New ICO legislation is gradually shutting down several of the traditional channels that charities rely on for fundraising, and limiting the ways in which charities can contact third party databases to seek new donors through channels like email and SMS. Whilst legislation is undoubtedly designed to benefit the consumer, the charity sector is in real danger of losing vital fundraising revenue if charities are unable to promote themselves to a wider market beyond their existing donors.

ESBConnect recently hosted a roundtable, in partnership with the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) UK, to explore this issue. Intended to create a forum for discussion between charity marketers, senior media agency planners, and industry commentators, on the topic of whether charity marketers are forced to compromise their fundraising objectives to meet new ICO compliance guidelines, the roundtable asked “Are charity marketers forced to choose between results and compliance?”