Fund-Raising Researchers Issue Guidelines Designed to Protect Privacy of Charity Donors

By NICOLE LEWIS

The Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement, which represents fund raisers who collect background information about donors and potential donors, for the first time has issued guidelines on what its 2,000 members should do to protect donor privacy.

The guidelines, which are spelled out in a position paper called “Privacy and Advancement Research,” call for members to confine their information gathering to publicly held data needed to determine a donor’s capacity to give. For example, finding out how much equity a person has in a public company is relevant, but every detail of a divorce settlement might not be, said Mark Cotleur, a fund raiser at Children’s Hospital Trust, in Boston, and a member of the association’s board.

The paper was triggered in part by new federal regulations that said fund raisers at health-care organizations have the right to use patients’ names, addresses, gender information, ages, and hospital-stay dates for fund-raising appeals (The Chronicle, January 11).

Internet Data

Mr. Cotleur said the paper also was prompted by the wide availability of personal information on the Internet, which makes it much easier for researchers to obtain access to information sources that are not considered appropriate by the association.

“The position paper basically says that prospect researchers, who are responsible for the handling and dissemination of personal information, take constituents’ privacy very seriously,” he said.

The group’s Statement of Ethics, which was last revised in 1998, emphasizes that charities should let all donors and prospective donors know that researchers are collecting personal information that can be used to solicit donations.

The association also requires its members to observe all laws governing the collection of personal information and to buy information on prospective donors only from companies that disclose the source of such data.

Free copies of the guidelines, “Privacy and Advancement Research,” can be obtained by visiting the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement’s Web site at http://www.aprahome.org, or by contacting the association at 414 Plaza Drive, Suite 209, Westmont, Ill. 60659; (608) 655-0177.