Privacy Policy

This policy explains how and why The Friends of the Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields uses your personal information when you become a member, donate to us, apply to volunteer with us, take part in an event, or visit our website www.friendsoftheconnection.org.uk .
When we refer to “we” or “us” in this policy we are referring to The Friends of the Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

1. Using your personal information
We only ever use your personal data if we are satisfied that it is lawful and fair to do so. When we process your personal information, it will be because:

• you have consented to the processing for the specific purposes described in this notice;
• it is necessary in order to enter into, or perform, a contract with you;
• we need to use it in order to comply with a legal obligation; or
• it is necessary in pursuit of a “legitimate interest”. A legitimate interest in this context means a valid interest we have or a third party has in using your personal data which is not overridden by your interests in data privacy and security.

We will only collect and use any special categories of personal information if we have your explicit consent.

2. Information we collect and process
2.1 Membership subscriptions and donations When you apply to become a member of the Friends, via a paper form or online, we will collect your name, address, your email address (optionally if by post) and telephone no, and also payment details, in order to process your application, subscription and any donation. We will use this information to acknowledge your application and payment, to comply with our record-keeping obligations, to annually invite you to renew your membership, and otherwise communicate with you according to your stated preferences.

2.2 One-off donations When you make a one-off donation to us, via a paper form or on our website, we will collect and record your name, address, your email address (optionally if by post) and telephone no, and also payment details in order to process the donation.

For all subscriptions and donations, we use a third party, Blackbaud, to process online donations. Blackbaud is a data processor for us and only processes personal information in line with our instructions as set out in this policy.

If you set up a standing order to donate to us regularly we will collect and record your name, address, email address, phone number and bank account details.
We do not currently invite donations by text, but if we establish a facility to do so, using a third party to process the donations, we will record your name and mobile phone number for that purpose.

2.3 The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields Our main purpose is to raise funds to support our sister charity, The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields (charity no.1078201). If you make a donation directly to The Connection, you should refer to The Connection’s Privacy Policy for details of how they use your personal information.

2.4 Legacies If you indicate that you intend to leave a legacy to us, we will keep a record of your personal information (for example your name, address and contact details), as well as information about any other person or organisation that you provide to us (for example, a family member or a lawyer).

2.5 Fundraising events and appeals We run a number of fundraising events throughout the year, including the Queen Eleanor Cycle Ride, and musical concerts. If you sign up to take part in an event, we will ask you to provide us with personal information such as your name, address and contact details, to allow us to process your application. Depending on the event, we may also collect payment details from you and we may need to ask you to provide information about any health conditions or dietary requirements you have.

We occasionally partner with other organisations to run events, for example, our sister charity The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields, and we may take part in events organised by other entities. We may share your personal information with these other organisations, where you have given us consent to do so or where we have a legitimate interest but we will always let you know in advance.

2.6 Marketing We would like to keep in touch with you about the work that we do, events that we organise, and ways in which you can support us (for example, by volunteering your time, by giving a financial donation, or by giving us donations-in-kind). We will only send you marketing communications by email with your consent. You can opt out of email marketing by clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link in any of our emails or you can contact us (see the ‘Contact Us’ section below) at any time to opt out, change your contact details or to update your communication preferences.

We may also send marketing information to you by post if we are satisfied that we have a legitimate interest to do so. For example, if you are a member of the Friends, or have donated to one of our appeals we may contact you to ask you to renew your membership, or to report on how we used your donation and to ask if you wish to support us again. You can contact us (see the ‘Contact Us’ section below) at any time to tell us that you no longer wish to receive marketing by post or to update your contact details and preferences.

From time to time, we may make marketing telephone calls to you. We do not regularly carry out telephone marketing and we never use automated calling systems. We will only contact you in this way if we are satisfied that we have a legitimate interest to do so and we will always check the telephone preference service and our own marketing preference records before we make any telephone marketing calls to you.

2.7 Case studies and photographs We will always ask for your consent to use your personal information such as your name, your story and/or your photograph, to help us promote our organisation, our events and our activities for example by including a case study about you in our newsletters or on our website. If you use social media to publicly share information about fundraising activities you have done for us, we may share this information on our own social media platforms (Currently, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram).

2.8 Research We use the personal information that you provide, sometimes together with data obtained elsewhere, to manage our fundraising efficiently and effectively so we can raise more to make a difference to the lives of homeless people in London. We use the information we collect about you to effectively target and tailor our communications.

We also use publicly available information such as Companies House, Charity Commission and other charity registers, Who’s Who and Debrett’s guides, Electoral Roll, reputable newspaper articles, publications, company websites and biographies on professional networking sites, as well as geographic and demographic information based on your postcode, to find new potential members and supporters and invite them to be involved in supporting our cause through tailored communications which may be of interest to them or to gain a better understanding of our supporters.

If you would prefer us not to use your data in this way please contact the Friends office on friends@cstm.org.uk or 020 7766 5522.

2.9 Visitors to our website When you visit our website we use a third party service, Google Analytics, to collect information to enable us to evaluate the site and work to improve it (for example, the browser you use, what time you visit, which pages you view). The information we collect in this way does not allow us to identify you personally and we do not link this anonymous data with any personal information that you may provide to us elsewhere. Google Analytics will also collect your IP address in order to locate where our website visitors come from.

Our website uses cookies. For further information please see the ‘Use of Cookies’ section below.

