for a Business Continuity Management System through which an organisation prepares for, responds to and recovers from disruptive incidents.
Within this framework, ACF should identify and prioritise the activities that support delivering its products and services.
The Business Impact Analysis subsequently evaluates the consequences of disruption to these activities over time and establishes appropriate continuity and recovery priorities.
For practical implementation within ACF, a **Critical Business Function** can be regarded as:
A function whose prolonged disruption would cause unacceptable consequences to ACF's mission, beneficiaries, donors, partners, financial obligations, regulatory responsibilities, reputation or ability to deliver philanthropic services.
A function should therefore not be classified as critical merely because it is important during normal operations. Criticality should be determined by the consequences of its disruption and the period for which ACF could reasonably tolerate its unavailability.
This distinction prevents the BCM programme from classifying every organisational activity as critical.
#### **Understanding ACF's Operating Context**
ACF's business continuity requirements should reflect its role within the philanthropic ecosystem.
ACF provides mechanisms for donors to undertake philanthropic giving in Singapore and across Asia.
Its operating activities include administering donor-advised funds, facilitating grantmaking, managing collaborative funding arrangements, conducting appropriate screening and due diligence, providing philanthropic advice, administering funds and maintaining relationships with donors and social-impact organisations.
From a continuity perspective, ACF therefore operates across several interconnected flows:[](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/80461348-6e3c-4eb2-a3e3-0abf50267420)
Governance, finance, technology, data, communications, compliance, and relationship-management capabilities support these flows.
The criticality assessment should consider the entire chain, not individual organisational departments in isolation.
For example, grant disbursement may depend upon:
- authorised personnel;
- approved grant documentation;
- donor and grantee records;
- due-diligence information;
- financial systems;
- banking services;
- appropriate approval authorities;
- digital communications;
- technology infrastructure; and
- external partners.
Losing any critical dependency may prevent the overall service from being delivered.
#### **Why Identifying Critical Business Functions Matters**
Identifying ACF's Critical Business Functions allows management to determine **what must be protected and recovered first** following disruption.
Without this prioritisation, continuity planning can become overly focused on restoring offices, technology systems or individual departments rather than restoring the services that matter most to ACF's stakeholders.
The CBF identification exercise enables ACF to answer several fundamental questions:
1. Which activities are essential to fulfilling ACF's philanthropic mission?
2. Which activities have significant time-sensitive financial or contractual obligations?
3. Which disruptions could materially affect donors, grantees or social-impact partners?
4. Which activities are necessary to meet governance, legal or regulatory responsibilities?
5. Which activities depend heavily on technology, financial institutions or third parties?
6. Which activities process sensitive donor, partner or financial information?
7. Which functions would create significant reputational consequences if unavailable?
8. Which activities must be restored before other functions can resume?
The answers establish the BIA's scope and priorities.
#### **Criteria for Determining Criticality**
ACF should apply consistent criteria when determining whether a business function should be classified as critical.
##### **Mission Impact**
Would disruption prevent ACF from fulfilling its charitable and philanthropic purpose?
##### **Donor Impact**
Would disruption materially affect ACF's ability to fulfil commitments to donors, administer their giving arrangements or provide essential information concerning their philanthropic funds?
##### **Grantee and Community Impact**
Would disruption delay funding or support relied upon by nonprofit organisations or social-impact partners?
This criterion becomes particularly important where grants support programmes addressing urgent social, humanitarian or community needs.
##### **Financial Impact**
Could disruption result in delayed payments, inaccurate financial transactions, loss of funds, additional costs or inability to meet financial commitments?
##### **Legal and Regulatory Impact**
Could disruption cause ACF to breach applicable laws, regulatory obligations, reporting requirements or contractual commitments?
##### **Governance Impact**
Could disruption prevent authorised decision-making, financial approval, escalation or Board and management oversight?
##### **Reputational Impact**
Could prolonged disruption reduce confidence among donors, nonprofit partners, regulators or other stakeholders?
##### **Information and Data Impact**
Could disruption result in the loss, corruption, unauthorised disclosure or unavailability of important donor, grantee, financial or governance information?
