We want to let you, our supporters, know how much you are changing young people’s lives. However, we only want to do this in ways you're comfortable with.
As such, we promise to only contact you in a way that works for you, and make it easy for you to tell us how you would like to receive information, so you feel comfortable with how your personal data is gathered and used. We also follow all applicable fundraising and data protection legislation and guidelines.
We ensure as a minimum that we use your data in accordance with all applicable laws concerning the protection of personal data. This policy explains:
Any questions you have in relation to this policy or how we use your personal information should be sent to our data protection team or addressed to:
The Data Protection Officer
The Children’s Society
Whitecross Studios
50 Banner Street
London
EC1Y 8ST
Please note that from time to time we may need to amend or update this policy, for example if there is a change in the way that we use personal information or because of updates to the law. You should periodically check this website to make sure that you have seen the most up to date version of this policy.
Your personal data (which is any data that identifies you, or which can be identified as relating to you personally) is referred to as 'personal data' in this privacy policy will be collected and used by the following parties (known as 'data controllers'):
Both The Children’s Society and The Children’s Society Trading are referred to as 'The Children’s Society' in this privacy policy and are based at:
The Children’s Society
Whitecross Studio
50 Banner Street
London
EC1Y 8ST
As a valued supporter of The Children’s Society we collect personal information about you, store your record in our supporter database and use it for administration, communication and marketing purposes in the following ways:
4.1 When you give us information
When you engage with us as a supporter we may ask for personal information when you: make a donation to us, register for an event or a campaign, subscribe to a newsletter, engage with our social media or communication services, purchase a product on The Children’s Society On-line Shop, booking training courses, or provide us with personal information in any other way. This information may include:
When you provide your personal information to The Children’s Society, please ensure that it is accurate and up to date. This will allow us to contact you effectively and courteously in order to deal with your donations, questions or provide you with data about our work. Please get in touch if you would like to change the personal details that we hold about you by contacting our Supporter Care team at the address provided in Section 11.
4.2 When you use our website
When you use our website we collect data about the services and features you use and how you use them, including how you interact with its content and any advertisements.
When you provide your personal details when filling out a registration, making a donation, communicating with us or signing up for or receiving a service on our website, we will collect this data and store it in your record so as to fulfil your request, answer your enquiries and keep a record of our correspondence with you.
Our website uses cookies. Cookies are files which are sent to the computer or device through which you access this website, and they collect small amounts of data. They are used to store information about such computer or device and your preferences so that our website doesn't have to keep asking you for them. We use cookies on The Children’s Society website as follows:
For further details about this, see our Cookie Policy.
4.3 When you use social media
When you view information published by The Children’s Society using social media hosted across various platforms, we will collect and receive information that provides aggregate data relating to items such as video views, demographics and location data. Sources of this data may include:
Identifiable personal information about people who access these platforms is collected in order to allow The Children’s Society to reach and market new audiences.
We may sometimes collect additional data about you from other organisations or companies that provide data from publicly available sources, so we can make it easier for you to support The Children’s Society by providing you with details about the types of activities and services we can offer. We ensure that such data is only collected from legitimate sources on a lawful, fair and transparent basis in accordance with applicable data protection law.
The data about you that we may collect from third parties can include:
We may disclose information to third parties or individuals, when we are obliged to by law or a regulatory order, or when one or more of the following apply:
We complete external and internal research and analysis of your personal data, which can result in new personal data being created and added to your record. We do this in the following ways:
Supporter research
We may we undertake wealth screening using specialist agencies such as Prospecting for Gold and through in-house research to collect data from public sources about a limited number of supporters who we think can influence policymakers to promote the interests of children and young people. We may also research supporters who we believe can become significant financial supporters of The Children’s Society’s mission, including well-known or influential people.
Wealth Screening
We periodically carry out wealth screening to fast track the research using our trusted third-party partner Prospecting for Gold. You will always have the right to opt out of this processing. We may also carry out research using publicly available information to identify individuals who may have an affinity to our cause but with whom we are not already in touch. This may include people connected to our current major supporters, trustees or other lead volunteers. We also use publicly available sources to carry out due diligence on donors in line with the charity’s Gift Acceptance Policy and to meet money laundering regulations.
