# Charities guilty of list abuse

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2007/06/28/charities-guilty-list-abuse/
- Published: 2007-06-28T23:00:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

The charity sector is one of the worst offenders at misusing and abusing marketing
lists according to a new study.
The annual survey by data value management specialists
DQM Group says that the charity sector last year was one of the most compliant sectors
when it came to list licence adherence. A year on, the sector now features among
the top five worst offenders.

 

 

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The study says that third sector organisations have sophisticated direct marketing
activities which gives them no excuse for citing naivety or inexperience as contributing
factors. It says that if the sector continues to abuse list licences it could lead
to an official enquiry.

 

 

Data abuse is a growing problem in the UK, but misuse of lists reduces response 
rates and increases consumer dissatisfaction of dm from ‘overmarketing’ and use 
of out-of-date data.

 

 

Adrian Gregory, managing director of DQM Group, said the problems could largely 
be attributed to two factors. Lists are ‘seeded’ with names and addresses which 
are ‘tracked’ so that list owners can see when and where they have been used. Gregory
said some list owners could be more rigorous in how they manage their data, making
better use of the tracking available. He said there are still some list owners who
do not use any tracking devices.

 

 

Sometimes misuse of data is down to the end user not realising when a licence has
ended or including the data in its own database and being unable to identify the
licensed names.

 

 

This is the second year DQM has produced the survey, which will now be an annual
undertaking.

 

 

 

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