##### **Time Sensitivity**
How quickly would the consequences become unacceptable?
A function that can be suspended for several weeks without significant consequences may be important but not necessarily continuity-critical.
Conversely, a function whose interruption becomes unacceptable within hours or days should receive greater continuity priority.
#### **Proposed Critical Business Functions for ACF**
Based on ACF's operating model, the following enterprise-level CBF catalogue provides an appropriate starting point for its BCMS.
| **Code** | **Critical Business Function** | **Primary Continuity Concern** |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **CBF-1** | **Donor-Advised Fund Administration** | Maintaining administration of donor funds, instructions, records and associated commitments |
| **CBF-2** | **Grantmaking and Grant Disbursement** | Maintaining timely assessment, approval, processing and disbursement of grants |
| **CBF-3** | **Donor Engagement and Philanthropic Advisory** | Maintaining essential communications and support for donors and philanthropic partners |
| **CBF-4** | **Grantee Due Diligence and Compliance Screening** | Ensuring grants are not processed without required verification, screening and controls |
| **CBF-5** | **Donor Due Diligence and Onboarding** | Maintaining appropriate donor verification, compliance and onboarding controls |
| **CBF-6** | **Impact and Collaborative Fund Administration** | Maintaining administration of pooled, collaborative and ACF-supported philanthropic funds |
| **CBF-7** | **Cross-Border Giving and Grant Administration** | Maintaining compliant execution of philanthropic transactions across jurisdictions |
| **CBF-8** | **Financial Management, Payment and Fund Reconciliation** | Protecting funds and maintaining authorised payments, accounting and reconciliations |
| **CBF-9** | **Governance, Regulatory Compliance and Critical Reporting** | Maintaining essential governance decisions, statutory obligations and accountability |
| **CBF-10** | **Critical Donor, Grantee and Grant Information Management** | Maintaining availability, integrity, confidentiality and recoverability of critical information |
| **CBF-11** | **Critical Digital Platforms and ICT Services** | Maintaining technology required to support grantmaking, financial and stakeholder activities |
| **CBF-12** | **Crisis and Critical Stakeholder Communications** | Maintaining timely communications during incidents affecting donors, partners, staff and other stakeholders |
ACF management and relevant function owners should validate this catalogue through the formal BIA process.
Classification as a CBF does not automatically mean that every activity within the function requires the same recovery priority.
#### **Description of the Critical Business Functions**
##### **CBF-1 — Donor-Advised Fund Administration**
Donor-advised funds (DAFs) represent an important mechanism through which ACF facilitates philanthropic giving.
Continuity arrangements should protect ACF's ability to access DAF information, receive and process authorised instructions, maintain transaction records, determine available balances and coordinate grant recommendations.
A disruption affecting this function could delay donor-directed giving and undermine confidence in ACF's ability to administer philanthropic resources reliably.
##### **CBF-2 — Grant making and Grant Disbursement**
Grant making represents a central operational pathway through which philanthropic resources reach nonprofit and social-impact organisations.
This function may include:
[](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/6d3b9782-488c-475d-a084-8e182845c319)
Continuity planning should particularly address approved and time-sensitive grants.
For example, if a major technology outage occurs immediately before an approved grant payment is scheduled, ACF should have alternative arrangements to verify the authorised grant, obtain appropriate approval, securely initiate the transaction and maintain an auditable record.
##### **CBF-3 — Donor Engagement and Philanthropic Advisory**
ACF's operating model depends significantly upon trusted relationships with donors.
During a disruption, normal advisory work may be temporarily reduced, but essential donor communications should remain available.
Donors may need information concerning scheduled grants, fund availability, transaction status or the consequences of the incident.
Continuity arrangements should therefore distinguish between:
- routine advisory activities that can be deferred; and
- urgent donor servicing and communications that must continue.
##### **CBF-4 — Grantee Due Diligence and Compliance Screening**
Appropriate due diligence is an important control within responsible grantmaking.
