Privacy Policy

We are The AVOCADO Foundation, an education charity registered in England and Wales under registration number #1157549. Our registered address can be found on theavocadofoundation.org/contact.

We are registered as a data controller for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998. Our registration number on the register of data controllers maintained by the Information Commission is ZA771756.

The AVOCADO Foundation is committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what information we hold, whether you are a donor, volunteer, a young person or organisation that we support.

Developing a better understanding of our supporters through their personal data allows us to fundraise more efficiently, which ultimately helps us support more disadvantaged youth, nonprofits and entrepreneurs. Information from service users helps us to improve the programmes and tailor the service to their needs.

The purpose of this policy is to give you a clear explanation about how The AVOCADO Foundation collects and uses the personal information you provide to us, whether online, via phone, email, in letters, in any other correspondence or from third parties.

We ensure that we use your information in accordance with all applicable laws concerning the protection of personal information. This policy explains: · What personal information The AVOCADO Foundation may collect about you · How we might use that information · Our legal basis for contacting you and using your personal information · How we protect the privacy of children and vulnerable persons

Whether we disclose your details to anyone else · Your choices regarding personal information you provide to us
What Personal Information We May Collect About You
We may collect personal information about you when you:
Ask about our activities, resources or training;
Register with us for information;
Use our services or attend our programmes, workshops or other activities;
Sign up for publications or newsletters;
Volunteer or fundraise for us;
Pledge, make a donation or sign up for an event;
Sign up to become a member of our AVOCADO Hub;
Give us feedback or complete a survey;
Telephone, write, contact us online, text us or otherwise provide us with your personal information.

Personal information can include information such as your name, communication preferences, email address, postal address, telephone number, mobile number, date of birth or bank account details so we can process donations or payments, or information as to whether you are a taxpayer to help us to claim gift aid. In some cases we may also collect information about you from publicly available sources.

We do not collect sensitive personal information about our supporters or service users unless there is a clear reason for doing so, for example, relating to your health if you are taking part in a challenge event to raise funds for us. We will only collect sensitive personal data with your consent, and clear notices will be provided on applications for events and other relevant forms and communications, so you know what information we need and why we need it.

We keep your personal information only for as long as required to operate the service in accordance with legal requirements and tax and accounting rules. Where your information is no longer required, we will ensure it is disposed of, in a secure manner.

Your Debit And Credit Card Information

If you use your credit or debit card to donate to us, buy something or pay for a registration online or over the phone, we will ensure that this is done securely and in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. You can find our more information about PCI DSS on pcisecuritystandards.org/security_standards

All donations we receive are currently processed by secure third-party websites e.g. www.paypal.com, globalgiving.com and justgiving.com. Please review the Privacy Policies of the relevant platform should you wish to know how they manage your personal information.

If we receive an email containing any credit or debit card details, it will be immediately deleted, no payment will be taken and you will be notified about this.

Use Of Cookies

If you log-in to a secured part of the The AVOCADO Foundation website, a cookie will be placed on your computer. This is a small file which is used to uniquely identify you, and is needed so that we can encrypt your data. As soon as you either log-out or close your web browser, the cookie is automatically destroyed. This means that it is not permanently stored on your computer, and we therefore cannot use it to track your browsing habits after you log-out.

We currently use Google Analytics, a cookie will be placed on your computer. This is a small file which is used to uniquely identify you, and is needed so that we can improve your experience through looking at pattens (for example the most popular page, if you came directly to our site or were referred by a social media site). This cookie is automatically destroyed after 6 months but you can clear this early.

Links To Other Websites

The AVOCADO Foundation’s website contains some links to other websites that we think you might find interesting. However, please bear in mind that once you leave our website we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information that you might provide elsewhere, and that other websites are not governed by this privacy notice. Always be careful and make sure you read the privacy notice or statement of the website in question before giving out any information.

How We Might Use Your Information If You Are A Supporter

We may use your information to invite you to become involved with us in new ways, raise funds and grow our supporter base. Marketing and fundraising materials that we might share with you include information about our activities and their impact, our news, events and fundraising appeals, and other ways you can become involved with us.

We have a duty to make sure that we’re spending your donations wisely, and that means doing some research and analysis to inform our decisions. We want to send the most effective messages that we can in the most efficient way possible.

In order to work out who to contact, what to say and when to get in touch, we may undertake in- house research and engage third party organisations such as fundraising agencies to help us identify people who may be able to support us with a larger gift; using publicly available records.

