Donor Bill of Rights

Our Commitment to Our Donors

Boys & Girls Clubs of Stamford (“BGCS”) believes in safeguarding personal information and ensuring that privacy is respected and protected for donors, all youth, volunteers, and vendors. We will use personal information to keep donors, friends, vendors, volunteers and alumni informed of our activities including our programs, special events and funding needs. We respect all requests to remain anonymous. We will always provide an “opt-out” procedure for donors and others who receive such materials to request that their names be deleted from similar mailings, phone calls, or electronic communications in the future. Donors, friends, volunteers and alumni may contact BGCS at any time and we will gladly accommodate your preferences. Individuals may choose to opt out of electronic communication including emails. Individuals may also request that their record be flagged as “Do Not Call”. BGCS will honor all or a combination of these “opt out” preferences.

Donor Information

Collection of Data

BGCS collects personal data through event registration, email subscription, online donation services, postal mail, wire transfer, phone and other electronic means. We only collect this information when users submit it voluntarily or through the public domain. If a user prefers not to submit such information online, they may contact BGCS to determine an appropriate channel to transmit this information.

  • From these services, we may collect a person’s first name, last name, email address, company, position, secondary email address, address, city, state, zip code, and phone numbers (home, work, or mobile). We may collect event-specific information pertaining to a person’s attendance, meal preferences and guests. We may collect the provided name and email of a spouse, contributor or foundation to facilitate the recognition for a gift. This confidential information is kept on file for IRS purposes.
  • BGCS complies with CANSPAM and at any time donors, volunteers, alumni and friends may “opt- out” or be removed from our contact lists and can unsubscribe to emails. BGCS will discontinue contact with any person upon oral or written request. For questions regarding our privacy policy or to make an “opt-out” request, please feel free to contact us at:
    Boys & Girls Club of Stamford
    Attn: Sam Gordon, Director of Development
    347 Stillwater Avenue
    Stamford, CT 06902
    Phone: (203) 324-0594
    Email: sgordon@bgcastamford.org
  • BGCS will maintain an electronic record in our database of all requests for discontinuance of contacts. Oral requests will be recorded in writing by BGCS staff and will then be permanently recorded in the electronic donor database.

Storage of Data

  • Donor information is maintained in a password-protected, secured database. Only authorized personnel have access to this information and only for appropriate business purposes. This information is shared with board members and authorized staff, only on a confidential and need-to-know basis.

Online Security and Enforcement

BGCS has an online donor privacy policy.

  • When we transfer and receive certain types of sensitive information such as online donations and account information, we direct visitors to a secure server, which communicates via SSL encryption and which has been designed to reduce the possibility of interception and hacking. You’ll know that you’re in a secure area of our website when the “http” portion of the BGCA website address in your browser changes to “https.” The “s” stands for “secure.” We operate secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection systems. Our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary. Only authorized individuals, who are required to comply with our privacy policy, have access to the information provided by our customers.
  • Cookies – “Cookies” may be used in connection with BGCS’s digital properties, for targeted remarketing. A cookie is a small amount of identifier data that is sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer’s hard drive. By using cookies, information is potentially collected without your express knowledge. Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies but permit you to change the setting to refuse cookies or to be alerted when cookies are being sent. While refusal to accept cookies will not prevent the use of some portions of this site, other portions of this site may not function properly without cookies. You can reject cookies or cancel them by instructing your Web browser accordingly.
  • IP addresses – BGCS may also collect IP addresses, domain names, and similar items regarding users of this site to measure the number of visits, pages visited, average time spent on this site, and similar items. BGCA may also use your IP address to diagnose problems with our server, to administer our website and for statistical metrics used to track website visitor traffic.
  • Credit Cards – BGCS is compliant with The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). This is a set of requirements designed to ensure that ALL companies that process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. Essentially this includes any merchant that has a Merchant ID (MID). The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) was launched on September 7, 2006 to manage the ongoing evolution of the Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards with focus on improving payment account security throughout the transaction process. The BGCS finance department manually processes credit card refunds. At all times efforts are made to protect card numbers.
  • The PCI DSS is administered and managed by the PCI SSC (www.pcisecuritystandards.org), an independent body that was created by the major payment card brands (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB). It is important to note, the payment brands and acquirers are responsible for enforcing compliance, not the PCI council. A copy of the PCI DSS is available here.
  • BGCS does not store credit card numbers.
  • Credit card refunds are processed under strict guidelines.

Annual Report

  • BGCS publishes a list of the names of donors over a designated amount in an annual report. Options for anonymous giving and “opt-out” selections are available. Please contact BGCS for these requests.

Events

Event attendee’s information:

  • BGCS may utilize a system to collect information about guests that are seated at event tables. This information may include name, email, company and address.
  • Guests may follow the “opt-out” options outlined in this policy.

Privacy Enforcement with Vendors

  • If data is shared, a Non-Disclosure Agreement will be entered into with the vendor and the sharing of data is prevented by contract stipulations that are present in contacts between BGCS and our vendors. We do not authorize these service providers to use or disclose the information except as necessary to perform services on our behalf or to comply with legal requirements.

Privacy Enforcement with Corporations/Employee Giving

  • Some corporations support BGCS through employee giving programs and campaigns. Generally these are managed by the corporation and are processed through payroll deduction.
  • BGCS seeks permission from the corporation before adding any employees to the BGCS database.
  • BGCS may share cumulative giving totals, but will not share individual donor/employee names.
  • Employees may participate in matching gift programs with their employers. Matching gift requests are sent to the corporation for processing with the knowledge of the employee and the appropriate paperwork.

About Our Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy Modifications

This privacy policy may by updated from time to time. This policy was last updated in August 2018.

Donor Bill of Rights

This was created by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP), the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), and the Giving Institute: Leading Consultants to Non-Profits.

Philanthropy is based on voluntary action for the common good. It is a tradition of giving and sharing that is primary to the quality of life. To ensure that philanthropy merits the respect and trust of the general public, and that donors and prospective donors can have full confidence in the nonprofit organizations and causes they are asked to support, we declare that all donors have these rights:

  1. To be informed of the organization’s mission, of the way the organization intends to use donated resources, and of its capacity to use donations effectively for their intended purposes.
  2. To be informed of the identity of those serving on the organization’s governing board, and to expect the board to exercise prudent judgment in its stewardship responsibilities.
  3. To have access to the organization’s most recent financial statements.
  4. To be assured their gifts will be used for the purposes for which they were given.
  5. To receive appropriate acknowledgement and recognition.
  6. To be assured that information about their donation is handled with respect and with confidentiality to the extent provided by law.
  7. To expect that all relationships with individuals representing organizations of interest to the donor will be professional in nature.
  8. To be informed whether those seeking donations are volunteers, employees of the organization or hired solicitors.
  9. To have the opportunity for their names to be deleted from mailing lists that an organization may intend to share.
  10. To feel free to ask questions when making a donation and to receive prompt, truthful and forthright answers.


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