Privacy Policy
Our Commitment to Our Donors
We will not sell, share or trade our donors’ names or personal information with any third party other than local BRIDGES TO INDEPENDENCE organizations and our service providers, nor send mailings to our donors on behalf of other organizations.
I. Introduction
This Privacy Policy explains how BRIDGES TO INDEPENDENCE (https://www.BRIDGES2.org) (sometimes referred to as“BRIDGES”,“us”, or“we”) collects, uses, shares and safeguards your personal and non-personal data.PLEASE READ THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND OUR TERMS OF USE BEFORE USING THIS WEBSITE OR SUBMITTING ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION. BY USING THIS WEBSITE, YOU ARE AGREEING TO THESE PRIVACY TERMS AND THE TERMS OF USE. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE, DO NOT USE THIS WEBSITE. THIS WEBSITE IS INTENDED FOR USERS IN THE UNITED STATES ONLY.If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please email us at: info@bridges2.org.
II. Changes to the Privacy Policy
As BRIDGES TO INDEPENDENCE changes from time to time, this Privacy Policy is expected to change as well. We reserve the right to amend the Privacy Policy at any time, for any reason. You should periodically check these privacy terms for such amendments. Users are deemed to be aware of and bound by any such modifications. The date of the last revision to the Privacy Policy will be indicated by the “Effective Date” at the bottom of this Policy.
III. Types of Data We Collect
There are two types of data that we collect:
-
- Personal and donor information you knowingly choose to disclose and share and which is collected on an individual basis; and,
- Website use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our website.
Personal and donor information: During your interactions with us in person, through the mail, by email, by phone, online, or using our website, you may decide to give us personally identifying information such as your name, email addresses, street addresses, phone number, financial data, and other such information. This may occur when you donate or register on our site. We collect this information to serve you through answering questions, responding to requests, receiving donations, processing financial transactions, maintaining records, giving history, contacting you about future events and services, maintaining online accounts, expanding our database, and for tax purposes.
If you give to BRIDGES TO INDEPENDENCE, you may voluntarily give us bank or credit card information in order to process your transaction. The safety and security of your banking and/or credit card information is our top priority. We work with trusted third-party payment processors who conform to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI) for receiving and processing your financial transactions. Along with other companies, we conform to all applicable State and Federal laws and regulations required to receive and process information regarding donations. The companies we work with to process credit card transactions have passed a Level 1 PCI DSS audit. Their compliance can be verified by VISA.
Website Use Information: We do not collect personally identifying information about you when you visit BRIDGES2.org, unless you choose to provide such information to us. Providing such information is strictly voluntary. In addition, we collect non-personally identifying information through the use of technologies such as cookies and pixel tags to automatically aggregate and store certain types of information whenever you visit or interact with our website. This information may include the name of the domain from which you access the Internet, the date and time you visited our site, browsing history, website usage, the type of device with which you accessed our site, certain log in information, country, and other such information. We use this information to measure and track how visitors use the different sections of our site, what devices they are using, and to help us make our site more useful to visitors in the future.
IV. How We Use Your Data
In addition to the uses described above, we use your personal data, sometimes combined with the non-personal data, in a variety of ways including, but not limited to the below, in order to:
-
-
- Identify when you visit our sites.
- Measure and track how visitors use the different sections and sites.
- Identify the devices being used.
- Help us make our site more useful.
- Provide service communications.
- Provide information, opportunities and services you request or that we think you might be interested in.
- Respond to your emails or online requests.
-
We or other third-party companies also use the non-personal data to provide advertisements and marketing to you and help expand our database. Please note that when you select an advertising link or other link that takes you to sites not operated by BRIDGES TO INDEPENDENCE, you may be subject to the privacy policies of those third-party sites.
V. How We Share Your Data
We share your personal data, sometimes combined with non-personal data, in a variety of ways including, but not limited to, the below:
-
-
-
- Third Party Donor Management – We work with a trusted third party company and use their software to track, manage and update your personally identifying information, communication and donation history, mailing and communication preferences, and credit card and bank information for processing donations. This company keeps a secure copy of our database to help us best respond to your requests, manage the processing or your donation and continue to improve your experience with BRIDGES.
