Privacy and Cookies

Privacy notice

Our privacy policy relates only to information we obtain about you. If you visit a website operated by a third party through a weblink from this site, your information may be used differently by the operator of a linked website.
We take the handling of personal data very seriously, and this policy explains what information we might hold and what we will do with it. If you have any other questions about handling personal data, please get in touch with us. Our contact details are shown at the bottom of our website.

Who we are

The International Relief Foundation is registered in England and Wales with the Charity Commission (registration number 1163745) and a company limited by guarantee (07788248). Our registered office is Kingsbury House, 468 Church Lane London NW9 8UA. We are subject to England and Wales’s legal jurisdiction and any data protection legislation that applies in that jurisdiction.

Your rights regarding your data

Under GDPR, which came into effect on the 25th of May 2018, individuals have been given specific rights regarding their personal data. These rights are:

The right to be informed: Individuals have the right to be informed about collecting and using their data.

The right of access: Individuals have the right to access their data.

The right to rectification: Individuals have the right to have inaccurate personal data rectified or completed if it is incomplete.

The right to erasure: Individuals to have personal data erased, but this is not absolute and only applies if not required for legal or similar purposes.

The right to restrict processing: Individuals have the right to request the restriction or suppression of their data. This is not an absolute right and only applies in certain circumstances. We will place your data in a suppression list when the process is restricted to ensure it is no longer used.

The right to object: Individuals have an absolute right to stop their data from being processed in certain circumstances, such as direct marketing.

Your data

We may collect information about you from various means, depending on your interaction with us. This can include, but is not limited to:

  • Use of this website
  • Donations you make via this website, phone, post or in-person
  • Fundraising event registrations
  • If you contact us via email, phone, letter or through our website
  • Job applications
  • When you enter a prize draw
  • When you interact with us on our various social media platforms

What information do we collect about you?

The information we collect about you will only be relevant to the interaction we have with you. For example, if you have donated with us, we may collect your name, home address, email address and payment details.

Sensitive data is only collected when there is an apparent reason. For example, we may need to know your health status if you have registered for a physically demanding fundraising event. In all other cases, we do not collect or hold such data.

How we use your information

The information we collect is used to ensure you receive the best service possible from us. Your data can be used in a variety of ways, for example:

  • Processing your donations
  • Provide you with the services or information you require, such as the MyIRF donor portal or donation feedback
  • Updates on appeals, events and project feedback
  • Processing Gift Aid
  • Confirmation of donations and event registrations
  • To deal with queries and requests you make
  • To personalise the service we provide you
  • To improve our website, services and projects

Consent to use your information

If you have given us explicit consent to use your data for marketing purposes, you always have the right to withdraw this consent at any time.

Any direct communication you receive from us, whether via post, email, phone, SMS or other means, will include clear instructions on withdrawing your consent.

To withdraw your consent for any particular means of communication from us, please contact our donor care team:

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 3667 3268
Email: info@internationalrelieffoundation.org 

If you choose to withdraw consent, we will hold your data on a suppression list to ensure you are not contacted again.

Sharing your information

IRF will never sell or lease your data.

Suppose you have given us consent to contact you for marketing, information sharing purposes or due to what we deem as a legitimate interest. In that case, we may share your information with third parties such as:

  • Mailing houses if we are allowed to send you marketing material in the post.
  • Email and text message service providers if you have allowed us to contact you via those means
  • HRMC if you have selected to give Gift Aid with your donations
  • Payment processing providers if you have made a credit or debit transaction online, via the phone, post or in person
  • Event organisers, airlines and hotels if you have registered for a fundraising event in the UK or abroad
  • Law enforcement agencies, if we receive a valid request
  • Due diligence checks to ensure no one is using our services for criminal activities
  • Websites and software providers to provide you with the services you require, as well as improving our service in general

Requesting information we hold about you

You can request the information we hold about you at any time by contacting our donor care team. Please note it can take up to 30 days to receive this information.

Your IRF account can be cancelled at any time by contacting our customer care team.

How long we keep hold of your data

The length of time we keep data is dependent on the type of data it is but is generally only as long as necessary. Some data must be held by law for a certain period. For example, information about donations eligible for Gift Aid must be kept for seven years to comply with HMRC regulations.

How we keep your data safe and secure

All personal data is stored in a separate database that is encrypted both in transit and at rest. Staff access to confidential information is highly restricted, and we regularly review our security processes to ensure we are following best practices.

This website

In general, you can visit this Site without telling us who you are or revealing any information about yourself. Our web server may collect the IP addresses, not the email addresses, of visitors. Also, portions of this Site may need to collect personal information from you for a specific purpose, such as donating.

The information collected from you is stored in cookies and may include your name, address, telephone, or email address.

You can find out more about cookies and how we use them below.

Cookies

Use of cookies by the International Relief Foundation

Cookies are small text files placed on your computer by websites you visit. They are widely used to make websites work or work more efficiently and provide information to the Site owners. The cookies we use and the reasons for them are listed below:

Google Analytics (& Bing Analytics) Google sets these performance cookies, which these cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our Site. Google stores the information collected on servers in the United States. Google may transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law or where third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google state that they will not associate your IP address with any other data held by them.

Your Choices and Preferences We sometimes use ‘pop up’ messages (like the one that tells you about the cookies on this Site) to make sure our visitors know important information. If you choose to acknowledge the message, the pop up will no longer appear when you visit the Site. These kinds of messages include a cookie that ‘remembers’ you have already acknowledged the message when you visit.

How to disable cookies

Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org. You can accept or decline cookies by modifying the settings in your browser. For example, in Internet Explorer, you can go to Tools and Internet Options, where you can change your settings to disable cookies. However, you may not be able to use all the interactive features of our Site if the cookies are disabled. You also can delete cookies that have been installed in the cookie folder of your browser. To do this, you should search for “cookies” in your “Help” function for information on where to find your cookie folder. Unless you have adjusted your browser settings to refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you log on to our Site. To prevent Google Analytics cookies from being set, you may install the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On by clicking on this link – http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout and following the instructions. Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.

YouTube cookies

We sometimes embed videos from YouTube using YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode. This mode may set cookies on your computer once you click on the YouTube video player. Still, YouTube will not store personally-identifiable cookie information for playbacks of embedded videos using the privacy-enhanced mode. To find out more, please visit YouTube’s embedding videos information page: http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=171780