The Institute of Fundraising has given charities a six-month grace period to change their opt-in and opt-out statements on marketing communications, but has stopped short of forcing them to adopt an “express consent” regime.
Fundraisers will have to include statements clearly explaining how donors can opt out from receiving communications in all the addressed materials they send out, which must have a font size of at least 10 points.
“The IoF and FRSB appreciate that organisations may already have designed and printed future marketing materials and campaigns without the required wording in the minimum size that these changes require,” the IoF said.
“We want to ensure that organisations have necessary time to adapt to these changes without incurring undue charges and cost to replace materials that have already been produced.”
However, the changes do not include the need for charities to gain express consent from individuals in order to share their data with third parties or the requirement for fundraisers to use an opt-out icon.
According to the IoF, it is still waiting for the Information Commissioner’s Office to announce new direct marketing guidance around consent.
“We need to talk to the new regulator about what this would look like,” a spokesman told Third Sector. “We obviously don’t want to pre-empt anything that the new regulator might want to introduce because there would be a real danger that this would just confuse the public and undermine the efforts to improve control and restore trust.”
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