This month marks the beginning of a new era, at both Charity Finance and in the wider world. Ian Allsop elucidates.

We have all just entered a new age, people. Year zero. Everything in the past is now BC (before Corbyn).

As I write, just a few days after Jeremy was elected to be the new Labour leader, he has remained silent on his vision for the charity sector – but I expect he wants to nationalise it. Actually, by the time you read this he will probably have been filmed refusing to sing the words of the Sorp while kicking a chugger.

However the sector is shaped by Jeremy Corbyn’s new brand of political opposition, you don’t need a barely IT-literate scribe such as myself to tell you we will continue to live in a digital age.

A digital age

Technology makes life easy. I knew the golden era of convenience had truly arrived in 2003 when I was able to buy an iPod online, at 7am in the morning while still in my underpants. We have truly never looked back.

I must apologise for that particular example and the unfortunate image it throws up. It may well contain what the kids call “too much information”. And that is one of the problems – information, and how to store it and respect it. Convenience comes at a price.

Without wanting to appear paranoid in case ‘they’ are reading this, everything we do is monitored. Our buying decisions are stored and used for marketing purposes.

I will break from what I was going to write as (and this is absolutely true) I have just received an email from someone saying: “Hello Ian. I just wanted to make you aware that there are only two weeks left for companies to register for The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For List 2016.”

I had been sent this, it seems, because I am registered on some sort of freelance journalist web-resource thing. I get all sorts due to that, which I can ignore or read as I choose.

But what particularly freaked me out about this one was that it was sent by someone with the same name as my wife, and with a photo of the author that even looked like her when she was younger and less maturely beautiful.

Coincidence I know, but when you are in the middle of writing something about targeted digital marketing it makes you rather thoughtful.

I have digressed enough. The point is that people don’t mind giving information, but it is how that information is used which can create problems. Data protection is a huge issue for charities, who hold donor and supporter details, as well as the less digitally tangible goodwill and trust that accompanies it.

Another new era

I have already talked of ages and eras, and this column marks the end of me being babysat by my editor, Andrew Hind – the hind end of the Hind age – after 48 issues (which coincidentally is the same number as I edited, in a former life – no one ever quite makes the half century).

Andrew is moving on to quite frankly the easiest job in the world (apart from sorting out peace in the Middle East) as chair of the Fundraising Standards Board. Yes, I know. Anything for an easy life.

He has already come out all guns blazing on charities needing to do more to uphold best practice and basically not annoy people when raising precious funds. The Daily Mail has got very angry about some organisations misusing personal information, which in no way contradicts the standards they have applied to any of the stories they have ever previously published.

Some of the reporting probably exaggerates the problem, but it is clear that there are very serious concerns that need to be addressed, and I wish Andrew all the best – while reserving the right to lampoon him in the future should it be necessary.

So I am taking no chances with this column. After all, you give your time to read it every month – but unless you specifically opt out you might be bombarded with other columns all demanding your attention.

Please note that we will keep your details so we can contact you in the future about other columns and how you can read them. Please tick the box if you do not want to receive further columns. But be aware that, even if you do, there is no guarantee that it won’t happen anyway.

Ian Allsop is a freelance editor and journalist, and regular contributor to Charity Finance.