Our website also contains links to third party sites which are not owned or managed by us and which are not subject to this privacy policy. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of any such sites that you visit.

2.10 Volunteering If you contact us to enquire about volunteering opportunities with us we will ask you to give us your name, address, email address (if you have one) and telephone contact details so that we can contact you. Depending on the nature of the volunteering services, we may also need to ask for further personal information from you before you start volunteering with us, such as your ID documents or information to check your criminal record, in order to comply with our legal and/or regulatory obligations.

2.11 Job applicants If you apply for a vacancy with us, we will only use the information you provide for the purpose of progressing your application or to fulfil our legal obligations. You don’t have to provide what we ask for but, if you choose not to, it might affect your application.

2.12 Queries and complaints If you contact us by post, email or telephone using the contact details below, we will use the personal information you provide to us (for example, your name and the name(s) of any other individuals involved) in order to process your query or complaint and respond to you. We may also share your personal information with other personnel within our organisation and sister charities The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields and St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity if we are satisfied that we have a legitimate interest to do so, for example, in order to respond to a specific query or to pass on information.

Where we consider it necessary to comply with our legal obligations, or where we have a legitimate interest, we may also share this information with partner organisations, public services, local authorities or regulators such as the Fundraising Regulator and the Charity Commission. We will not share your personal information with any third parties without informing you and, where appropriate, obtaining your consent. We will keep a record of our correspondence or discussions with you in order to deal with any follow-up questions you may have. We may also use this information for our own internal research and reporting purposes and, wherever possible, we will remove any information which could be used to identify you.

3. Sharing your personal information
We will never sell your personal data or share it with third parties who might use it for their own commercial purposes. We may share your personal information with our sister charities, The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields, St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity or St.Martin-in-the-Fields Trust, for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, where you have given your consent to the sharing or where we are satisfied that we have a legitimate interest in doing so, for example, to check whether you are a donor to The Connection or to avoid duplicating the contact our organisations have with you. We will only disclose your personal information to other third parties:

• where you have given us consent to share the information with the specific third party;
• if we are under a legal duty to disclose or share your personal information, for example, if required to do so by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime;
• in order to enforce any terms and conditions or agreements between us;
• to allow our third party IT contractors, Silverbug IT, to provide us with technical support;
• to protect our rights, property and safety, or the rights, property and safety of others (this includes exchanging information with other companies, organisations and regulators for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction).

In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you. For example, we may share anonymised results of research that we carry out into the use of our services with third parties such as funders.

4. Use of Cookies
Cookies are small, often encrypted text files, downloaded to a device when a user accesses certain websites. Cookies allow a website to recognise a user’s device and are used by website developers to help visitors navigate websites efficiently and perform certain functions. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies but you may disable cookies on your web browser to prevent this.

We use cookies to: (i) Estimate our visitor size and patterns (ii) Understand visitor preferences to update and improve our website. If you do not wish to have cookies stored on your computer you may change your web browser settings to refuse cookies or to notify you when you receive a cookie. Please note that some areas of our website may not function properly, or may function more slowly as a result of disabling cookies. Cookies do not allow this website to access personal information that you have not already provided.

5. Transferring personal information outside the EEA
We do not transfer the personal information you give us to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

6. Data retention
We will only retain your personal information for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements, and in accordance with our data retention policy.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

Our default retention periods may be extended or reduced if we deem it necessary, for example, to defend legal proceedings or if there is an on-going investigation relating to the information.

We review the personal data (and the categories of personal data) we hold on a regular basis to ensure the data we are holding is still required and is accurate. If we discover that certain data we are holding is no longer necessary or accurate, we will take steps to correct or delete the data.

Please contact us if you would like more information on how long we keep your personal information.

7. Your rights
Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

• Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
• Ask us to correct personal information that we hold about you which is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate.
• Ask us to erase your personal information from our files and systems where there is no good reason for us continuing to hold it.
• Object to us using your personal information to further our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) or where we are using your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
• Ask us to restrict or suspend the use of your personal information, for example, if you want us to establish its accuracy or our reasons for using it.
• Ask us to transfer your personal information to another person or organisation.
If you want to access, correct or request restriction or erasure of your personal information, or to object to us using your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact friends@cstm.org.uk or Friends of the Connection, 12 Adelaide Street, London WC2N 4HW in writing.

If you have given your consent to us processing your personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. To withdraw your consent, please contact us. Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your personal information and, subject to our retention policy, we will dispose of your data securely.

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues.

8. Contact us
If you have any questions about this privacy notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact us by email at friends@cstm.org.uk, by telephoning 020 7766 5522 or by writing to: Friends of the Connection, 12 Adelaide Street, London WC2N 4HW.

9. Website Legal Statement
We cannot guarantee that information on our website is accurate, complete or up to date. Visitors who rely on any information do so at their own risk. Availability of information is subject to change without notice.

We will not accept liability for any loss, damage or inconvenience arising as a consequence of any use of or the inability to use any information on this site and we take no responsibility for the contents of linked websites and links should not be taken as an endorsement.

10. Copyright
Content on this site is protected by copyright. The copyright owner is The Friends of the Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields, unless otherwise stated. We encourage people to download or copy the material for personal use but we ask that you give appropriate acknowledgment of the copyright owner if material is re-published in any format. You may not make alterations or additions to the material on this site, or use it for commercial purposes.