GDPR, opt-in and Charities

Whilst not specifically or restrictively applicable to just 3rd sector organisations, there continues to be significant interest in developing stronger links with supporters for many charities with a notable swing towards encouraging opt-in requests which can then be recorded and securely held for GDPR reasons, together with also ensuring compliance with latest Gift-Aid wording and even just simply making sure that the details held are accurate with minimal wasted cost on Warm DM activities.

With such promising examples as RNLI’s reported 42% positive (382k and counting) response rate for opt-in status from the 900k of warm supporters approached in 2016 perhaps being towards the larger side of some warm supporter lists, paring down mailings to the most receptive of your supporters could actually be seen to be improving ROI on campaigns with less waste in material and postage costs – showing a more positive message than many doomsayers had predicted following the Etherington report and, whilst the latest guidance from the ICO within the GDPR legislation allows for the “Legitimate Interest” route, having a warm, clean and active supporter set is undeniably a good thing.

Discounted Postage Costs for GDPR

One aspect often not reported on is that the postal providers have enabled GDPR specific mailings to be processed at a substantially discounted postage rates available which can be a 30% reduction from “normal” pre-sorted costs (which in themselves are a hefty discount from standard tariffs) and that’s certainly been a swaying factor in many client campaigns as the postage costs do amount to a significant proportion of the overall pack.

Additional Details

Courtesy of Royal Mail and their document releases – the link below will take you to their current factsheet as supplied to us as members of the Strategic Mailing Partnership which may be of some use in cutting through the swathes of information that tends to float around!

GDPR The Key Facts