Hungary: NGOs turn to illegal spam to solicit for income tax donations

Running on low budgets and desperate for hand-outs, non-governmental organizations have been increasingly resorting to unsolicited e-mails to persuade taxpayers to give away 1% of their income tax as a donation, Menezsdment Fórum reports.

A growing number of non-governmental organizations have been sending out unsolicited electronic mails to potential donors. Bulk mails are just the thing for non-profit organizations as they not only offer a quick way to reach thousands of potential supporters as they prepare they tax returns but they are also one of the cheapest, if illegal, forms of advertising.

Since 1998, Hungarians can donate 1% of their income tax to a civil or cultural organization and another 1% to a registered church, which they have to declare in separate forms when filing tax returns.

According to index.hu, competition for the 1% donations is huge, with a total of over Ft 26 billion to be disbursed this year, but recent statistics show that only half of the taxpayers actually take the time to fill out the form.

Traditionally, non-governmental organizations have run advertising campaigns on television, radio and billboards, but these ads can cost around 10%-30% of the normal list price, which few of them can afford. Another cheaper alternative now increasingly used by these non-profit groups is online advertising, generally in the form of "self-promotion" run by the organization on its own website.

Lately, however, a growing number of civil organizations have been sending out unsolicited electronic mails to potential donors. These mails usually contain a hyperlink to a website introducing the four most popular areas of donation (health, environment, child and animal protection) to visitors and offers four such organizations to support.

Sending unsolicited e-mail to ask for donations is inexpensive and efficient but it's also illegal, commented Ákos Bódis, local head of Sunbelt Software, a global software company that makes spam filters. As in other EU member states, e-mail advertisements in Hungary are legal only if the recipient subscribes to them.

According to Bódis, these "civil spams" may also serve as feeler ads designed to gauge the recipient's inclination to click on an attached hyperlink. This gives advertisers a means of testing spam filters and using this data to make personalized offers to their customers.

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