This research helps us to understand more about you as an individual so we can focus conversations we have with you about fundraising and volunteering in the most effective way, and ensure that we provide you with an experience as a donor or potential donor which is appropriate for you.
If you would prefer us not to use your data in this way, please email us at: supportercare@childrenssociety.org.uk or call us on 0300 303 7000.
In-house research
We make sure that the sources we use are reputable public databases such as Companies House, Companies House, the Electoral Register, company websites, ‘rich lists’, social networks such as Linkedin, political and property registers, news archives and other reliable sources. These sources include:
We do not normally collect or store what's known as ‘special category’ or ‘sensitive’ personal information about supporters – this includes data relating to someone’s health, ethnic origin, religious beliefs or political affiliation. On the few occasions when The Children’s Society does collect this type of sensitive personal information it will be for specific activities or events. For example:
The Children’s Society will not knowingly contact anyone under the age of 18 to ask them for donations or other forms of financial contribution.
We would like to give young people the opportunity to be involved in campaigning for change in areas that affect their lives. To achieve this, we may sometimes send email and Facebook communications about campaigns that relate specifically to children and young people aged 13–17 years.
The consent of those children and young people will be requested using appropriate privacy notices to receive this type of campaign information. To help us confirm your age, when you agree to receive this information your date of birth may be requested – this must be provided in order to allow you to be involved. We also reserve the right to ask for verification of age if we think it necessary.
The Children’s Society will not knowingly send communications about campaigns to children aged 12 years or under.
The Children’s Society relies on the following legal conditions that are described in the EU General Data Protection Regulation to use your personal information in the ways described in this privacy notice:
10.1 Marketing, campaigning and fundraising
We provide direct marketing and fundraising communications to supporters which includes news, information and data about:
The Children’s Society relies on donations and support from others to continue its work on behalf of children and young people. Being able to contact you for marketing and campaigning purposes is an important part of our fundraising activity and purpose.
Fundraising is an important part of our marketing, but we will not share your data with any other organisation, individual or company to allow them to use your personal information for marketing or campaigning purposes, unless we have obtained your specific, freely given, informed and unambiguous consent to do so.
10.2 Supporting you with orders from The Children’s Society On-Line shop and booking training courses
We will process your personal information to respond to any correspondence you send us and fulfil the requests you make to us, both before and after purchase. We will also process your personal information to carry out reasonable administration of your order or booking.
We may send you marketing information from time to time after you have purchased a product or service from us or made a purchasing enquiry, closed your browser with items in your shopping basket or requested other information of interest in a business context. We will only contact you with information about our own products, services and any other information we believe may be of interest to you (and in ways the law allows), which we hope you will like. You have the right to object to us sending you this information at any time. Please see Sections 11 (‘You are in Control’) and 15 (‘Your Rights’) for information on how to do this.
10.3 Anonymisation
In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you.
You can change your personal information and preferences about how we contact you whenever you choose.
11.1 How to change or stop us contacting you by post, telephone, email or text message
You can change your contact preferences at any time by contacting our Supporter Care team at The Children’s Society, Whitecross Studios, 50 Banner Street, London, EC1Y 8ST, emailing supportercare@childrenssociety.org.uk or calling 0300 303 7000.
11.2 How to unsubscribe from our email newsletters
If you have previously opted-in to receive email communications from The Children’s Society but no longer wish to receive email communications, please click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any of our emails to be removed from our list.
The Children’s Society considers keeping your information safe to be vitally important. We employ a variety of physical, organisational and technical measures to ensure we do this, and prevent unauthorised access to – or use or disclosure of –your personal information.
Electronic data and databases that contain supporter personal data are stored on secure computer systems and we manage who has access to that data (using both physical and electronic means). Our staff receive data protection training and we have a set of detailed data protection procedures and policies which staff must follow when handling personal information.
All hard-copy records and data are managed securely in lockable and access-restricted storage.
