Charities need to ensure online fundraising complies with new legislation

From 1st March 2011 the Advertising Standards Authority's (ASA) Committee of Advertising Practice Code will be extended to cover statements that organisations (including charities) make on websites they control, including their own and other pages such as Facebook pages.

Any page of content (such as text, video or images) that contains an ask for donations needs to comply with the code of practice.

Key points:

• The new code will come into force on 1 March 2011
• It will cover all online marketing communications controlled by any organisation, including a charity, but not those that do not sell or solicit donations
• Those that refuse to comply could be added to a special list on the ASA's website
• Those that refuse to comply could have their paid for search advertising removed and Google searches listing the ASA's website as the top result

The original article in Third Sector can be found at www.thirdsector.co.uk/news/Article/1040887/Charities-warned-not-fall-foul-new-ASA-online-code/.

More information can be found at www.cap.org.uk.