We may also collect information on your interests, for example board memberships, hobbies, or articles about you in the media. We use this information to tailor our communication with you and invite potential supporters to meetings, groups and events which may be of interest to them.

How We Might Use Your Information If You Are A Service User

We use your personal information to carry out our commitments to you, including operating and administrating your participation in our programmes and providing you with resources.

We will use the information you provide to improve our programmes and activities. If any of our programmes in which you participate are funded by another organisation, we will use your feedback to provide updates and reports on those programmes to our funders.

We may also use information that you have provided in an anonymised way. This means that we cannot link the information to you and have no way of knowing who the information is about. We use this for example for analysis, research and statistical purposes to help us understand who is participating in our programmes and to provide reports and updates to the funders or our activities at an aggregated level. For example, the type of anonymised information we might use includes, the number of participants form the same organisation, in the same region and age-groups of participants.

Our Legal Basis For Contacting You And Using Your Personal Information

When you sign up to a newsletter or opt-in to our communications using our forms (eg. a donation form or online form) or in person, then you are giving us your consent to send you marketing and fundraising materials by the methods you have chosen (e.g. email or phone call). We will never send you marketing by email or SMS without your consent, and you can withdraw your consent at any time.

If you have provided us with your postal or telephone contact details, but haven’t specifically opted-in to receive our communications (for example, making a donation by post), then we will carry out an assessment of whether it would be fair and reasonable to use them to send marketing and fundraising information to you without your explicit consent (i.e. it is in the interests of our aims as a charity and will not cause undue prejudice to you). This is called a “legitimate interests assessment”.

In all cases, we balance our legitimate interests against your rights as an individual and make sure we only use personal information in a way or for a purpose that you would reasonably expect in accordance with this Policy and that does not intrude on your privacy or previously expressed marketing preferences.

If certain levels of donation are made, the Fundraising Regulator’s Code of Fundraising Practice requires us, and all charities in the UK, to perform checks. More details can be found at fundraisingregulator.org.uk

You can opt out of our marketing and fundraising communications at any time and you can opt out of your data being used for profiling and wealth screening techniques by contacting info@theavocadofoundation.org or 08443510072.

Children And Vulnerable Persons

We place great importance on the safety of vulnerable persons. See a copy of our Safeguarding policy at The AVOCADO Foundation.org/safeguarding

We are committed to protecting the privacy of young people who want to fundraise for us or who are supported by The AVOCADO Foundation.

Our activities and fundraising events may request specific information about the age of participants. Where appropriate, we will seek the consent from a parent, guardian or carer before collecting information about young people under 16.

Your Choices

You can help us keep our records up to date by telling us when your contact details and other personal information changes. You can also change your mind at any time about how we contact you or ask us to stop contacting you altogether. Where you have provided your consent for our use of your personal information, you always have a right to withdraw your consent at any time.

Please contact us and we will make the changes for you:

Under the Data Protection Act you have a right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to have any inaccuracies corrected. You also have the right to request us to erase your personal information, request us to restrict our processing of your personal information or to object to our processing of your personal information.

Should you wish to exercise these rights we require you to prove your identity with two pieces of approved identification. Our registered address can be found on The theavocadofoundation.org/contact. Please address requests to The Data Protection Officer.

We will respond within 40 days of receipt of your written request and confirmed ID. Please provide as much information as possible about the nature of your contact with us to help us locate your records. We reserve the right to charge an administrative fee of £10 for this process.

Sharing Your Personal Information

We promise to make all reasonable efforts to keep your details secure and will only share them with suppliers or professional agents working on our behalf. We carefully select these partners and will only share information with them if we are confident that they will protect it, and we have a contract in place with them that assures this.

We will never share your details with other organisations to use for their own purposes, other than where we are required to by law. We will not, under any circumstances, share with or sell your personal information to any third party for marketing purposes and you will not receive offers from other companies or organisations as a result of giving your details to us.

Changes To This Privacy Policy

We may update the terms of this policy at any time, so please do check it from time to time. We will notify you about significant changes in the way we treat personal information by sending a notice to the primary email address you have provided to us or by placing a prominent notice on our website. By continuing to use our website you will be deemed to have accepted such changes.

Information About Us

We are The AVOCADO Foundation, an education charity registered in England and Wales under registration number #1157549. Our registered address can be found on theavocadofoundation.org/contact.

This policy was last updated in April 2024.