Supporter privacy notice

Wycombe Homeless Connection (WHC) takes your data protection seriously. This privacy notice sets out what information we collect, how we use it, what laws we rely on to do this and what your rights are in respect of your personal data, how we keep it and use it.

This notice relates to the data of people who support our work including by volunteering and we have tried to make this notice as comprehensive as possible. We have separate privacy notices that relate to other people we interact with e.g. our clients, job applicants.

We regularly check and update this notice to make sure we are giving the most up to date information about how we process data. Please do check back regularly to make sure you are happy with any changes.

This privacy policy was last updated in July 2023.

If you have any questions or concerns we are happy to help. We are contactable at privacy@wyhoc.org.uk or on 01494 447699 or at 8 Castle St, High Wycombe HP13 6RF.

We collect information in various ways, including when you get in touch with us, take part in our events and activities, interact with us on social media, raise funds for us, sponsor people taking part in our fundraising activities, request a speaker, or when you use our website or those of third-parties we use e.g. JustGiving.

This information helps us understand what you are interested in and to improve the quality and relevance of all of our communications with you. It also helps you to volunteer with us and support us in ways that are right for you.

We collect the minimum amount of data we need to do our work.

Depending on how you interact with us the types of personal data we collect may include:

• Name
• Date of birth
• Email address
• Postal address
• Telephone numbers
• Bank, credit and direct debit card details
• Donation history and Gift Aid details
• Your opinions about a product, service or an issue
• Communications to and from yourself
• Photographs, video or audio recordings
• Occupation information
• Biographical information
• Faith
• Your health status
• Details you may put on a volunteer application
• Criminal records declarations

Sensitive personal information

We sometimes collect what is known as sensitive personal information. Under data protection law, certain categories of personal information are recognised as sensitive, including health information, race, religious beliefs, political opinions and offending history.

In limited cases, we may collect this kind of data about you e.g. health information if you are taking part in an activity where your health may be a safety factor, or to identify vulnerable people whom we may want to exclude from certain fundraising activities.

As required by law, we will ask your consent to gather this type of data.

We keep personal data in line with our data retention policy. The length of time each type of data is retained will vary on how long we need to process it, the reason it is collected, and any statutory requirements.

We will retain your details as long as is necessary to communicate effectively with you and to ensure that, in the event that you leave a legacy in your will, we can make sure it is correctly administered and that we can communicate with your family.

Any data no longer required will either be deleted or rendered anonymous.

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) we need to rely on a lawful basis to collect and use your personal data. We rely on these to process your data.

• Information is processed on the basis on an individual’s consent
• Information is processed in line with a contractual relationship
• Information is processed on it being a legitimate interest for us to do so

We will always make a decision as to whether processing your data is fair and reasonable.

Consent

Under the law when contacting you by email for marketing purposes we must ask for your consent.

Under the law we must ask for your consent to process any sensitive personal information, as described above.

Where you give us consent we will keep a clear record of how and when your consent was obtained.

You can withdraw this consent at any time. Details on how to do this are below.

Legitimate interest

We are allowed to process your personal information to enable us to carry out our charitable purposes where we believe we have a legitimate interest to do so.

We may do this in the following areas:

Governance: internal and external auditing; statutory reporting; compliance with law enforcement agencies, handling complaints and concerns.

Direct marketing by post: solicited and unsolicited fundraising and marketing; solicited and unsolicited communications to churches and organisations we work closely with to publicise our work; personalisation to enhance and tailor or supporter engagement activities; analysis, targeting and segmentation to develop strategies and improve communication efficiency; profiling; delivery of requests of resources

Operational management: volunteer recording and monitoring for recruitment, safety, performance management and volunteer planning; maintenance of suppression lists; processing for research and stats; running events

Financial management and control: Processing and acknowledging financial transactions and maintaining financial control; prevention of fraud, misuse of services and money laundering.

The main reason we use your information is to help us carry out our charitable activities.

We use your personal information to provide you with information you have requested, for administration purposes and to further our charitable aims, which may include direct marketing, fundraising activities and volunteering matters. This may include allowing us to communicate with you about how you can support our work through raising awareness, prayer, campaigning, volunteering, and through providing financial support.

We may also send you information on how to engage your church congregation or organisations you work for and are affiliated with through campaigning, prayer, volunteering and fundraising.

We will rely on legitimate interest for post, offering opportunities to opt out of postal mailings where we collect your data or in subsequent mailings.

We rely on your consent to email you for marketing purposes. You can withdraw consent at any time by asking to or pressing unsubscribe in emails.

The activities we undertake to carry out our charitable activities include:

Fundraising, campaigning, marketing activities:

Direct marketing (post and digital), advertising (print, broadcast and digital) and others in order to tell you about opportunities to give, pray, volunteer, campaign, attend events and more.

This may include us sending you communications e.g. newsletters, appeals, letters and other information. We may also ask if you are prepared to gift aid donations.

Volunteering activities:

Sending you information that will help us deliver training, manage your volunteering, involve and update you on our work, and to keep you safe.

Analysis, targeting and segmentation:

To be able to communicate with you as effectively and efficiently as possible we may use data to predict your interests and tailor and personalise our communications to you.

Profiling:

In limited circumstances we may use the information you have given us alongside publicly available information to create a profile of your interests and preferences which we think might be of help how we interact with you. This information will only be taken from public sources and may include directorships, press reports, media and social media posts, published biographies, employment history, philanthropic interests and more.

