Privacy Policy

The information below describes the data protection practices of The Blackbaud Giving Fund, an IRS Code section 501(c)3 public charity. This Privacy Policy applies to The Blackbaud Giving Fund’s website (in desktop or mobile version or mobile application) (the “Site”) and services, including the provision of APIs and the processing and disbursement of donations (the “Services”). You can contact The Blackbaud Giving Fund by emailing [email protected]. This Privacy Policy applies if you: browse the Site, access or use our Services as a donor, nonprofit, technology partner, or other customer of our Services. This Privacy Policy does not alter the terms of any other agreement that you may have with us. Your use of the Site or Services reflects your acceptance of this Privacy Policy. If you disagree with any portion of this Privacy Policy, please immediately discontinue using the Site or Services. You are not required to provide personal information to us, but our ability to provide the Site or Services may be hindered by your refusal to provide us with information.

1. Personal Information We Collect. Personal information is data that can be used to uniquely identify an individual. We collect information from you in two ways: when you voluntarily provide it to us, such as when you fill out a form, and when you passively provide it to us by using the Site or Services, through the use of cookies and other technologies described below. Personal information we collect may include your name, address, and e-mail address. Note that when we process donations, we do not receive your payment information—we use payment processors that tokenize your data, so The Blackbaud Giving Fund never collects or stores your credit card details. We may collect personal information when you visit our Site, request information or support, make a donation via a technology partner platform and/or through our APIs, or enter into a contract with The Blackbaud Giving Fund.

2. Information We Receive from Third Parties. The Blackbaud Giving Fund works with technology partners, which provide donors with fundraising platform technology and other means to donate, as well as organizations and partners that make or facilitate contributions to The Blackbaud Giving Fund’s donor advised funds (collectively, “Donation Facilitators”). We may receive information about you, including personal information, from these Donation Facilitators. To provide processing and disbursement services, our Donation Facilitators provide us with information about you and your donation, which we will treat in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Please refer to the privacy policy of the Donation Facilitator through which you donated for more information on how it uses your data.

3. Cookies; Traffic Data. Whenever you visit or interact with the Site or use our Services, we may use assorted technologies that automatically or passively collect information about how the Site or Services are accessed and used. We refer to this information as traffic data. Traffic data may include browser type, device type used to access the Site or Services (i.e., computer or mobile device), user browsing time, geographical data, unique number assigned to identify such device, operating system, application version, click path, your use of features or applications on the Site or in the Services, and other publicly available information. This information helps us improve the Site and Services. Traffic data is generally non-identifying, but if we associate it with you as an identifiable person, we will treat it as personal information.

Technologies we use to collect traffic data may include cookies (data files placed on your computer or other devices used to access the Site), mobile analytics software and pixel tags (transparent graphic image, sometimes called a web beacon or tracking beacon, placed on a web page or in an e-mail, which indicates that a page or e-mail has been viewed). We may utilize a short-lived form of cookie when you visit the Site. A cookie is used to identify one unique visitor from another visitor during a particular session. A session is the period of active Site-use while that unique visitor is linked to our server. We may use cookie technology during a session as a tool to carry forward your input information. This enables the visitor to input their information once and have the information appear later. No personal information is stored on the cookie. A pixel tag may tell your browser to get content from another server. We, or our vendors, may place cookies or similar files on your computer or other devices used to access the Site for security purposes, to facilitate Site navigation and to personalize your experience while visiting the Site. We also use this traffic data to maintain and help diagnose problems with our Site, to build up marketing profiles, to aid strategic development and to help administer and audit usage of the Site.

To learn how you may be able to reduce the number of cookies you receive from us, or delete cookies that have already been installed in your browser’s cookie folder, please refer to your browser’s help menu or other instructions related to your browser. If you do disable or opt out of receiving cookies, please be aware that some features and services on the Site may not work as intended and you may not have access to all of the Services and features we may offer.

4. Do Not Track Requests; Third Party Tracking. We do not presently have the capability to omit you from usage analytics to the extent your browser only sends us a “do not track” message and does not otherwise screen you from tracking without any action on our part. Third parties, other than our vendors, do not have authorization from us to track which websites you visited prior to and after visiting the Site.

5. How We Use Information We Collect. We collect and use your personal information for a variety of business purposes, including to respond to your requests, to facilitate the Services, to communicate with you about the Services, to fulfill and complete your transactions, and to do all things necessary to administer the Site and Services, and manage, protect and improve them. In addition to these uses, data belonging to the following special categories of individuals will be used in these ways:

For Donors: Donations collected through our Donation Facilitators are made to one of The Blackbaud Giving Fund’s donor advised funds, which will distribute your donation. We will use your data to process and disburse your donation in accordance with our terms of use and send you a tax receipt for your donation.

For Organizations: If you are an employee or agent of or otherwise connected with a nonprofit, technology partner, or other customer, we may use your data to provide the Services to you, and to disburse contributions to you from The Blackbaud Giving Fund.

6. Information We Share with Others. Donation Facilitators provide us with your donation details to enable us to process and disburse your donation. These Donation Facilitators may share your data with third parties, such as the charity to which your donation has been directed, in accordance with their own privacy policies. Please check the privacy policy of the Donation Facilitator through which you donated for more information on their data practices, such as allowing you to donate anonymously and what data they share with third parties.