The continuity objective should not be to bypass controls to accelerate recovery. Instead, ACF should ensure that essential screening and verification capabilities remain available during disruption.
Where required information or systems are unavailable, the transaction should be appropriately escalated rather than processed without the required controls.
Continuity arrangements should therefore preserve access to approved due-diligence procedures, screening mechanisms, records, escalation authorities and evidence of decisions.
##### **CBF-5 — Donor Due Diligence and Onboarding**
ACF should similarly maintain appropriate controls over donor onboarding and donor verification.
During a disruption, new onboarding may potentially be deferred depending upon circumstances. However, critical compliance information concerning existing donors may still be required before transactions can proceed.
This illustrates an important BCM principle: **recovery must not compromise control integrity**.
##### **CBF-6 — Impact and Collaborative Fund Administration**
ACF facilitates collaborative approaches through which donors can support selected causes and social-impact initiatives.
Continuity planning should consider:
- fund records;
- donor commitments;
- available balances;
- approved allocations;
- payment schedules;
- grant commitments;
- partner information; and
- reporting obligations.
The criticality of individual funds may differ depending upon the nature of their underlying programmes and commitments.
A fund supporting time-sensitive humanitarian or vulnerable-community needs, for example, may require faster recovery than a programme whose next scheduled activity occurs several months later.
##### **CBF-7 — Cross-Border Giving and Grant Administration**
ACF's regional philanthropic activities create additional continuity dependencies.
Cross-border grantmaking may involve different banking arrangements, currencies, regulatory requirements, nonprofit partners and payment channels.
Potential disruption scenarios include:
- failure of a banking partner;
- international payment disruption;
- inability to perform required screening;
- disruption to a regional nonprofit partner;
- cyber incidents;
- telecommunications outages;
- geopolitical disruption;
- natural disasters; and
- restrictions affecting international transactions.
ACF should therefore assess continuity not merely from its Singapore office but across the end-to-end philanthropic transaction.
##### **CBF-8 — Financial Management, Payment and Fund Reconciliation**
Financial controls underpin ACF's ability to safeguard philanthropic resources.
Critical activities may include:
- payment authorisation;
- grant disbursement;
- banking access;
- cash and fund-position visibility;
- transaction recording;
- reconciliation;
- financial controls; and
- exception management.
Business continuity procedures should maintain segregation of duties and delegated authority wherever possible.
Emergency procedures must not create uncontrolled mechanisms for transferring funds.
##### **CBF-9 — Governance, Regulatory Compliance and Critical Reporting**
Certain governance and compliance activities may become particularly important during disruption.
These can include:
- emergency management decisions;
- approval of exceptional actions;
- regulatory notification where applicable;
- financial authorisation;
- Board or senior-management escalation;
- incident reporting;
- maintenance of decision records; and
- statutory or regulatory submissions.
ACF should establish alternate decision-making and delegated-authority arrangements for circumstances in which key executives or Board members are unavailable.
##### **CBF-10 — Critical Donor, Grantee and Grant Information Management**
ACF's services depend heavily upon information.
Critical records may include:
- donor profiles;
- grantee information;
- grant agreements;
- due-diligence records;
- transaction histories;
- fund balances;
- approval records;
- contracts;
- financial records; and
- governance documentation.
BCM requirements should therefore address the **availability, confidentiality, integrity and recoverability** of this information.
Backup alone is insufficient.
ACF should know how quickly it can restore and make critical information usable after a disruption.
##### **CBF-11 — Critical Digital Platforms and ICT Services**
Technology enables many of ACF's critical functions.
Relevant services may include:
- email and collaboration platforms;
- donor and stakeholder databases;
- grant-management systems;
- finance and accounting applications;
- document repositories;
- cloud platforms;
- identity and access-management services;
- cybersecurity controls; and
- internet connectivity.
Rather than treating ICT as a standalone recovery exercise, ACF should link technology recovery requirements directly to the business functions they support.
For example: CBF-2 Grantmaking depends on:
[](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/9121d743-5fce-4d1d-a93f-6254e6f83b35)
Technology recovery priorities should consequently be derived from business recovery requirements.