Due diligence:

Our trustees have a duty to ensure that there is no reputational or financial risk when we accept donations or other kinds of support. We may use publicly available sources to carry out due diligence on donors and potential donors to ensure that we are fundraising within the law.

Running events safely:

We will collect information to respond to applications, control admission and ensure those attending remain safe.

Administrative communications to supporters and volunteers

Even where you have opted out of various communications with us, we may still need to communicate with you for administrative purposes. This may include responding to queries; administering direct debits, standing orders and other donations and financial transactions; talking with you if you are a WHC volunteer about your volunteering; administration of gift aid; providing acknowledgements; supporting your fundraising efforts; maintaining communication preference lists and more.

We may share your data with a number of third parties who provide services for us, such as mail fulfilment businesses and email broadcasters, both of whom may send our marketing and fundraising materials on our behalf.

We will have an agreement in place with these organisations to ensure they only use the data for the specific purposes as directed by us. We will not share your data to any third party for their own marketing purposes.

We will not share your data with any other organisations unless legally obliged to do so.

You can unsubscribe from our marketing emails at any time either by using an unsubscribe link or by asking us to remove you from our email systems.

This does not include email that may relate to administrating your volunteering activities and we will continue to email you about your volunteering role until you step down from that role.

If you use your credit or debit card to donate to us directly, we will pass your card details securely to our payment-processing partner as part of the payment process. We will do this in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

Links to other sites

Our website and social media may include links to websites run by other organisations. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of other organisations’ websites so you should read their privacy policies carefully.

Cookies

Like most websites, our website uses cookies in order to provide a good experience for users. A cookie is a tiny piece of data sent from a website and stored in the user's internet browser. This data is sent back to the website every time the user accesses the website.

We use Google Analytics first-party cookies so that we can understand generally how visitors interact with our website, for example how often each page is visited. Other cookies help the site to run properly by storing the acceptance of cookies, providing session security and measuring website performance.

Google Analytics collects data related to a user’s device, browser and IP address. This helps us make sure our site works on the devices and browsers in use; gives us an approximate sense of where our visitors come from; and allows Google Analytics to run securely.

You can disable cookies or delete any individual cookie through controls in your web browser. In these circumstances, our site may not work as intended. You can see the cookies we use at www.wyhoc.org.uk/cookies

We use cloud services for areas of our internal office functions so some of our information is stored in cloud services hosted abroad. Also, for some purposes, we may use data processors that process and/or store data abroad.

In these cases, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient implements appropriate measures to protect your information in line with UK data protection law.

We collect additional data for the purpose of managing your volunteering.

Criminal record declarations

Along with taking up references, we require that all prospective volunteers complete a Criminal Record Declaration Form. Having a criminal record will not, in itself, prevent a person from being appointed to a role; all cases will be examined on an individual basis and when applying to be a volunteer you will give consent for us to use this information to assess your suitability to volunteer with us.

References

We use references to ensure we recruit volunteers who are suited to the task. We have a legitimate interest in collecting this data, as volunteers are essential to many our services and fundraising events. Details of our privacy policy for referees themselves are here: Privacy notice for referees

Organisational records

To run the charity efficiently, we keep records such as meeting minutes and the like; among other things, they provide a record of when and how decisions were taken. Records may refer to volunteers, particularly trustees. They may be held indefinitely.

Recording client interactions

We make video recordings in the Support Centre to confirm client interactions where only one staff member or volunteer is present. These are triggered any time motion is detected; they are automatically overwritten after a period expected to be between three and six months but may exceptionally be held longer if needed for legal reasons.

Sharing your information

Where you have requested another organisation to approach WHC for a reference in connection with your volunteering, we may provide relevant information.

To assist with staffing (such as arranging swaps) we may share your email address and phone number with small number of other volunteers where needed.

In exceptional cases where there are legal reasons we may disclose video recordings to people who have been recorded, or to law enforcement agencies or the like.

How long we will keep your volunteering-related information

If you are accepted to volunteer then after a period of inactivity (typically two years) we will normally remove your volunteering-related details from our systems, but in exceptional cases we may retain them longer for legal reasons.

Also, if you are also a supporter of WHC in other ways (eg through donation or fundraising) we will keep an outline record of your volunteering for as long as we retain your other data.

If your application to volunteer does not proceed (for example if your referees do not respond), we will promptly remove your volunteering-related details from our systems.

Your rights that apply specifically to volunteering-related information

You may withdraw your consent for us to use your “place of worship” data. You may have your data erased; object to our use of your data under our legitimate interest; or withdraw your consent for us to use the data on your Criminal Record Declaration Form – but in these circumstances you will no longer be able to volunteer.

You have the right to know what information we hold about you, to have it corrected or to ask us to stop storing and processing your data.

You can contact us at privacy@wyhoc.org.uk or on 01494 447699 or at 8 Castle St, High Wycombe HP13 6RF to request to access your data, to change the way we communicate with you e.g. if you want to change your email address or receive post rather than email or to request that we stop using and storing it.

If you request your data be erased we will keep the minimum of details so that we can make sure we are able to continue to comply with your request on an ongoing basis e.g. that we do not contact you in the future if your data are collected again.

You can also opt out of receiving marketing communications from us by signing up to the Fundraising Preference Service.

You can unsubscribe from emails we send using a link on the email or asking us to, aside from those related to administering your volunteering role.

If you have any concerns

To complain about our handling of your data, contact the Information Commissioner's Office (0303 123 1113 casework@ico.org.uk)

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