Research released just last week by the World Federation of Advertisers found 70% of brand owners do not feel marketers at their organisations are fully aware of the extent of the laws, and just 65% expect to be fully compliant when the GDPR comes into force in May 2018.

Cancer Research UK, however, is one of the brands well on the way to ensuring they will be compliant come May. It was one of the first UK charities to shift strategy so supporters opted-in to receive communications, rather than having to opt out. That is just one sign, says its director of individual giving Graham White, of the importance of the upcoming laws to the charity.

“At CRUK we take things in terms of our supporters and their wishes very seriously,” he tells Marketing Week. “We don’t see this so much as a revolution as an evolution of what we’re already doing. We’ve got stringent processes, governance and controls that exist and awareness around how we handle data. This isn’t a bolt from the blue.”

Preparing for GDPR

Nevertheless, the charity says it still has work to do to ensure its GDPR-compliant come May. With this in mind, it has formed a cross-functional GDPR team and a steering committee that oversees all of its marketing work from a governance perspective.

The working group is headed up by the charity’s compliance boss, whose job it is to understand the regulations. She then has a team from across the business that looks at the regulations and works out the implications for their department and ensures there is enough resource to make the changes – when it comes to marketing and fundraising, this is White’s job.

Ensuring GDPR compliance also involves a lot of conversations with internal teams as well as external suppliers. White says the a lot of the work the charity is doing is around educating staff so that everyone is clear on the importance of GDPR and its likely impact.

The charity is also undertaking audits so that it can see where it might need to change practices and identify any issues or shortfalls, and understand what the implications might be for changing those. Training is also a big focus to ensure everyone in the business knows what they are doing.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.marketingweek.com