Data protection spells disaster for fundraising

I was struck by the headline of an item in Third Sector. "EU data protection plans 'potentially disastrous' for charity fundraising" it proclaims.

The article went on to quote from a report from a fundraising agency "Fundraising depends on big numbers and economies of scale; by generating enough new donors, the cost of finding and keeping each one gets small enough to make donor recruitment profitable." My question is, "Does it?" 

Without wanting to denigrate the commitment of those of you fundraisers who specialize in mass appeals, my understanding of successful fundraising leads me to quite the opposite conclusion. Could it not be that instead of disaster, perhaps restrictions on the use of lists, telephone campaigns and direct mail would be a victory for effective fundraising?

Effective fundraising, it is generally reckoned even by those who practice more mass-market approaches to fundraising, requires building a relationship. So what if suddenly we switched our effort from list-buying, mailing and calling segments, postcodes and sociodemographic profiles? Instead, what if we spent our time identifying and researching people who  really are connected and close to us? Who are part of our real social constituency not just the product of data analysis. Our existing donors, our volunteers and their families and friends? And, those that have been touched by and share in our causes? What if we actually took time to talk personally and directly to these people? What if we got to know them on a one to one basis? What if we asked them to become part of a network of personal connections? What if our contact with them was social, face-to-face and responded to their interest and passion for what we do uniquely, valuing them as a person instead of as a data point?

That, of course is the basis of major gift fundraising. It is also the way to successfully approach business partnerships and to get support from trusts and foundations.

However, if we step back in time it was also the way that philanthropy originally was born. Mass-market fundraising only really started in the early part of the last century. Street fundraising originated with the YMCA and wasn't popularised until the 1980s by Greenpeace. Direct mail fundraising is really only a post World War II phenomenen. Its precursor direct mail marketing began the 1900s. Telephone fundraising, as I'm sure many of you know came much, much later.

Prior to these, fundraising for social causes including the arts and education was achieved by personal connection between social activists, volunteers and donors. The main fundraising tools were events of various sorts including balls, concerts and lectures. Fundraising letters were written personally -think of Mrs Jellaby in Dickens' Bleak House. Other forms of  eighteenth and nineteenth century fundraising also included financial tools and instruments curiously similar to those that we describe as "new philanthropy". The significance of any of these older forms of fundraising is that they involved networks of individuals interacting viscerally, personally and socially.

So, if suddenly, governments introduced regulations that limit our ability to buy lists, to mail and telephone people whom we don't know, will that really be such a disaster?