##### **CBF-12 — Crisis and Critical Stakeholder Communications**
During a significant disruption, communication itself becomes a critical capability.
ACF may need to communicate with:
- employees;
- Board members;
- donors;
- grantees;
- nonprofit partners;
- financial institutions;
- technology providers;
- professional advisers;
- regulators or relevant authorities; and
- other affected stakeholders.
ACF should maintain predefined communication responsibilities, alternative contact methods, stakeholder contact information, escalation protocols and approved communication procedures.
#### **10.8 Critical Functions and Supporting Functions**
Maintain a clear distinction between **critical business functions** and **supporting resources or activities**.
For example: **Grant Disbursement** may depend upon:
[](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/5000772e-c0eb-485d-b600-b5292c35f381)
The supporting resource is not necessarily the ultimate service ACF is trying to protect.
This distinction matters during the BIA because it lets ACF identify dependencies systematically.
#### **Prioritising Functions Through the Business Impact Analysis**
The CBF catalogue is a starting point, not the final recovery priority.
Each function should subsequently undergo a detailed BIA.
For every CBF, ACF should identify:
[](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/0bd3f76e-928e-4239-957f-21c2e4b24f7a)
The BIA should assess impacts at progressively longer disruption periods—for example, several hours, one day, several days and longer periods where relevant.
#### **Example: Assessing Grant Disbursement**
Consider CBF-2 Grantmaking and Grant Disbursement.
Assume that a cyber incident makes ACF's primary grant-management environment unavailable.
##### **First Few Hours**
The immediate operational impact may be manageable. Staff determine the incident scope and suspend affected transactions while verifying information integrity.
##### **One Business Day**
Scheduled grant processing begins to accumulate. Staff may need to communicate with donors or grantees concerning urgent transactions.
##### **Several Days**
Time-sensitive grants may be delayed. Donor commitments could be affected, and nonprofit organisations expecting scheduled funding may experience operational consequences.
##### **Extended Disruption**
ACF may experience increasing financial, contractual, regulatory, stakeholder and reputational consequences.
The BIA converts these consequences into measurable recovery requirements.
The resulting continuity strategy might provide controlled access to essential grant records, predefined emergency authorisation arrangements, alternate communication channels and an approved manual payment procedure for genuinely urgent transactions.
#### **Dependencies and Single Points of Failure**
Once ACF identifies its CBFs, it should map their critical dependencies.
Five dependency categories are particularly relevant:
| **Dependency** | **Examples for ACF** |
| --- | --- |
| **People** | Grantmaking specialists, donor advisers, finance personnel, authorised approvers |
| **Process** | Due diligence, grant approval, payment authorisation, reconciliation |
| **Technology** | Grant systems, finance applications, cloud services, email, databases |
| **Information** | Donor records, grantee records, agreements, approvals, financial information |
| **Third Parties** | Banks, technology providers, professional advisers, nonprofit partners and other service providers |
This exercise can identify concentration risks and single points of failure.
For example, if only one employee can authorise a critical process, the organisation has a **people dependency**.
If essential records exist only within one cloud platform, ACF may have a **technology and information concentration risk**.
If all international payments depend upon one provider, ACF may have a **third-party concentration risk**.
These findings should feed directly into continuity strategy development.
#### **Singapore Governance and BCM Considerations**
ACF's BCM framework should operate within Singapore's wider charity governance and risk-management environment.
The Singapore charity governance framework emphasises effective Board and management oversight, responsible management, accountability, transparency and planning for organisational sustainability.
Business continuity should therefore be integrated with ACF's existing governance arrangements rather than implemented as an isolated operational programme.
Relevant areas include:
- enterprise risk management;
- financial controls;
- data protection;
- cybersecurity;
- crisis management;
- fraud prevention;
- anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing controls;
- third-party risk;
- technology risk;
- incident management; and
- organisational governance.
For ACF, this is especially important because continuity measures designed to restore services must continue to preserve appropriate financial, compliance and governance controls.
