How Quick Legislation in California Will Definitely Hurt Nonprofits
There are many examples of a policy or cultural change that started in California. Some of those changes have been incredibly good. Some have been problematic. It seems California is the incubator for a lot of new ideas that become part of the legislative agenda or cultural acceptance.
However, a current bill in the California State legislature may go beyond what is a good idea. And because of the speed in which it's moving, the unforeseen consequences to nonprofits could be large.
SB362 was introduced into the state legislature in California in recent days. The legislation would establish the right for California citizens to know what information was collected about them and have the right to delete personal information or opt out of the sale or sharing of information. Some might say that California already did this back in 2018. While true, it didn't apply to nonprofits. SB362 would apply.
Here's the problem.
The legislation requires some type of one-stop access for all data brokers. Basically, you contact one particular place and citizens’ information could be removed. In the nonprofit world, this would relate mostly to the idea of wealth screening. Several major leaders in nonprofit agencies have voiced serious concern that this would cripple the ability of nonprofits to do outreach, most likely in annual giving efforts, either by snail mail or digitally. As one expert said, it will completely cripple the idea of fundraising to mass numbers many smaller nonprofits rely upon in terms of dollars to support their charity purposes.
There is no question that data and the right to manage it need to be discussed. I don't want my data where it shouldn't be and I pretty much know that it is, based on all of the data breaches in banking, philanthropy, financial services, etc. However, state governments have become increasingly dependent on nonprofits to serve at the base level of the community, partnering with them to ensure important initiatives are implemented. This law would totally create an upheaval in philanthropic efforts for any nonprofit, either in California or out, that solicits donors within that state---and harm what the California government wants, which is for nonprofits to serve the community where government agencies cannot.