12.1 Payment security
All electronic forms that request financial data will use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol to encrypt the data between your browser and our servers.
If you use a credit card to donate or purchase something online your debit/credit card details are transferred securely to our payment card providers World Pay, Sage Pay and PayPal who comply with the payment card industry data security standard (PCI-DSS) published by the PCI Security Standards Council. We do not store any payment card information.
We cannot guarantee the security of your home computer or any information sent over the internet or any publicly accessible communications network and using any online communications services are at the user’s own risk
Where we store personal information:
The Children’s Society is based in the UK. Wherever possible we store our data in the UK or within the European Union (EU). Some organisations and companies that provide services to us transfer personal data to territories outside of the EU such as Canada, a country whose legal system the EU Commission considers to have adequate data protection standards, or to the United States and Australia which do not have such EU approval in relation to its data protection standards. In these cases, we will only allow such a transfer when there is recognised assurance or we have put other legally appropriate safeguards and/or contracts in place to ensure that your data is adequately protected in accordance with UK privacy standards.
13.1 Data Transfers
To ensure that your data is processed safely and securely, including how it is stored, when The Children’s Society procures companies (also known as ‘data processors’) to process personal data on its behalf, this is done under contract and with a Data Processor Agreement in place. The companies can only use the data according to The Children’s Society’s instructions and must agree that they operate to certain standards and requirements.
13.2 International Data Transfers
The Children’s Society will give preference to UK-based companies where it is viable to do so. If a suitable company cannot be located within the UK, preference will be given to those based in EU countries. If a suitable company cannot be located in the EU, then those based in countries that have been assessed by the European Commission as ensuring an adequate level of protection for personal data will be considered and used. We will only use a company outside the EU on the basis of an agreement with the company that is designed to protect your data. This will be in the appropriate form of an International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA) as approved for this purpose under data protection law – please contact our Data Protection Officer if you would like to see a copy of any of these agreements.
For transfers of data to the US, The Children’s Society will use the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. In October 2023, the UK passed a bill enabling UK organisations to transfer personal data to US entities certified under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework under Article 45 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) without the need for further transfer safeguards.
13.3 How long we store data
We will only use and store personal information for as long as it is required for the purposes it was collected for.
We have adopted a data retention policy (available on request) that sets out the different periods we retain personal information for in respect of these relevant purposes in accordance with our duties under applicable data protection law. The criteria we use for determining these retention periods is based on various legislative requirements; the purpose for which we hold data; and guidance issued by relevant regulatory authorities including but not limited to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). Personal information that we no longer need is securely disposed of and/or anonymised so you can no longer be identified from it. Some personal information may be retained by us in archives for historical research purposes, although we will do this in a manner that complies with applicable data protection law.
We continually review what personal information and records we hold, and delete what is no longer required. We never store payment card data.
Some of The Children’s Society’s premises have CCTV and you may be recorded when you visit them. CCTV has been installed at Whitecross Studios in London, as well at some of our charity shops and programmes that work with children and young people. We use CCTV to help provide security and protect both you and The Children’s Society. CCTV will only be viewed when there is a need, for example to detect or prevent crime, and footage is only retained temporarily in accordance with our data retention policy.
The Children’s Society complies with the ICO CCTV Code of Practice.
As part of our Supporter Promise we want to make sure that you are able to make your own choices about how we use your personal information. Part of this is making sure you understand your data protection rights, which are set out as follows:
If you would like further details about your rights or would like to exercise them, please write to our Data Protection Officer at data-protection@childrenssociety.org.uk or addressed to:
The Data Protection Officer
The Children’s Society
Whitecross Studios
50 Banner Street
London
EC1Y 8ST.
We reserve the right to ask for further information to verify your identity (or clarify the information that you are seeking) when we receive such a request.
If you are dissatisfied with the response from The Children’s Society you can contact the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as follows:
Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire,
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745
Fax: 01625 524 510
When a temporary worker (defined as undertaking an assignment for less than 12 weeks) is taken on board by The Children’s Society via an external agency/supplier, we will collect, store and use the following personal information on our cascade HR system:
