TTPA is here. Is its bark worse than its bite for European non-profits?
It has now been a few months since the EU’s new rules around political and issue-based advertising came into full effect. And while many nonprofit organizations are still navigating what this means in practice, one thing has become clear: the complexity around the rules can sometimes feel more onerous than the rules themselves.
The Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising regulation (TTPA) was designed to help citizens identify political advertising, understand who funded it, and why they’re being targeted, but for nonprofits, this has created a unique practical challenge.
Since many nonprofit organizations communicate around issues that often look political, they can easily end up in a regulatory grey area marked by inconsistent platform-level ad approvals that create operational uncertainty, even when the underlying communication is legitimate.
This means that wording, context and platform interpretation matter now more than ever.
Recently, Lydia Staaf and Sara Ohlsén from N365 joined a session hosted by Swedish fundraising association Giva Sverige, where nonprofits and industry peers shared a common frustration: platforms are still applying the new rules inconsistently, with the same message approved on one platform and rejected on another, sometimes based on nothing more than a small change in wording.
But while this can be a source of frustration, nonprofits should be careful not to let uncertainty become a bigger barrier than the regulation itself.
At N365, we work with many nonprofit and charity organizations, and our view is that this is less of a compliance issue and more of a strategic one.
“What we see in practice is that there is still a lot that works,” Lydia Staaf said.
“If an ad gets rejected, it does not mean the whole campaign idea is wrong. Often, it is about testing different setups, with some changes being quite small. Our advice to nonprofits is to stay curious, keep testing and not let uncertainty stop important messages from reaching people.”
“Perhaps the most important reminder is this: there are still many ways to reach people and create engagement, even when platforms are applying new rules with some uncertainty,” said Sara Ohlsén.
This is also where experience across different channels becomes important, as sometimes the solution is a new angle, while on another channel it might be a different format, broader channel mix or a clearer user journey.
The point is not to stop communicating about important issues, but to keep testing what works in the new landscape because nonprofits still need to reach people, build trust, grow support and drive donations.
If your organization wants to discuss what this means in practice, or simply exchange thoughts on how to keep moving forward, feel free to reach out to us at N365. We are happy to share what we are seeing across the nonprofit space.
