News

Civil Society’s annual CRM survey is out and it’s an interesting read this year, not that there are any real surprises in the products it covers as it’s the same names you’d expect, but more so in that it highlights some surprising and pretty major gaps in charity technology provision from the CRM giants.

Any organisation that deals with people, whether they are customers, supporters, donors, even employees, handles personal data that, under GDPR, must be protected.

But what exactly does the term ‘personal data’ cover?

If you’re a small local business, you likely know all your loyal customers personally. It’s fairly simple then to build a mutually beneficial relationship that keeps them coming back. Grow beyond a certain size however, and keeping track of all your customers, their history with you, and their preferences is next to impossible. Unless you have a system in place that brings all this data together.

This is where a Single Customer View comes in, it’s vital for both good customer or supporter management, as well as compliance. 

Whether you are sending marketing communications to people or fundraising, in the world of GDPR, it is essential to be clear which legal ground you are using for processing data and contacting people. The Institute of Fundraising (IoF) explains more about these legal grounds in its GDPR guide but in a nutshell there are two options: consent, or legitimate interests.