Privacy Policy

Introduction

We are committed to keeping your information secure and managing it in accordance with our legal responsibilities under privacy and data protection laws where we operate.  This Privacy Policy provides information about how we process sensitive information through DiscoverDonate.com.  For the purposes of the Data Protection Act (‘the DPA’) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (‘the GDPR’), sensitive information includes what is defined as your ‘personal data’.

By visiting https://www.discoverdonate.com (our ‘Website’) or using any of our services, you accept and consent to your personal information being used and disclosed in the manner set out in this Policy.

You do not have to provide your personal information to us, but if you do not provide certain information we will only be able to provide limited services to you.  The personal information that we collect when you use DiscoverDonate.com, as is the case with most websites, certain limited information (such as your browser type and IP address) will be collected by us automatically.

Opening a DiscoverDonate account

We will collect basic contact information about you to set up your account you so you can make donations. This will include your name, address and email address. We will also ask you to register a username and password so you can gain secure access to your account in the future.

Alternatively you may authorise us to collect your basic personal details from a secure online source (e.g. Google, Facebook, PayPal) to which you have already provided this information.  You can find out more information about who we interact with these companies by viewing the ‘Analytics and Social Media’ section below.

If you choose to login via Facebook we will obtain access to your public profile information and email address. We will use this information to allow you to login and populate our records about you. If you give us permission (via Facebook’s preference settings) we may also obtain access to your friend list; we will only use this to see if people on your friends list are also using our website.

Information when donating

To enable us to process donations we will collect basic payment information. If you are eligible for UK Gift Aid, we may also ask you to confirm your UK home address.   If you wish to claim UK Gift Aid on the donation or leave a message of support we will collect information about you as explained in this Policy.

The way we use your personal information

We use the personal information collected from our users for a number of purposes:

  1. administering donations made (and claiming Gift Aid, if applicable);
  2. personalising the look and feel of DiscoverDonate.com (as well as our communications with users) to fit personal preferences which you have told us about or which we have inferred from your usage of our website (such as donation history, and fundraising or charity page cares/likes, both on our Website and, where you have given us permission, via social networks or derived from market research);
  3. to help us prevent fraud associated with online payments;
  4. where a user or charity sets up an account, to carry out bank account verification and identity checking, including with a credit reference agency;
  5. providing information to charities to let them know about contributions made to their charity and project pages;
  6. allowing charities, not-for-profits and project creators who are registered with us to have visibility of the donations made to them so they can track the total donations (in an anonymous form, unless the donor provides appropriate permissions);
  7. allowing other sites to promote charities/causes/project activities from DiscoverDonate.com, to support giving to those and other activities associated them;
  8. where the donor provides appropriate permissions, to allow fundraisers, charities/cause and not-for-profits creators to: (i) provide that donor with more details about their activities; and/or (ii) contact individuals;
  9. providing service update emails regarding the DiscoverDonate service and your specific account; and
  10. improving the service that we offer – for example you may be asked to complete one of our online user satisfaction surveys.

At DiscoverDonate we appreciate that many donors like to make donations anonymously.  We respect this, and will not publicly display your name on donations you have made on our site unless we have your permission to do so.  We will pass on your donation information to our charities only when we have your permission to do so or where we are legally obliged.

If you allow us to pass on your details to a charity and not-for-profit creator, you may receive further correspondence from them including emails telling you more about their cause and to thank you for your donation. If you do not allow us to pass on your details to them for these purposes you will be anonymous to them and they will not be able to contact you in this way. Any further correspondence you receive from them will not be governed by this Policy; it will be governed by their Privacy Policy and you may ask them to stop communicating with you by contacting them in accordance with the terms of their Privacy Policy and the relevant laws.

We will only use your information where we have obtained appropriate permissions from you (e.g. with tick boxes) and will only use the information in accordance with this Privacy Policy, or where it is required and authorised by law.

Our Communication with you

Where you have indicated you would like to receive updates we may send marketing in the form of email alerts and bulletins to tell you about developments in the services available through our website, together with tips, news stories and competitions related to giving to charities and not-for-profits.

You can unsubscribe from receiving certain electronic messages by following the “unsubscribe” instructions included in our communication and you may change your preferences and cease receiving direct marketing.

Providing information to others

We work closely with a number of trusted partners with whom you grant us permission to share essential personal information that enables us to operate the DiscoverDonate service. These include:

  • banks and payment providers – to authorise and complete payment transactions;
  • organisations within the payment card industry to help prevent online fraud;
  • law enforcement bodies in order to comply with any legal obligation or court order and, where we are otherwise requested to provide information, we may provide it but only in accordance with applicable privacy and data protection laws;
  • HM Revenue & Customs, for example if we need to authorise claims for Gift Aid or other forms of tax efficient ways of giving; and
  • Charities and not-for-profits but only as set out above.

