Top 50 UK charity fundraisers called to an emergency meeting by Sir Stuart Etherington

NCVO chief executive Sir Stuart Etherington has organised the meeting to explain how the recommendations in his report into fundraising will be applied and to allay fears.

Charities are concerned that the proposed fundraising preference service is unviable, and that the inability to share data with other charities will hit the industry hard.

The charity sector is effectively moving to an explicit consent regime, which means the sector will be operating to a higher standard than what is required in law. Charities are worried about the effect this will have on their ability to market to consumers and therefore raise donations.

However, Sir Stuart has defended this decision, saying that the European Data Protection Regulation will raise the bar to explicit consent anyway when it comes into force. However, this is not so as the EU Parliament and Council are still debating the merits of using explicit or unambiguous consent.

Some small charities have claimed that the inability to share data will hit them hardest as many rely on data sharing schemes to fundraise effectively.

Data sharing between charities without consent was one of the driving factors behind the many Daily Mail stories over the summer of 2015. It may difficult to live with at first but this is a necessary decision if charities are to maintain the trust of their donors.

The meeting will take place at the NCVO offices in London on 4 December and we will report on any news emerging from that meeting.