What information do we collect?

The information we gather falls into three categories:

• Personal information you provide to us voluntarily
• Non-personal information routinely gathered as you navigate through our website
• Personal information gathered by automatic data collection technologies

Browsing our website does not require registration, allowing you to visit our site without telling us who you are.

Some services on the site may require you to provide us with personal information. In these situations, if you choose to withhold any personal information requested by us, it may not be possible for us to respond to your request or for you to gain access to certain parts of the website.

Information you provide voluntarily

We collect information from you when you:

• Contact us
• Create an account on our website
• Submit content for publication
• Subscribe to our newsletter
• Make a donation to us
• Respond to a survey
• Fill out a form
• Engage with our social media sites
• Otherwise give us personal information

In those cases, we may collect some or all of the following information: your name, email address, mailing address, phone number(s), username, password, credit card or other payment information, and other information specific to the form you are submitting. We may also collect your image when photos and videos are taken at our events.

Our legal bases for collecting and processing your personal data include:

• Consent — You consent when you create an account on our website, subscribe to our newsletter, submit an article for publication, or fill out a form on our website.

• Contract — We have a contract with you to process your data when you make a donation to us.

• Legitimate interests — Our legitimate interests include responding to your questions and requests for information, managing user accounts, providing services you request, evaluating the effectiveness of our website and email newsletters, internal recordkeeping and administrative purposes, and operating, maintaining, and improving the website and our services.

Information routinely gathered as you navigate through our website

We collect data from your web browser or mobile device as you visit our website in order to analyze, understand, and improve traffic to our website and to make our site more useful to our visitors.

All analytics data collected on this website is anonymized. It may include, but is not limited to, information about the visitor's type of computer or device and operating system, browser and version, pages visited, date and time of visit, sources of traffic to the website, approximate geographic location, and search queries. This data does not include any Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and cannot be traced back to a specific individual.

See our Cookie and Tracking Policy for more information.

Personal information gathered by automatic data collection technologies

Tracking technologies, such as web beacons in email newsletters, are not anonymized and do contain PII.

See our Cookie and Tracking Policy for more information.

How do we use your information?

The information we collect from you may be used to:

• Communicate with you and respond to your questions or messages.
• Personalize your experience.
• Publish or otherwise use information you submit to us for publication.
• Send you email newsletters and marketing, fundraising and other communications and to understand whether and when you read our email messages and click on links in those messages.
• Process transactions including your donations and other requests for services.
• Manage, administer, promote, analyze and improve our services.
• Generate aggregate anonymized reports and use and share that information for our purposes.

We may also use the information we collect from you in other ways, and for other purposes, that are described to you at the point of collection or for which we otherwise have obtained your consent.

How do we protect your information?

Disclosure and sharing

Our responsibilities

We do not rent, sell, trade, or share your personal information with third parties for their marketing purposes without your consent.

We may share your personal information with the following trusted persons or companies:

• Authorized persons within the organization to facilitate our work including communication, planning, and donation processing.
• Authorized service providers we partner with for the purpose of providing services on our behalf. These third-party service providers may include, but are not limited to, information technology consultants, website developers and administrators; payment processors; email service providers; and mailing house companies.
• Designated authorities when required by law, a legal process, law enforcement measures, or to comply with legal or regulatory obligations.
• Successors of this organization if we merge in whole or in part with another organization or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy.

Your responsibilities

We may invite you to submit an article for publication. If you choose to do so, you are responsible for exercising care when sharing any personal data.

Information you share in published articles is public and thus is not protected by our privacy policy nor are we liable if you choose to disclose your personal information in your article. Anything published on our website may be available worldwide. We cannot prevent the use or misuse of such information by others.

Storage and retention

All electronic information is stored on computers and servers located in the United States and/or Canada.

We retain information we collect from you for as long as needed for business or legal purposes or until you ask us to delete it. Your information may be retained in electronic form, paper form, or a combination of both.

When your information is no longer needed, or you ask us to remove it, we will destroy, delete, or erase it within ten business days. The data may remain in backups on our servers for up to 30 days, after which it will be completely removed. We reserve the right to to retain certain information for recordkeeping purposes and/or to complete any transactions that you began prior to requesting removal.

