Fundraising means activities conducted by or on behalf of a charity with the primary purpose of raising funds to support the charity. Electronic messages sent by or on behalf of a charity for fundraising are exempt from the application of CASL. If the charity sends other kinds of electronic messages to the public then it will have to follow CASL rules.

A registered charity is a technical term for a non-profit that has been given the designation of charity by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) for income tax purposes. Only charities can issue tax receipts for charitable donations.

Commercial purposes means encouraging participation in a commercial (for profit) activity such as selling tickets to shows or listing fees for services. The activities of non-profits and charities may be commercial if they involve selling to the public.

Canada’s Anti-Spam Law (CASL) sets out the rules about these types of messages which are also known as CEM or commercial electronic messages.

Electronic messages are messages sent by any electronic means such as email, text, instant message, and tweet. When sent to a group of people such as to the members of your non-profit or the public, these messages may be considered spam (unsolicited or junk) and Canada has rules about spam.

Clear guidelines set out the important things for a privacy officer to consider in making a decision about whether to grant access to your non-profit’s records. All requests for information must be handled with care. Clear guidelines help to ensure caution and consistency in decision making.

A privacy policy is a document that describes how your non-profit deals with personal information. Dealing with personal information includes its collection, use, disclosure, and retention (storage).

A privacy officer is a person your non-profit designates to answer questions about how your non-profit collects, uses, retains, and discloses personal information.