We may disclose your personal information and other information to third party vendors that provide services on our behalf, such as to protect the security and integrity of the Site or Services, to correct technical problems and malfunctions on the Site or Services, to technically process your information, to process and collect payments, to provide the Services, or to take precautions against liability.

We may use or disclose your personal information and other information we collect to affiliates or subsidiaries that require access to your personal information for business purposes. We reserve the right to transfer any information we have about you in connection with a sale, merger, consolidation, change in control, transfer of assets, reorganization or liquidation of our organization. We reserve the right to disclose any personal information as needed if that information is requested by law enforcement agencies or if we are required to do so by law, treaty, regulation, subpoena, court order, or by a government entity. We also may disclose your personal information to third parties if we have reason to believe that disclosing such information is necessary to conduct investigations of possible breaches of law, to cooperate in any legal investigation, or to identify, contact, or bring legal action against someone who may be violating any agreement with us.

If you have made a donation to a The Blackbaud Giving Fund donor advised fund, we may use and share your donation data (such as your name, address, donation amount and other information relating to your donation and recommended charity to which you want funds disbursed) to comply with the legal obligations the donor advised fund is subject to, like reporting information to the IRS or another applicable taxing authority.

7. Security. We implement appropriate security measures, including technical, administrative, and physical procedures, to protect personal information from loss, misuse, or alteration. Although guaranteed security does not exist on the Internet or offline, we make commercially reasonable efforts to handle such information consistent with this Privacy Policy and applicable laws.

8. Third Party Links. The Site may contain links to third party websites that are not controlled by us. These links are made available to you as a convenience, and you agree to use these links at your own risk. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such third party websites. Our Privacy Policy only applies to information we collect from you while you are on the Site. If you navigate to a third party website from the Site, we strongly encourage you to review and become familiar with that third party website’s own privacy policy and statements.

9. Children. The Site is not intended for use by children in the United States under the age of 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from such individuals. If we learn that we have collected the personal information of any such individual, we will take steps to delete the information as soon as possible.

10. Notice to Residents of Countries Outside the United States. We are located in the United States. Personal information may be accessed by us or transferred to us in the United States or to our affiliates, business partners, or service providers elsewhere in the world. If you are located outside of the United States, be advised that any information you provide to us will be transferred to and stored in the United States and that, by submitting information to us, you explicitly authorize its transfer and storage within the United States. We will protect the privacy and security of personal information according to this Privacy Policy regardless of where it is processed or stored.

11. Your California Privacy Rights. Pursuant to Section 1798.83 of the California Civil Code (the “Shine the Light Law”), residents of California have the right to request from a business, with whom the California resident has an established business relationship, certain information with respect to the types of personal information the business shares with third parties for direct marketing purposes by such third party and the identities of the third parties with whom the business has shared such information in the immediately preceding calendar year. To access this information, email [email protected]. We will endeavor to respond to such requests within a reasonable time by providing a report that includes the information required by applicable law. Please be advised that we are not required to respond to requests from any individual resident under the Shine the Light Law more frequently than once per calendar year.

12. Changes to Privacy Policy. We reserve the right to change or replace this Privacy Policy at our sole discretion at any time. In the event this Privacy Policy should materially change, we will generally notify our users by posting a notice of such change in a separate section of this Privacy Policy. Your continued use of any of the Site following the posting of changes to our Privacy Policy means you accept those changes. If you do not consent to our privacy practices as described in the revised version of the Privacy Policy, please do not use the Site or Services in any manner, and we will continue to treat previously collected information in accordance with the privacy practices described in the applicable, prior version of this Privacy Policy or as otherwise required by applicable law.

13. Provisions Applicable to Individuals Located in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and the United Kingdom (“UK”). In certain relationships with Donation Facilitators, The Blackbaud Giving Fund may be acting as a data processor, rather than a controller. In such cases, your data will be used in accordance with the Donation Facilitator’s privacy notice, rather than this Privacy Policy. Please consult with your Donation Facilitator for more information.

Data Subject Rights. If granted by applicable laws, you can exercise a variety of rights by contacting [email protected]. Note that some of the following rights aren’t absolute—like if we have to retain records of your donation pursuant to a legal obligation—but we will evaluate your request in accordance with applicable data protection laws. If you are located in the EEA or UK, you have the right to make a complaint with your relevant supervisory authority. You also have:

  • The right to receive a copy of the information we have about you
  • The right to correct any incorrect data we hold
  • The right to request that your data be erased
  • The right to request your data in a common, machine-readable format
  • The right to object to processing we do on the basis of legitimate interests
  • The right to ask us to restrict the processing of your data.

Legal Bases. Most of The Blackbaud Giving Fund’s processing of your data is to provide you with the Services you request, such as processing and distributing donations you make. We also process your personal information to comply with legal obligations, such as reporting donations to applicable tax authorities. We may also process your personal information for the purposes of our legitimate interests, provided that these uses aren’t outweighed by your rights or interests. We collect and analyze data about how you use the Site and Services as described above to make our Site and Services work better—and we believe these activities are necessary to fulfil our interest in creating better tools for donors and partners to use better. For any uses we justify on the basis of legitimate interest, you have the right to opt out of such processing by contacting us.

Data Retention. We keep your personal data in an identifiable form for as long as we have a legitimate reason to use the data and as required by law.

Automated Decision Making. The Blackbaud Giving Fund is not doing any automated decision making.

This Privacy Policy was last revised on January 21, 2020.