New study reveals much about online privacy concerns – important findings for nonprofits

Even as nonprofit fundraising becomes increasingly reliant on social media for expanding fundraising opportunities and donor engagement it’s easy to overlook that there is still much inherent distrust about online privacy. As a firm advocate of social media’s ability to both build your audience and provide the ideal opportunity to develop ongoing two-way communication with donors I also respect that it’s very important to be aware that many still hold concerns about how social media respects the matter of privacy and data security.

While we read about the huge percentage of the population that are regularly using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter it’s also worth noting that tens of millions avoid social media entirely and a contributing factor is the concern about about data privacy. I found the infographic beneath to be extremely revealing about the mistrust that a majority hold concerning online privacy particularly relating to social media sites.

Please see the entire infographic at onlineprivacydata.com

The survey conducted by Rad Campaign, Lincoln Park Strategies and CraigConnects polled over 1,000 adult in the US and asked questions related to mistrust of websites and social media. The primary worry is centred around whether online organizations are selling personal information. Here at Miratel Solutions we never sell or share any information provided by any individual or company that contacts us and that our databases are for the exlusive use of our company. It’s absolutely vital that your own website provides a full disclosure of the privacy policy of your organization so that the issue is at least addressed and ideally allays the fears held by some of your potential donors, our own website contains a great example.

The nonprofit world naturally collects a great deal of private donor information and information that explicitly explains how and why you collect data and the specifics of its use are highly recommended. The effective and professional safeguarding of donor information is not only an expectation of the public but the ongoing provision of your terms of service could well be the difference between adding a new donor and having them elect not to engage with you.

In addition to providing your privacy policy online in full detail you also should make sure that your audience can ask questions if they wish by providing an email or telephone number that they can contact to discuss their concerns if needed. It’s also important to provide various different avenues to donate or be added to your database, some will prefer to provide donor details by telephone and others would prefer paperwork is mailed to them to complete and return. Flexibility and scope are important in appealing to a wider donor audience and respecting the concerns that they may hold.

I also think that some organizations are developing an over-reliance on social media when it comes to collecting donor information and using Facebook (in particular) as the portal for making donations and /or linking to a nonprofit database. If the potential donor has an existing mistrust of Facebook or any other channel then they are less likely to use such a portal – use social media to also link to your own website at all times rather than depend on the social media platform to appeal to everyone because as the data above shows – it may be costing you trust and support.

Most importantly stay informed about social media and online privacy developments and fully address any and all concerns that your donors may have. Online security and data privacy are very significant concerns for a majority of people for a good reason, if they themselves have not been impacted there is a good chance that someone they know has been. I feel it is very important for the nonprofit sector to value these concerns, provide full disclosure of your terms of service and do everything possible to safeguard the data of donors. The reputation of your nonprofit can only be enhanced by doing all possible in this arena.

If you have any thoughts, suggestions or recommendations to improve the flow of information pertaining to these concerns I’d be happy to hear from you. To see the other data from the study about online privacy please visit onlineprivacydata.com.

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Miratel Solutions is a Toronto call centre, eBusiness, and letter shop mail house specializing in professional fundraising services including PCI compliant inbound telephone fundraising, outbound telephone fundraising, online fundraising, lottery fundraising services, donation processing and receipting and direct mail fundraising services. We are committed to our CSR business values in all our business decisions  and advancing the missions of the nonprofits we proudly serve.