Just 16 per cent of donors would opt in to hearing about future charity campaigns, according to a new survey on GDPR conducted by nfpSynergy.
In a blog on its website, nfpSynergy said that only 16 per cent of respondents to a GDPR survey it conducted in May “opted in to be asked to donate to future appeals” from a charity. This compared to around 47 per cent of respondents who said they would opt in “to hear from the charity about what they did with the money donated”.
The blog, written by Jo Fischl, head of public audiences research at the think tank, concluded that its research showed there is “no getting away from the fact that GDPR is going to have a significant impact for charities” and would likely see “charities’ databases shrink and, as a consequence, incomes fall”.
The survey also found that only 5 per cent of respondents said “they would be willing to have their data shared with carefully chosen charities”.
According to Fischl, nfpSynergy also asked respondents about whether or not they felt “charities should be held to the same strict guidelines on data protection as businesses”. She said that, “whilst a few disliked the idea that extremely large fines could be levied towards charities for breaking data protection rules, in general the public think charities should be treated just as stringently as businesses if they break the rules on GDPR”.
The survey concluded that charities should “develop a culture of transparency with the public” and “be creative in your opt-in ask” if they are to successfully navigate through new GDPR regulations when it comes into force in May 2018.
The report, GDPR - The Change that Charity Donors Want, is set to be published in September. The research is taken from a set of focus groups that nfpSynergy conducted in May, alongside more “quantitative research” it conducted through its Charity Awareness Monitor.
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