In January 2025, the Data & Marketing Association UK (DMA UK) announced the government had accepted the inclusion of email marketing soft opt-in for charities in the Data (Use and Access) Bill, allowing the opportunity for UK charities to potentially earn an additional £290m annually.
This is a huge success and pivotal step forward for the sector and finally allows charities to compete on a level playing field with commercial businesses.
As a DMA UK member, Wood for Trees, part of Salocin Group, provided data analysis in support of their lobbying the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, to get this clause reinstated in the bill.
Based on insights from 13.1m supporters across more than 20 UK charities, we found:
- Emailable supporters generate £35 more over a seven-year average lifetime compared to non-emailable supporters
- Enabling the soft opt-in could increase annual charity revenue by 3%, equating to £252m per year in England and Wales (considering donations)
- Including Scotland and Northern Ireland, this figure rises to £290m annually
- In the next 10-15 years, improved supporter journeys via email could drive an additional £840m in income (including legacy giving)
Emailable supporters generating £35 more than non-emailable supporters over a seven-year period could be considered a light estimate and the value from a mature email marketing strategy could be a lot more – as much as £75-85.
However, as the Information Commissioner’s Office has recently warned, just because charities will soon have a legal right to email supporters, it doesn’t mean they always should.
Several challenges will need to be addressed by charities to unlock this significant fundraising opportunity, before the new act comes into force, which is expected to be as soon as mid-2025.
Compliance considerations
Charity email marketing has previously been underinvested in primarily because it hasn’t been a channel that charities have had the confidence in their consent to fully utilise it or there simply hasn’t been appropriate permissions in place, particularly since the introduction of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).
So, one challenge charities will need to tackle first before leveraging the soft opt-in opportunity for fundraising is ensuring compliance. Rather than having to obtain explicit consent, charities will now be able to email supporters based on legitimate interest (LI).
To assess the relevance of contact based on LI, it’s recommended that charities conduct a balance test, or Legitimate Interest Assessment (LIA). Charities will need to formally assess whether their supporters will want, or expect, to hear from them via email marketing.
For example, it wouldn’t be considered appropriate to send marketing emails to someone who has engaged with a domestic abuse charity seeking support. But it might be appropriate to send marketing emails to someone who has enquired about adopting a pet from an animal rehoming charity. Although, would it then be relevant to email them about rehoming a cat if they’d only shown an interest in dogs? Relevance is critical here.
Consent and preference management
Another challenge for charities is having robust consent and preference management in place, alongside setting up a strong data foundation and CRM system. The move from a consent mechanism to soft opt-in model shouldn’t be underestimated. Unlike traditional consent-based email marketing, soft opt-in brings additional layers of complexity, meaning charities must capture and maintain personal data in a compliant way.
Charities will now not only have to consider consent, but also LI, whereby additional consent categorisation and filters will need to be put in place. Before soft opting-in supporters to emails under LI, charities must first understand how to capture personal data and consent compliantly and effectively, as well as then maintaining this information and the infrastructure it sits within, while also having correct documentation, such as up-to-date privacy notices.
Charities often have CRM platforms and email marketing capability set up but don’t know how to activate the engine to drive meaningful engagement and optimal return-on-investment. Contacting supporters at the right time and place, with the right content, has never been so crucial.
Engaging email content
The DMA UK Email Benchmarking Report 2024 states 78% of consumers are more likely to engage with personalised, tailored messages, with 84% saying their favourite brand treats them like an individual. Additionally, rapid advancements in generative AI and the creation of AI agents, such as within Microsoft Copilot, can help create contextualised copy and add personalisation.
Therefore, charities should now be taking the time to get ahead and future ready by planning and optimising their supporter journeys and experiences, while also setting up a strong data foundation, and compliant consent and preference management.
At Wood for Trees, we can help with all the above! We can provide compliance support on conducting an LIA, help set up a strong data foundation for a legitimate and reliable soft opt-in mechanism – moving from explicit consent or not, to also factoring in LI within the model. We can not only help you manage the different nuances in this type of data collection, but also how you’re capturing soft opt-ins across different touchpoints of the supporter journey.
If you’d like help in developing an email marketing and consent optimisation strategy to maximise this game-changing fundraising opportunity, get in touch.
