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The Information Commissioner’s office recently (ICO) consulted on new direct marketing rules for charities. These changes arise from the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (the Act), which comes into operation in January 2026. The Act allows charities to send direct marketing about their charitable purposes without needing the specific consent of the recipient, as long as certain conditions are met. The ICO refers to this as the ‘charitable purpose soft opt-in’.

It is important to note charities must not use the charitable purpose soft opt-in to send electronic marketing to people whose contact details they have collected before it comes into operation. Then charities should keep a separate list of people who have given their consent to electronic marketing and people who will be sent it using the charitable purpose soft opt-in.

The ICO recently published a list of what charities can do to prepare for the charitable purpose soft opt-in. You can read this on the ICO’s website.