We may also provide information to third party service providers who process information on our behalf to help run some of our internal business operations including email distribution, IT services and customer services.  We will only share information with such organisations where we have your permission to do so in accordance with this Policy.  You agree that we may disclose or share your personal information with such partners in order that we may operate the DiscoverDonate service.

Keeping your information secure

We invest significant resources to protect your personal information, from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. However, no internet-based site can be 100% secure and we cannot be held responsible for unauthorised or unintended access that is beyond our control.

The information and content held on our Website is deployed geographically to maximise user experience. All information that could identify individuals within the European Union is stored exclusively within the European Union.  We will never share your user information with third parties for promotional purposes.

Our website is hosted by WordPress.  We hold our data with Digital Ocean which is contracted by use for the provision of technical services. We remain responsible at all times for the security of your information, but if you want to know more about how we interact with Digital Ocean you can view their Privacy Policy, amongst their other policies here.

When registering with DiscoverDonate, your email address and first name will be inputted into Mail Chimp to allow us to deliver our newsletter to you.  You can find out more about Mail Chimp and how they protect and process your data here.

Updating your account and preferences

Please notify us of any changes to your personal information, which you have provided to us. You can do this via updating your user preferences through your account.

Keeping your records

We keep records for as long as required to operate the service in accordance with legal, tax and accounting requirements. Where your information is no longer required, we will ensure it is disposed of in a secure manner and, where required by applicable law we will notify you when such information has been disposed of.

Access rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to find out what information we hold about you. You can exercise that right by contacting us and we will send you any request for information in a suitable electronic form within 20 working days.  To make a request for information please contact admin@discoverdonate.com and a member of our team will be in touch.

You also have the right ‘to be forgotten’ and to have your information permanently deleted from our systems.  Again, if you would like to exercise this right then please contact us at admin@discoverdonate.com

There will be no charge made for electronic access to your information or for your right to be forgotten from our systems.

Analytics and social media plugins

We use analytics tools on our website to provide the service you request, identify service issues to us, improve our services and to provide content tailored to users’ personal preferences and profiles.   These tools may be provided by third-party service providers and may include the collection and tracking of certain data and information regarding the characteristics and activities of visitors to our website. We may disclose data, including personal information, to certain such third-party services providers in order to obtain such services.  Our providers are Mixpanel and Google Analytics and the way their analytics service operates is set out in their own privacy policies.  You can read Mixpanel’s statement of Privacy here and Google’s here to find out more about their offerings.

If you use buttons on our website linked to social media or similar sites (for example “Like” and/or “Share” buttons), content from our website may be sent back to that other website and, depending on your privacy settings, may be privately or publically visible (for example to friends, followers or generally to anyone who has access to your profile page).  You can register with DiscoverDonate using our integrated Google, Facebook and Paypal sign up options.  Google’s statement of privacy is referenced above and you can view Facebook’s policies here and alternatively Paypal’s here.

Cookies

Our Website uses Cookies (which includes third party cookies to support social media, personalisation and analytics functionality).   Cookies are small computer files which are downloaded onto your device and collect information about the way in which you navigate and use our website and the internet. Cookies do not collect information which allows us to identify individual users. The information provided by cookies helps us to provide you with a more personal experience and allows us to make improvements to our services over time. You may delete and block all cookies or decide to just block certain types of Cookie via your browser setting. However, if you choose to block or delete Cookies, this may affect the functionality of the website.

Complaints Process

If you have a complaint about how we have handled your personal information you may contact us using at admin@discoverdonate.com and we will investigate your complaint.

Third party sites

This Privacy Policy only applies to our Website. If you land on our Website from other pages (or move to other sites from our Website) you should always take time to read their separate privacy policies.

Updates

We keep this Privacy Policy under regular review and place updates our Website from time to time. We reserve the righty to make changes to this Privacy Policy at any time and you should review this periodically for changes.

However, we will always notify you of material changes we make to this Privacy Policy and, where required under applicable privacy and data protection legislation, we will appropriately notify or give you the option to consent to changes to the Privacy Policy.   If you do not accept the amended Privacy Policy then unfortunately you will no longer be able to use our Website.

Contact

If you have any questions about this Policy, or would like to exercise your rights with respect to your personal information, please contact us via admin@discoverdonate.com