#### **Governance of the CBF Catalogue**
The list of Critical Business Functions should be formally validated by ACF management and reviewed periodically.
A practical governance model would be:
[](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/3bea193a-1439-4ba5-92d1-1cd5f8d574fd)
The CBF catalogue should also be reviewed whenever ACF introduces significant new services, funds, technologies, partnerships or operating models.
#### **From Critical Business Functions to BCM Implementation**
Identifying the CBFs bridges understanding ACF and implementing BCM.
The implementation sequence should be:
[](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/b7085c5c-eb06-471c-ba27-dc240074e7eb)
This sequence ensures that recovery solutions are based on business requirements rather than assumptions about which systems or departments are most important.
#### **Practical Example for ACF**
Consider a severe ransomware incident during a period when ACF has multiple approved grants awaiting disbursement.
The attack makes the primary document repository and several business applications unavailable.
Rather than trying to recover every organisational activity at once, ACF activates its continuity arrangements according to predetermined priorities.
The response could proceed as follows:
[](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/5e284d8d-e490-4e9b-9246-2d0017ddc011)
The objective is not simply to restore technology quickly.
The objective is to **maintain ACF's most important philanthropic services while preserving financial, compliance and governance controls**.
#### [![Banner \[Summary\] \[BCM\] \[E1\] \[C10\] Identifying Critical Business Functions](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/3893111/0e59113c-d17a-48a8-8c28-bb1bcf487857.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/0e59113c-d17a-48a8-8c28-bb1bcf487857)
Identifying Critical Business Functions is a foundational activity in developing ACF's Business Continuity Management System.
For Asia Community Foundation, criticality should be viewed through the organisation's role as an intermediary within a wider philanthropic ecosystem.
A disruption to ACF can affect not only its staff and internal processes but also donors, nonprofit partners, grant recipients and potentially the communities supported through philanthropic programmes.
The proposed twelve-function catalogue provides a structured starting point covering donor-advised fund administration, grantmaking, donor engagement, due diligence, collaborative funds, cross-border giving, finance, governance, critical information, ICT and crisis communications.
The catalogue should not remain static.
ACF should validate each function through a formal Business Impact Analysis, break each CBF into its underlying activities and dependencies, set recovery priorities, and periodically reassess criticality as its services and operating environment evolve.
The essential principle is straightforward:
**ACF cannot protect everything equally during a major disruption. It must first understand what matters most, how quickly it must be restored, what it depends upon, and what resources are required to keep it operating.**
Identifying the Critical Business Functions provides that foundation and prepares ACF for the next stage of BCM implementation: conducting the Business Impact Analysis and translating organisational priorities into measurable continuity and recovery requirements.
The proposed CBFs are grounded in ACF’s current public operating model:
- ACF describes grantmaking/advisory, donor-advised funds and impact funds as core offerings;
- its DAF service provides administrative support for grantmaking; its grantmaking operations encompass reviews, approvals, disbursements, reporting and portfolio management; and
- its newer Shared Impact Philanthropy offering adds fund administration, grantmaking, shared operational services and cross-border compliance.
The governance and BCM treatment also reflect Singapore’s current charity-sector guidance.
The Charity Council’s 2024 ERM toolkit explicitly includes business continuity management and references ISO 22301:2019 and ISO 22313:2020, while the current Code of Governance emphasises Board/management effectiveness, responsible management, accountability and planning for the future.
