Canada’s New Anti-Spam Law - Are You Ready?

David Seager

What is Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation?



Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation or CASL is a new law will be in force to protect individuals from spam while allowing business to still operate in a online environment. The law prevents a business or organization from sending electronic messages without consent and will need to include information to identify the sender and allow the constituent to opt out of receiving email messages.

When does this take effect?



Effective on July 1, 2014 CASL for all commercial electronic messages under the new law. According to the legislation a commercial electronic message or CEM is "any electronic message (e.g., e-mail, electronic news bulletin, or invitation sent online) that encourages participation in a commercial activity, regardless of whether there is an expectation of profit."*

How am I effected by these new laws?



CASL requires organizations sending emails to and from Canada obtain “expressed consent” before sending any communication. This "expressed consent" means that a user took action to opt-in or approve to receive communications from you. "Implied consent", on the other hand, is when no action was taken to approve communications from your organization, but you have a business or non-business relationship with the recipient. According to CASL, you must obtain express consent unless you have a pre-existing relationship with the recipient. Please review the law and contact your legal representation to discuss what is "expressed consent" and "implied consent" and how it applies to your organization.


The new law applies to all messages sent from or to Canada; however, Blackbaud cannot advise how CASL will affect an organization. Each organization should reach out to an appropriate legal resource for information about how they may be affected by this new legislation. More information about CASL and electronic messages can be found on Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation's website, along with the regulations and exemptions from the law as an organization or business.

What are some things I need to do before the law take effects?

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• Get Consent. Send messages to get your recipients to sign up for receiving different types of messages from your organization. By creating attributes in your Raiser's Edge/Education Edge records you can create targeted lists in the database. Example, a users would like to receive messages about upcoming events but not for your weekly newsletters.
  

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• Get Clear. Review all your email templates and messages to ensure the messages that go out comply with the commercial electronic message requirements to clearly identify where the message is coming from and all the parties involved, more info can be found here. You need to provide a way for users to unsubscribe at any time from receiving email messages, please note Blackbaud requires a unsubscribe link for every message that NetCommunity sends.
  

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• Get Prepared. Be sure to review your internal process as you will need to provide proof of consent for every message that you send. Make sure that every record in Raiser's Edge and/or Education Edge has this data entered.
  

How do I send messages from NetCommunity (BBNC) or Blackbaud Internet Solutions (BBIS) under these new regulations?



Our solutions have few resources that can help you be in compliance:

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  BBIS Considerations:
  
  
  
  For BBIS, you can utilize our integrated Email Subscription Form (created via form builder) to collect email addresses that are then recorded directly into BBCRM. You should always be offering a communication preferences form inside of your email blasts so that your recipients can easily update their email and offline preferences that also write back to BBCRM. Today, those solutions will help you track and manage consent.
  
  
  
  BBNC Considerations:
  
  
  
• By updating the setting for default users who sign up on your NetCommunity or Blackbaud Internet Solutions (BBIS) site to opt in to receive email messages. This setting determines whether new registered users in BBNC or BBIS opt in by default to receive email messages from your organization. If you wish you turn this feature off/on for all users please follow these steps.
  

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• By allowing users to opt in to receive different types of email messages. We highly recommend that you do not utilize the "Anonymous Newsletter Subscription" part in BBNC since it will not track the people who sign up inside of RE. The users will be able to easily opt in or out of messages on the profile and/or email preferences form using attributes from Raiser's Edge and/or Education Edge. This information will populate into their record on the attributes tab for you to query on for your email messages. Please follow the steps for creating and adding attributes to forms.
  

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• By adding these new constituent attribute asking for consent on the new user sign up/login and profile forms to allow current and new users the opportunity to remove consent at any time during their relationship with your organization. Steps can be found for add attributes to profile form and user sign up/login form.
  

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• By adding an individual/student attribute on an Online Admissions\\Online Re-Enrollment application to ask consent for what types of messages they would like to receive from the school. Steps to create attributes and adding them to online forms can be found here
  

If you have any more questions about using our internet solutions, please contact Blackbaud Product Support at 800.468.8996 or create a case at Case Central.

These materials are provided for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue.

Lindsay Doran

Hi there David,



Unfortunately the link to the steps re: how to add an email opt-in attribute to Raiser's Edge/NetCommunity is giving an "Article Not Found" error. Do you know if the article has been moved?



We're working on some new donation forms and require the opt-in to be added.



Thanks!


Lindsay

David Seager

Lindsay Doran:
Hi there David,



Unfortunately the link to the steps re: how to add an email opt-in attribute to Raiser's Edge/NetCommunity is giving an "Article Not Found" error. Do you know if the article has been moved?



We're working on some new donation forms and require the opt-in to be added.



Thanks!


Lindsay

Hello Lindsay,



As opt in attributes are constituent attributes, unfortunately they cannot be added to donation forms. As an alternate you can give donors the option to create a NetCommunity profile and update their options with either the profile or email preferences form.



Have a great day,


David

Lindsay Doran

Lindsay Doran:
Hi there David,



Unfortunately the link to the steps re: how to add an email opt-in attribute to Raiser's Edge/NetCommunity is giving an "Article Not Found" error. Do you know if the article has been moved?



We're working on some new donation forms and require the opt-in to be added.



Thanks!


Lindsay

Thank you for your quick reply, David.



That's too bad. Do you foresee this being an option in the future?



We're in the midst of simplifying our donation process, and it's unlikely that donors will want to register for NetCommunity and edit their settings to receive emails from us.



Also, is the opt-in attribute available for registration forms?



Thank you,


Lindsay

David Seager

Lindsay Doran:
Hi there David,



Unfortunately the link to the steps re: how to add an email opt-in attribute to Raiser's Edge/NetCommunity is giving an "Article Not Found" error. Do you know if the article has been moved?



We're working on some new donation forms and require the opt-in to be added.



Thanks!


Lindsay

Hi Lindsay,



You can suggest the feature here on our blog. Currently as the attributes are constituent attributes as they feed into the user record they are not used on any transaction part like events or memberships.



Thanks,


David