The European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which regulates how companies protect EU citizens’ personal data, takes effect on May 25, 2018. As part of this, companies need explicit permission from EU residents to send them communications.

Your Nonprofit and GDPR

If you have constituents in the EU, regardless of where you are, the GDPR applies to your organization. EU constituents must explicitly express consent to receive communications from your organization.

Bloomerang and GDPR

Keep track of consent in Bloomerang through Communication Restrictions, and Email Interests. You can use these fields as filters in letters and emails.

How does Bloomerang help you obtain and track consent from your constituents? By May 25:

  • Online forms display an opt-in checkbox when an EU address is entered.

    • This will allow the EU constituent to select if they would like to receive email, phone, or mail communications from the organization.

  • Confirmation emails have a link to the manage email preferences page.

    • This will allow constituents receiving a Bloomerang default email after submitting an online form to manage their email interests from the default email.

  • A reason must be entered when a user edits a constituent’s communication preferences (Email Interests and Communication Restrictions).

  • We also updated how Communication Restrictions can be edited using a design similar to editing Email Interests.

  • We will track changes to email and communication preferences via an internal audit log.

Finally, Bloomerang customers with constituents in the EU have been notified and asked if they would like Bloomerang to update the communication restrictions for their EU constituents on 5/25.

Receiving emails from Bloomerang

On the non-customer side, Bloomerang collects information on several forms throughout our website. We’ve added double opt-ins to all of our forms, and clarified language for when and how we use your personal information.

  • After requesting product information (requesting a demo, etc.): we never share your information with any third parties.
  • After becoming a Bloomerang customer: we never share your information with any third parties.
  • After downloading an educational resource (such as an eBook or template): we never share your information with any third parties unless we collaborated with a partner on creating the content.
  • After registering for an educational webinar: we share your information with the webinar guest presenter – our policy is that they can send you one follow-up email and not subscribe you to their list.

You can and always will be able to unsubscribe from Bloomerang emails at any time. For more information, check out our website’s privacy policy here: https://bloomerang.co/privacy-policy/

Happy fundraising!