[](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/3aefb2d2-3110-47c1-ad4f-d3e6e5381066)
Blogs marked \[x\] are under construction
[](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/42759885-71e0-4d0d-a239-459f50f0d300)
| **eBook 1: Understanding Your Organisation** | | | | | |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **C1** | **C2 \[x\]** | **C3 \[x\]** | **C4 \[x\]** | **C5 \[x\]** | **C6 \[x\]** |
| [![\[BCM\] \[ACF\] \[E1\] \[C1\] Overview of BCM Case Study](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/3893111/28cb6883-2857-48df-8601-20b15ced2a72.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/28cb6883-2857-48df-8601-20b15ced2a72) | [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/9521ac04-796b-4b8e-a17d-92441226b9a3) | [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/1ecd461e-a1e1-4c0b-ab5c-1b87b101749e) | [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/f1194d59-a6a6-4d50-b449-955eb4c26b5c) | [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/2cdb04ed-52f3-4f6d-8ae9-fdc438c5b45e) | [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/30f67573-8dc6-4e11-b59d-bdd8ec56fd01) |
| **C7 \[x\]** | **C8 \[x\]** | **C9 \[x\]** | **C10** | **C11 \[x\]** | **C12 \[x\]** |
| [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/3e8749b5-59e4-4733-ad5c-7d89539dbbfb) | [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/ba1e4b44-8eb4-43c4-8b2d-540188430924) | [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/7a14d0d1-50dc-4005-abe7-4ff617ec1551) | [![\[BCM\] \[ACF\] \[E1\] \[C10\] Identifying Critical Business Functions](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/3893111/a5ea9cb8-0f14-4831-88e5-de8d8fc0fbb6.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/a5ea9cb8-0f14-4831-88e5-de8d8fc0fbb6) | [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/b2a7e938-55d2-4628-aa95-62293e47c0cd) | [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/9939495c-db9d-4d8f-a358-286733d9a1c0) |
| | | | | | |
#### More Information About Business Continuity Management Courses
To learn more about the course and schedule, click the buttons below for BCM-300 Business Continuity Management Implementer \[BCM-3\] and BCM-5000 Business Continuity Management Expert Implementer \[BCM-5\].
| [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/f3922b80-e96a-46d6-8993-dc150a5de2d5) | [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/9ff8a3dc-e39a-465b-929f-72e232cdd5fb) | [![Register \[BL-B-3\]\*](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/3893111/ac6cf073-4cdd-4541-91ed-889f731d5076.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/ac6cf073-4cdd-4541-91ed-889f731d5076) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/21525c10-4003-4934-95fc-fe218174bc5b) | [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/46460171-c91a-4936-9bb2-8dc5928a0e02) | [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/1cb17ac7-50b2-4f88-bc4b-c7444e4b57b5) |
| [![FAQ \[BL-B-3\]](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/3893111/b3824ba1-7aa1-4eb6-bef8-94f57121c5ae.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/b3824ba1-7aa1-4eb6-bef8-94f57121c5ae) | Please feel free to send us a note if you have any questions. [![Email to Sales Team \[BCM Institute\]](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/3893111/3c53daeb-2836-4843-b0e0-645baee2ab9e.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/3c53daeb-2836-4843-b0e0-645baee2ab9e) | [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/9c199ae8-c470-4bb7-9612-73c7a084e94c) |
| [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/8999211a-2c51-4be7-bf49-c393f6c67974) | [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/5c1aa95d-f6dd-4067-a95c-5cc0c32d7ed8) | [](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/086ab3b9-4d66-4a95-b2f7-1148e9803a9c) |
### Your Comments Here :
### More Posts
[](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/3893111/839787f4-a4fd-456f-accf-54c947026558)
All rights reserved. Copyright 2026
```json
{
"@context" : "https://schema.org",
"@type" : "BlogPosting",
"author" : {
"@type" : "Person",
"name" : "Moh Heng Goh",
"url" : "https://blog.bcm-institute.org/ebook/author/moh-heng-goh"
},
"dateModified" : "2026-09-25T12:51:41.331Z",
"datePublished" : "2026-09-24T08:25:12.000Z",
"headline" : "[BCM] [ACF] [E1] [C10] Identifying Critical Business Functions",
"mainEntityOfPage" : {
"@id" : "https://blog.bcm-institute.org/ebook/bcm-acf-e1-c10-identifying-critical-business-functions",
"@type" : "WebPage"
},
"publisher" : {
"@type" : "Organization",
"logo" : {
"@type" : "ImageObject",
"url" : "https://blog.bcm-institute.org/hubfs/BCMI%20Logo.png"
},
"name" : "BCMI Pte Ltd"
}
}
```