The long-awaited extension of soft opt in to Not-For-Profits

You may have by now heard the good news that the current draft of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill (DPDI2) proposes to extend the soft opt in exemption to marketing sent via “electronic mail” by not-for-profits. In a nutshell, this means that once the Bill has received Royal Assent, charities and other non-commercial organisations will be able to send marketing emails and texts to supporters without consent.

Charities will (finally!) be operating on a level playing field to commercial companies and be able to stay in touch with supporters by email and text without having to secure an opt in or conduct often arduous re-consent campaigns which result in losing the ability to communicate with large chunks of their databases if supporters don’t respond.

The current draft wording of DPDI2 is reassuringly broad and doesn’t limit soft opt-in to the sending of communications about “similar products or services”. Instead, charities and not-for-profits can send marketing by electronic mail to supporters if:

a) the communication is for the purpose of “furthering charitable, political or other non-commercial objective”; AND

b) the contact details were obtained “in the course of a recipient expressing an interest in or offering or providing support for the furtherance of that objective”.

This opens up the potential for multiple “cross-sell” opportunities e.g. charities will be able to email new donors about events, text event participants about the value of making a regular gift and tell their supporters about their lobbying and campaigning activities without an opt in.

All in all, a good thing. Right?

The DMA certainly thinks so. But as a customer-first trade association, we’re committed to working with our not-for-profit members to ensure the soft opt in extension is introduced in a responsible and respectful way. Supporters are accustomed to giving their permission to hear from charities and not-for-profits and going in hard with soft opt in could have a negative impact on the relationship they have with their supporters.

With that in mind, the following things will need to happen to ensure the soft opt in extension to not-for-profits is implemented responsibly:

1. Supporters must be given a free of charge option to object to receiving communications by email and text at the point their personal information is collected;
2. Consideration must be given to how frequently charities are emailing supporters using soft opt in. Having the option to email supporters without opt in consent shouldn’t impact on the frequency of contact and it’s important to continue monitoring levels of engagement like unsubscribe rates;
3. The ability to rely on soft opt in will deteriorate the longer a supporter hasn’t “expressed an interest” in the cause e.g. not responding to communications with a positive action like making a donation. Not-for-profits should therefore think about removing people from future marketing campaigns if they haven’t engaged with the cause for a defined period;
4. Not-for-profits will need to respect the communication preferences of people who supported the cause BEFORE the soft opt in extension comes into effect e.g. you won’t be able to move supporters who haven’t previously consented, to a soft opt in model.

The DMA is always on hand to provide advice and guidance on how to implement the changes proposed by DPDI2, so please feel free to reach out to our Legal & Compliance team at legaladvice@dma.org.uk if you’ve got any questions.