Dogs Trust signs deal to secure GDPR compliance

Dogs Trust has claimed it is ahead of the pack to become fully compliant with the new legislative requirements of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), some 14 months ahead of implementation day on May 25, 2018.
The charity insists that by implementing a new cloud-based consent platform with MyLife Digital and Wood for Trees, it will be able to capture and manage all of its supporter preferences, meet all known GDPR measures and even adapt to likely future Fundraising Regulator requirements, such as the Fundraising Preference Service.
As well as providing an effective, secure, and flexible tool to capture supporter preferences; it is claimed that the system will deliver more transparency to supporters on personal data the charity holds about them, understand why the data has been collected, know who has access to the data and control permissions for the use of their data.
Last year, the charity was hauled up by the Fundraising Standards Board over a call made by telephone agency NTT Fundraising which used data supplied by a lifestyle marketing company, which had not given an adequate opt-out mechanism.
But Dogs Trust marketing director Nick Daniel said: “As a charity that receives no Government funding, supporters have always been at the heart of our fundraising strategy; without them we can’t deliver our work.
“With the impending changes to the regulatory environment, we needed to find a tool that would help us to maintain a relationship with the maximum number of supporters and that could adapt to future regulatory requirements.
“We can now provide our supporters with the ability to tailor their relationship with us and, importantly, how we may use their data going forwards with their clear consent. This new technology should give us the transparency required by the legislators and regulators and help us increase the trust of our supporters, strengthening our relationships.”
Consentric Permissions, which is a cloud-based solution that operates outside of Dogs Trust’s CRM system, will allow supporters direct access to their own data.
Alternatively, agents can access it on behalf of the supporters. Consents are captured in a way that goes beyond compliance and places the supporters’ choice through their consented data at the centre of how Dogs Trust communicates and engages with them.
Wood for Trees chief executive Jason Cromack added: “We have been working with Dogs Trust since 2007 analysing their supporter data to improve outcomes. Now, as part of the MyLife Digital Group we can support Dogs Trust to ensure they have the right level of consented data needed to deliver their fundraising strategy and other operations while maintaining the integrity and security of the data. We call it informed insight from informed consent.”