The change in the law on 5 February 2026 had the effect of shifting the burden from the individual supporter needing to explicitly "opt in" to that supporter instead needing to "opt out." (At the time of collecting data, a charity could, for example, say "We'll send you updates unless you tick here to opt-out".)

This reform provides more scope for the activities of charity marketing and fundraising teams using direct electronic marketing. It gives charities far more flexibility, enabling a charity to send electronic marketing communications to a much wider pool of individuals who have either shown interest in that charity’s purposes or have provided any support to that charity. 

Charities as a result can grow their mailing lists without having to rely on individuals opting in expressly through the use of tick boxes etc. and that should lead to increased engagement with supporters and improved fundraising.

The soft opt-in is not available to a charity in relation to an individual supporter’s details that it collected before 5 February 2026: it can only be used for such details as are collected after that date. Nor does it apply to individual supporters who previously opted out or whose data was collected under the explicit consent rule.