PRIVACY POLICY

HOW WE FUNDRAISE

We are extremely grateful to our supporters – without them, vulnerable and disadvantaged people in Glasgow would continue to struggle. Our funding comes from individuals, charitable trusts and local churches, workplaces and schools. Only the basic elements of the nursery at our Child & Family Centre are funded by the Local Authority. We don’t apply for Lottery funding.

We comply with the Scottish Fundraising Standards Panel’s Fundraising Guarantee. Before this was created, we were members of the Fundraising Standards Board until this was disbanded in 2016. Our two fundraisers are both members of the Institute of Fundraising which sets out best practice. We abide by the Code of Fundraising Practice.

We don’t employ external fundraising agencies who will stop you in the street, knock on your door or phone you up when you’re having your dinner. We know this annoys people and we don’t want to do that.

We never share or sell your data to a third party for the purposes of their marketing. We don’t engage in swapping donor lists with other charities or anyone else. We don’t buy donor lists or cold contact people. Your data is secure on our in-house system, controlled and managed by Glasgow City Mission staff.

We typically send our magazine to our supporters by either post or email three times a year plus one or two update letters to say thanks for all that our supporters enable. We only make one appeal in the year and that’s at Christmas. We’ll thank you promptly after any donation is received unless you explicitly ask us not to. You can opt out of receiving mail or email at any time.

We’ll not phone you to ask for more money.

All of the money we receive is spent in Glasgow to tackle homelessness, poverty and social isolation through our projects.

We have a small, yet amazing staff team and rely on an army of equally amazing volunteers to keep our admin costs as low as possible. We are a living wage employer and our highest paid member of staff earns no more than three times that of our lowest paid. In short, more of our supporters’ money is spent on the frontline than on extravagant salaries or anything else.

Our supporters are welcome to come in and see first-hand the impact of their support at any time. Simply contact us to arrange a visit or book onto one of our monthly First Friday tours.

HOW WE COLLECT INFORMATION ABOUT YOU

We collect personal information about you such as name, contact details, gift aid status etc when you:

• contact us to make a donation
• register to receive news about what we do
• register for any of our events
• complete a form on our website
• request a speaker from the charity to visit your organisation
• engage with us on social media or phone, email or write to us
• purchase something on our online shop through Paypal
• or any other method that you choose to provide information about yourself to us or that exists in the public domain.

When you use our website, we collect data cookies – see below for our cookie policy.

We will also receive information about you if you donate or fundraise for us through fundraising or event websites such as JustGiving, VirginMoney Giving or Eventbrite. If you donate to Glasgow City Mission via our website, Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) will process your donation on our behalf. These organisations will pass Glasgow City Mission your details where you have given them permission and we will abide by the preferences you have selected.

HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

The information you share with us means we can communicate with you in the way that you wish.

We are particularly keen to show supporters the impact of their support and so we will send our magazine and similar communications by post to anyone who makes a donation to us or has expressed an interest in hearing from us within in the past three years unless they have expressly opted out of this. We do this because we deem anyone who makes a donation to us, is approved to be a volunteer or has taken part in an event as having a “legitimate interest”.

We will only send marketing and fundraising materials by email where the supporter has expressly opted in to receiving such emails.

We will not phone or text you to request a donation or ask you to increase your giving.

You can opt out of any of our communications at any time by contacting us.

As well as communicating with you, we will use your personal information to fulfil the request you have made of us such as sending you requested information, processing your donation including Gift Aid if applicable, keep a record of your history with us.

We will use your debit/credit card details provided to us to make your donation in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Standards. We do not store your card details. If you have provided them physically on a form, they are destroyed once your donation has been securely processed.

Occasionally, we may pass your information to our service provider to perform functions on our behalf such as sending postal mail, or to ensure our records are kept accurate such as checking our records against Royal Mail’s ‘Change of address / deceased / gone away’ files. These companies will only use your information to perform this specific function and no other purpose. They do so following specific company checks we have undertaken and where contracts are in place outlining our expectations and requirements.

We never sell or share your details with any other organisation for the purposes of their marketing.

HOW WE STORE YOUR INFORMATION

We have in place a number of security controls and that information that we have about you is stored securely on our server. Where you have written your information on physical forms or other written pieces of communication, these are stored securely with appropriate controls and procedures in place to protect them. The only people who have access to your data are those who have been nominated and trained appropriately.

We will retain your information for as long as we believe is necessary and for the purpose with which it was given.

RIGHT OF ACCESS

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you at any time. To do so, please write to us along with proof of your identity such as a copy of your passport or driver’s license to Susan Robertson, Glasgow City Mission, 20 Crimea Street, Glasgow, G2 8PW. We will respond to your request within 1 month at the very latest.

VOLUNTEER PRIVACY POLICY

A specific policy relates to those who apply to be a volunteer with Glasgow City Mission. Download our Volunteer privacy policy (PDF).

COMPLAINTS

People come to Glasgow City Mission in all shapes and sizes and all for different reasons. We really value each person and take the time to understand them – it’s in our DNA. It’s the same with our supporters. Each is different and each has different reasons for getting involved. We think of our supporters as real people, not faceless groups of ‘donor reference numbers’.

We hope therefore that you never have reason to make a complaint about how we communicate with you or fundraise but if you do, we’d love the opportunity to hear from you and seek to put things right.

In the first instance, please address your complaint to Jack Geddes, Marketing & Fundraising Manager, Glasgow City Mission, 20 Crimea Street, Glasgow, G2 8PW. If you remain unsatisfied, your complaint would be escalated to the Chairman of our Board. If a resolution cannot be reached, the third and final stage would be to contact the Scottish Fundraising Standards Panel.

Further helpful information on making a complaint to a charity can be found at Scottish Fundraising Standards Panel.

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We will post any changes to this policy to this page of our website and will review it on a regular basis.

​COOKIE POLICY

We collect data using cookies. We use cookies on our website so that we can tailor the content to you, ensure it’s working the way it should, and make improvements.

A cookie is a small file that is sent to your computer, tablet or mobile phone and contains information that tells us that you have used our website before. Cookies are safe and secure and are commonly used on websites.

When you visit our website, the pages that you look at and cookies are downloaded to your device. Our website server sends the cookie and uses this number to recognise you when you return to the website or browse from page to page. Only the server that sends a cookie can read, and therefore use, that cookie.

This file is stored on your hard drive. All websites can send a cookie to your browser if your browser settings allow it. The use of cookies is an industry standard of most major websites. Most browsers allow you to turn off the cookie function, however if you opt to do this you may reduce your usability of the site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies as soon you visit our website.

Glasgow City Mission uses the following cookies: