As the current era of internet search and third-party cookies nears its end and the era of consumer privacy looms, I fear most organizations are ill-prepared.

That’s understandable since no big changes are yet evident: the California Consumer Privacy Protect Act doesn’t take effect until January 2020, the CCPA has an exemption for nonprofits (but not your data partners), and the negative effects of changes at Google and Facebook will take some time to be noticed.

Here at the Agitator we view our job as sounding the warning that change is coming and to also provide some grist for your thinking and planning mill. That’s why we’ve added two new Categories to our Archive Index—Privacy and First Party Data.

In September and October we posted some initial observations/concerns on Privacy ( here and here ), and last week Nick covered the importance of getting on top of first-party data (data supplied by the donor) for fundraising and audience building given changes at Google and Facebook. (here, here, and here. )

Update on Privacy

As we noted in earlier posts, two states—Vermont and California—have now enacted consumer privacy legislation and bills are working their way in the state legislatures of 21 other state.  And now a federal privacy bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives last Tuesday would give consumers nationwide new rights.  While similar to California’s new law, the 132-page proposal appears to give consumers even broader rights – for example the right to access data about themselves, as well as correct, delete and transfer their data.

Here’s a one-page summary of the proposed House bill.

Of course, given the impeachment/election year/partisan paralysis in Congress and likely fierce opposition from the tech and data industries this legislation will be sometime coming, in whatever eventual form.  But you can be certain a privacy law affecting your organization will eventually emerge.

First-Party Data

Don’t underestimate how much work lies ahead as both the commercial and nonprofit sectors move more and more to relying on first-party data provided by donors. (Preferences, donor identity, donor attitudes such as commitment and satisfaction.)

Here are key areas you need to start preparing for:

• Data Collection and Donor Experience. Increased emphasis on the collection and use of donor information inside your walled garden as opposed to that collected by the walled gardens of Facebook and Google relies on donors voluntarily providing personal information (email addresses and donor identity for example).

Just how much personal information you collect is a function of how effectively you can motivate donors to share their information.  And that is likely to require a whole new set of skills and approaches when it comes to conversion and communication.

• More Sophisticated Data Infrastructure. In the current world of third-party cookies and demographic and wealth there is a clear division of labor. Fundraisers keep track of donors giving and cultivation while third-parties provide and keep track of that data.

In the coming new world fundraisers will likely need to store and manage data not only for current giving but also for prospecting.  Thus, the already-complex task of handling donor data increases in complexity manyfold.   This, in turn, will raise questions about design of CRM databases, storage and volume costs.

• New Skill Sets. An effective first-party data operation requires both new tools and new skills.  Take the issue of privacy for example. It’s likely that sooner or later—let’s assume 18-24 months—your organization may be required to respond to a donor from the simple privacy request (“Where did you get my name?  With whom did you share my data?”)  to a much more sophisticated demand from the donor to review all her data and perhaps delete or correct some.

Doing this will require both a CRM that can provide the requisite information and staff properly trained to respond and with permission to access to that first-party data.

And when it comes to actually collecting first-party data there’s an equally complex set of barriers.  For example, if we’re going to get beyond the walled-gardens of Facebook, Google and other platforms we’re going to have to perfect a whole new skill set of lead generation and email gathering tactics. (As in soliciting email addresses from everyone who visits your website; not to mention improving the usability of websites).

I have no way of knowing how well prepared the nonprofit world is for these changes.  But if the commercial world is largely unprepared, I suspect it’s true for our sector as well.  According to data expert Nancy Marzouk of MediaWallah a recent survey by  Hubspot found that half of commercial marketers have poor or no tactics for soliciting email addresses from website visitors. If the basic “step one” of gathering first-party data is the skillful solicitation of email addresses how well are they prepared for soliciting far more sophisticated first-party data.

Have you started thinking and planning with your colleagues about changes that we’re all about to face and how to deal with them effectively in your shop?

Roger