- Third Party Payment Processing – We use a third party payment processor to process financial donations to BRIDGES. When you make donations to BRIDGES, we may transfer certain information, including personally identifiable information, to these payment processors for the purpose of facilitating the financial transaction, such as your name, address, and credit card and/or bank information. The companies we work with to process credit card transactions have passed a Level 1 PCI DSS audit.
- Marketing and Mailings – We may also share your personally identifying information including name, address, phone number, email, or donation history with trusted third party companies for the purpose of marketing and creating mailings and marketing material such as receipts, reminder letters and other special updates from BRIDGES, as well as growing our database to find email addresses and phone numbers for our constituents. If you sign up for one of our email lists, we will only send you the kinds of information you have requested. If at any time you decide you want to change the types of mailings we send to you, you can adjust your mail preferences online or contact us to let us know the kinds of information you would like to receive. We do not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to any third parties.
- Legally Mandated Disclosures – Though we make every effort to preserve donor and customer privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when we believe such action is necessary to comply with a judicial proceeding, a court order, legal process or as otherwise required by law.
- Donor Base Co-Ops – In order to invite new donors to help support the work of BRIDGES and to better understand and cater content to our current supporters, we participate in various non-profit co-ops which share information about the donation habits of supporters of various non-profit organizations.
-
-
If you do not already appear in the co-op databases, we will not share or add your personally identifying information to the co-op databases. However, if your personally identifying information already appears in the co-op databases, basic information about your giving habits with BRIDGES TO INDEPENDENCE, including frequency and donation amount, will be shared.
We never share your personally identifying information or credit card information with these donor database co-ops, and we never share any information about anyone who does not already appear in the database.
Other companies or non-profits with whom you have a relationship may have contributed to the database resulting in your information being added. However, if your personally identifying information such as address, phone number or email is available in the database, it was not added by BRIDGES TO INDEPENDENCE.
VI. How You Can Access, Change, Manage and Delete Your Personal Data
We rely on you to update and correct your personal data. If you are a user of our sites, subscriber to our publications, donor, or user of our services, you can review, update and correct your information directly on the Bridge’s website or by contacting us using the information in the “Contact Us” section of our site or by emailing us at: info [at] bridges2.org.
Typically, we retain your personal data indefinitely, in order to provide you with future opportunities and other purposes, as well as to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, or enforce any of our agreements. Please note that you can request, at any time, that we delete your personal data. All requests must be directed to the “Contact Us” section of the site. We can decide to delete your personal data if we believe that the data is incomplete, inaccurate, or that our continued use and storage are contrary to our obligations under the law, to other individuals, or to third parties. When we delete your personal data, it will be removed from our active databases or anonymized so that the data is no longer identified with you, but the data may remain in our archives if we determine that it is not practical or possible to delete it.
Our website provides you the opportunity to customize the types of communications you receive from us or to opt-out entirely. You may not be able to remove yourself from our database, but you can prevent unwanted communication. You may also update your contact information such as email or street address at any time using our online tools or by emailing us at: info [at] bridges2.org. Typically, we retain your personal information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.
If you would like to access, modify, correct, or delete personal information, please contact us. When you contact us, you may be required to provide us some details to verify your identity. We may not accommodate a request to change or delete information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement, cause the information to be incorrect, or we are unable to verify your identity.
VII. Cookies
Our website sends cookies (e.g. pieces of code or small text files placed on your computer by us or third-parties when you browse our sites) to your web browser (if your browser’s preferences allow it) to collect data when you browse our sites. Our cookies may record information about how you use our website so that we can continue to customize and optimize your online experience with us. When you submit data through a form such as those found on contact pages, comment forms, or donation pages, cookies may be set to remember your user details for future correspondence.
We offer print and email subscriptions to our various publications and newsletters, and cookies may be used to remember if you are already registered and whether to show certain notifications which might only be valid to subscribed/unsubscribed users. Also, from time to time, we may offer user surveys to provide you with insights, helpful tools, or to understand our user base more accurately. These surveys may use cookies to remember who has already taken part in a survey or to provide you with accurate results after you change pages.
