Our third #trusteehour for 2018 in March sought to tackle the ‘elephant in the room’, which had been suggested as a topic back in 2017: GDPR.

With the implementation date not far off on 25 May 2018, it seemed a good moment to encourage resource-sharing for charity trustees still looking to get their heads around what’s involved.

We had around 2,500 views during this trusteehour, with a number of online references shared.  This link is for the Information Commissioner’s Office FAQs for charities.

There’s also the resources brought together by the Institute of Fundraising.

Information and guidance from NCVO was also shared.

Taking a proactive approach to data and re-engaging with supporters was a theme identified, as an opportunity to use GDPR as a positive step.  @Osborn_Jo mentioned two charities she had seen active in this space:

@talktokieran continued this positive theme:

Thanks also to @TrusteeLeaders @BruceTaitAssoc @CT_charities @SocialChangeAg for joining the conversations.  The impression I was left with however was there’s a bit of this going on:

And finally, news of our next #trusteehour on Thursday 19 April 8-9pm – topic “demystifying charity accounts”!

Blog by Julie Hutchison
Founding Editor of @InformedTrustee

6 April 2018

Oh #GDPR that elephant in the room … or might that be the elephant constantly pounded thier way towards you?

It seems as if everyone has heard about #GDPR – that “stop spamming me thing” – well it’s not quite that simple.

Actually the level of engagement in this topic was much lower than others and many of the contributions were offered by #GDPR consultancies and service providers. There certainly is alot of support out there and for some – a business opportunity. For others, a real headache.

Julie kicked-off by providing a link to FAQs for charities, that can be accessed here. @TrusteeLeaders provided useful IoF guidelines, here and @CT_ Charities suggested looking a @ICOnews resource that contains data processing maps and other free tools to download, here.

We had our first tumbleweed moment. Some of you might know that Julie and I, usually meet for a drink to host #trusteehour and we soon realised that our drinks were going down quicker than normal. We are usually huddled around our smartphone, with a little glance at each other when the conversation hots up. Well we kept waiting, until we had a positive tweet from @BruceTaitAssoc.

Nooooo! Reason number 1 to LOVE GDPR instead… it allow charities to have an honest and transparent relationship with their stakeholders and donors #trusteehour #gdpr

— BTA (BruceTaitAssoc) (@BruceTaitAssoc) March 22, 2018

Here is another positive perspective from @CT_charities, who see it as an opportunity to spring clean the mailing list:

All #charities may want to use the opportunity that #gdpr gives to have a spring clean of their mailing list. After all, the utopia of have a 💯 accurate mailing list with client prefs would be a heavenly aim #trusteehour

— C+T Charities (@CT_charities) March 22, 2018

@Osborn_Jo asked whether charities are completing ‘Privacy Impact Assessments’ before any new projects? Perhaps that is something we could look at a later date.

We were delighted when @BruceTaitAssoc provided 3 tips for planning:

How about 3 tips for planning:
1 Ask yourself if GDPR applies to you. If it does, start planning your GDPR journey.
2 Establish who is going to do the planning and who you need to take with you on your journey.
3 Ask yourself what you want it to look like when you get there.

— BTA (BruceTaitAssoc) (@BruceTaitAssoc) March 22, 2018

Here is a good concluding tweet from @talktokieran below. Many contributors turned it into a positive and remarked  that its manageable if tackled “one piece at a time”.

@trusteehour #GDPR has changed the way that organisation’s can use personal data – but this only means that personal consent is key. Shouldn’t we always have been doing this already? As a consumer I like this. As #trustee, I love it! #trusteehour

— Kieran Daly – Social Innovation (@talktokieran) March 22, 2018

…. We should embrace it. We will certainly be returning to this topic and hopefully more people will want to participate.