Security

We use physical, technical, and organizational safeguards in an effort to secure the information we collect. These safeguards vary based on the sensitivity of the information.

Passwords are stored using secure password hashes, not in plain text. Therefore, we cannot look up your password if you forget it; you must request a new password or a password reset.

We do not collect, process, or save credit card information on our website or website server. We use third-party payment processing services that use industry-standard encryption technology to protect your credit card information from unauthorized use. Please see their privacy policy (GiveDirect) for more information. We do not store or retain financial information you provide to us by other means (such as in print or by phone) after processing is complete unless needed for recurring processing.

Unfortunately, no security system, method of transmission, or electronic storage is impenetrable. While we use reasonable security measures to protect your information, we cannot guarantee against the loss or misuse of your personal information in the event it is intercepted, accessed, or disclosed in a manner beyond our control. We are not responsible for the circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures used on our website or in our offices.

Most email and mobile transmissions are not encrypted, so you should take special care in deciding what information you send to us via email, text messages, or other mobile transmissions.

We strongly urge you to protect your your password and to not share it with anyone. If you log in to our website, always log out when you finish using it, especially if you are sharing a computer or using a computer in a public place.

Links to other websites

Our website may include links to other websites, embedded media controlled by third parties, and social media buttons, content, or widgets.

These third-party sites have separate and independent privacy policies. We have no control, responsibility, or liability for the content and activities of these linked sites.

See our Cookie and Tracking Policy for more information.

Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)

Our website, products, and services are directed to people who are at least 16 years of age or older. We do not knowingly collect any personal information from anyone under 16 years of age.

If you are a parent or guardian and believe that your child has submitted personal information on our website, please contact us. Before we remove any information, we may ask for proof of identification to prevent malicious removal of information.

EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

European Union (EU) visitors who submit personal data to us will have their data transferred outside the European Union to the United States and/or Canada. By using our website and services you agree to the transfers of your personal data.

EU residents also have certain rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other laws. Depending on the legal basis for processing your personal data, you may have some or all of the following rights:

• The right to be informed — You have the right to be informed about the personal data we collect from you, and how we process it (described in this privacy policy).

• The right of access — You have the right to access and obtain a copy of your personal data.

• The right to rectification — You have the right to have your personal data corrected if it is inaccurate or incomplete.

• The right to erasure (right to be forgotten) — You have the right to request the removal or deletion of your personal data if there is no compelling reason for us to continue processing it.

• The right to restrict processing — You have a right to block or restrict the processing of your personal data. When your personal data is restricted, we are permitted to store your data, but not to process it further.

• The right to data portability — You have the right to request and get your personal data that you provided to us and use it for your own purposes. We will provide your data to you within 30 days of your request.

• The right to object — You have the right to object to us processing your personal data if we are processing your data for:

  • Direct marketing purposes
  • A task carried out in the public interest
  • The exercise of official authority vested in us
  • Our legitimate interests (or those of a third party)
  • Purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics

• Rights in relation to automated decision-making and profiling — You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.

• To exercise these rights — Contact us and state your specific request in writing. We reserve the right to verify your identity and confirm your right to the information.

GDPR lists the following roles which we define as:

• Data Subject — You, the individual whose data we may collect.
• Data Controller — Us, the owners and operators of this website.
• Data Processor — Us and the third-party service providers we partner with to processes your personal data on our behalf.

How to change your consent or review, update, or delete your information

Website account — Log into your website account to view, update, or delete your information.

Articles or content submitted for publication without a website account — Contact us.

Newsletter subscriptions — Click on the “update preferences” or “unsubscribe” links in the email to change your email newsletter preferences or unsubscribe from the newsletter.

Donations — Log into your account to view, update, or delete your information.

If you have questions or need assistance with making changes, please contact us.

Changes to our privacy policy

We reserve the right to change our privacy policy at any time. All changes will be published on this page, so please check back periodically. Your use of our website and services constitutes your consent to the privacy policy in effect at that time.

Contacting us

If you have questions about this privacy policy please contact us.