Cookie settings can be controlled in your Internet browser to automatically reject some forms of cookies. If you view our website without changing your cookie settings, you are indicating your consent to receive all cookies from our sites. If you do not allow cookies, some features and functionality of our sites may not operate as expected. We are not responsible for any failure by you or your browser to accurately implement or communicate your browser preferences or settings.
We do not use cookies to gather personally identifying information such as name, address, phone number or email.
In addition to cookies, we may place technological tools (and allow certain third-parties to place technological tools) such as tags and beacons (e.g., code scripts that are primarily used to track visitors’ activities on our sites by web analytics software), Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, and other tools, to collect your data for the purposes listed in this Privacy Policy.
VIII. Children
We do not knowingly collect personal data from or market to children under the age of 13. If a parent or guardian wishes to spend time online with their children to use our site to help children learn about homelessness in our community, we recommend that the parent or legal guardian be present at all times and that they consider using parental control tools available from online services and software manufacturers to help supervise their children’s online activities. These tools can also help prevent children from disclosing their name, address, and other personal information online without parental permission. No information should be submitted to our website by visitors under the age of 13 without the consent of a parent or legal guardian. If you are concerned that your child’s information may have been submitted to us unknowingly, please contact us and let us know.
IX. How We Protect Personal Data
BRIDGES TO INDEPENDENCE uses commercially reasonable security measures, such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology, to keep your personal information as secure as reasonably possible and to protect against loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. BRIDGES helps to protect your information by working with partners that provide a secure and safe environment for credit card donations. All information is stored in a secure database. When finished with applications that require the input of your personal information, it is always recommended that you close or otherwise exit all instances of your browser.
Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is fully secure. Despite our reasonable efforts to protect your personal data from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure, BRIDGES TO INDEPENDENCE cannot guarantee or warrant the security of the personal data you transmit to us, or to or from our online sites.
X. Adoption of Donor Bill of Rights
BRIDGES TO INDEPENDENCE subscribes to the Donor Bill of Rights, which was created by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP), the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), and the Giving Institute: Leading Consultants to Non-Profits.
Donor Bill of Rights*
Philanthropy is based on voluntary action for the common good. It is a tradition of giving and sharing that is primary to the quality of life. To assure that philanthropy merits the respect and trust of the general public, and that donors and prospective donors can have full confidence in the nonprofit organizations and causes they are asked to support, we declare that all donors have these rights:
I. To be informed of the organization’s mission, of the way the organization intends to use donated resources, and of its capacity to use donations effectively for their intended purposes.
II. To be informed of the identity of those serving on the organization’s governing board, and to expect the board to exercise prudent judgment in its stewardship responsibilities.
III. To have access to the organization’s most recent financial statements.
-
- To be assured their gifts will be used for the purposes for which they were given.
- To receive appropriate acknowledgement and recognition.
- To be assured that information about their donation is handled with respect and with confidentiality to the extent provided by law.
IV. To expect that all relationships with individuals representing organizations of interest to the donor will be professional in nature.
V. To be informed whether those seeking donations are volunteers, employees of the organization or hired solicitors.
VII. To have the opportunity for their names to be deleted from mailing lists that an organization may intend to share.
VIII. To feel free to ask questions when making a donation and to receive prompt, truthful and forthright answers.
*Copyright, Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), all rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from the AFP.
X!. Breach Notification
In the event that we determine the occurrence of a data security incident, we will notify you by email, US Mail, telephone, or other means as permitted by law.
XII. Linking to Other Internet Sites
You should be aware that other Internet sites that are linked from BRIDGES’ sites or from a BRIDGES email message may contain privacy provisions that differ from the provisions of this Privacy Policy. To ensure your privacy is protected, we recommend that you review the privacy statements of these other linked sites, applications, or other digital platforms.
XIII. Transmission of Data to Other Countries
Your personal data is processed in the United States, where privacy laws may be less stringent than the laws in your country and where the government, courts, or law enforcement may be able to access your data. By submitting your personal data to us, you agree to the transfer, storage and processing of your personal data in the United States.
Revised 4/7/2022