Privacy Policy

Introduction 

At Candlelighters we are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about why we need it and what we do with it.  

This notice gives a clear explanation of how and why we obtain, use, and protect your personal information. It is written in accordance with the?Data Protection Act 2018, the Privacy and Electronic Communication (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 and the UK General Data Protection Regulations. 

When you choose to provide us with personal information, it will only be used to support your relationship with Candlelighters and in line with this notice. 

 If you are 16 or under you must get your parent or guardian’s permission before you provide any personal information. 

This privacy notice applies to all aspects of Candlelighters operations including the website. By continuing to use our website you are agreeing to the processing of your personal information in accordance with this notice. 

Candlelighters is a registered charity (no. 1045077).  We are listed on the Information Commissioner’s register of data controllers (registration reference Z3254693) and are a member of the Fundraising Regulator. 

If you have any queries about this notice please email us at [email protected] or call 0113 887 8333. If you have any concerns about our use of personal information you should write to: Data Protection Manager, Candlelighters, 8 Woodhouse Square, Leeds LS3 1AD or email us at the above address. 

Please click on the following links for more information about each subject heading:

      

What is personal information?

Personal information is any information that you give us that enables you to be identified. This may include your name, your home address, your date of birth, your personal email address.  It also includes photographs and case studies. 

We process and hold personal information that we need to run the operations of the charity and for which there is a valid lawful basis. This includes information on families we support, employees, job applicants, volunteers, donors and supporters. 

How we process your information

Processing, in relation to personal information, means anything we may do with the information, such as obtaining, accessing, recording, disclosing, destroying or using the data in any way. 

We collect personal information from you when you ask about our activities, register with us, (e.g. registering for an event), order products and services from us (such as publications and email newsletters), make a donation to us, fundraise on our behalf, apply for a job, volunteer for us, or otherwise give us personal information. 

We may also obtain personal information about you from other sources, such as if a family member or friend contacts us on your behalf, or if a fundraiser passes on your details to us. We may also combine your personal information with other information we collect from third parties (see Profiling Supporters section). 

To understand how we use information about the communications devices you use, such as IP address (the location of the computer on the internet) and cookies, please see our 'How we use cookies' page on the website.  

We process your personal information securely to ensure protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss or destruction. Your information is processed only by authorised individuals who have received appropriate data protection training.  

Who do we share your information with?

We will not sell your details to any third parties. We may sometimes share your information with our trusted service providers who are authorised to act on our behalf, this includes organisations who fundraise on our behalf.  
We may share information with our financial and legal advisers for the purposes of obtaining advice and protecting our legal rights. 

Candlelighters are responsible for collecting your personal information. When we collect your personal information we use strict procedures and security features to prevent unauthorised access. However, no data transmission over the Internet is 100% secure. As a result, while we try to protect your personal information, Candlelighters cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us and you do so at your own risk. 

Profiling supporters

We may try to better understand our supporters by researching them using publicly available sources; so that we can tailor and target our fundraising events and communications to those most likely to be interested in them. This includes identifying those who may be able to support Candlelighters with a larger gift. This ensures that our communication with you as a supporter is as relevant and timely as possible, helps us not to send irrelevant or inappropriate communication to our supporters, and provides you with the best possible experience of Candlelighters. It also ensures that we are spending your donations wisely, using research and analysis to inform our decisions so our fundraising efforts are as effective as they can be.  

Information we receive from other sources

We undertake in-house research and may also engage third-party organisations such as Experian, Factary or Milestone Research, to supplement what we know about you with information from third- party sources. We take the information you have already given us and enhance it with information from publicly available records such as the electoral roll, land records, ‘rich lists’, Who’s Who publications, and Companies House. The information we collect may be related to your employment, any philanthropic activity and we may estimate your gift capacity, based on visible assets, and how connected you are to Candlelighters. 

Our suppliers will not share your information with any other organisation, and it will only be used for the purposes set out above. You can opt out of your data being used for profiling by contacting [email protected].

Confidentiality

We undertake in-house research and may also engage third-party organisations such as Experian, Factary or Milestone Research, to supplement what we know about you with information from third- party sources. We take the information you have already given us and enhance it with information from publicly available records such as the electoral roll, land records, ‘rich lists’, Who’s Who publications, and Companies House. The information we collect may be related to your employment, any philanthropic activity and we may estimate your gift capacity, based on visible assets, and how connected you are to Candlelighters. 

Our suppliers will not share your information with any other organisation, and it will only be used for the purposes set out above. You can opt out of your data being used for profiling by contacting [email protected].

How we use your personal information

We use your information to enable us to operate the charity efficiently, provide effective support for families and to develop our understanding of donors and supporters, including ensuring that our communication with you is effective and in the appropriate manner.  

We will only use your information where we have a valid lawful basis to do so and will always respect your rights. 

Where we use your information, it may be because you have given your consent or there is a legitimate interest for us to do so.  Where we use legitimate interest to process your information, we will always ensure that this is done in a fair way that respects your rights.  We also use your information where we have a legal obligation to do so, or because we have to fulfil contractual obligations.  

We use your information in the ways set out below. 

•  To give you the information, support, services, or products you ask for.
•  To gain a full understanding of your situation so we can develop and offer you the best possible personalised services.
•  For internal administrative purposes (such as our accounting and records), and to let you know about changes to our services or policies.
•  To send you communications about our work and how you can help us, for example, information about our campaigns, volunteering and fundraising activities. You can let us know if you would prefer not to receive these communications at any time by emailing [email protected],calling 0113 3229283 or writing to us at Candlelighters, 8 Woodhouse Square, Leeds LS3 1AD.
•  We may combine your information with other information (for example, from public records or on social media) and create a profile of your interests and preferences. We do this to help us determine whether and in what ways you might be interested in helping us or getting involved in our activities.
•  To look into, and respond to, complaints, legal claims or other issues.
•  To claim Gift Aid on your donations.  
•  We may also use your personal information for other purposes which we specifically notify you about and, where appropriate, obtain your consent. 

Information we hold
Supporters

Your personal information

You may give us your personal information directly, through making a donation, signing up to an event, or when you communicate with us by post or telephone. Sometimes when you support us, your information is collected by an organisation working on our behalf, such as a professional fundraising agency.  In these circumstances, they only process your personal information in line with our instructions and we are responsible for your information at all times. 

You may give us your personal information indirectly, through independent event organisers, such as the Great Run, or on fundraising websites such as Just Giving, Enthuse or Charities Aid Foundation. These independent third parties will only do so when you have indicated that you wish to support Candlelighters with your consent. You should check their Privacy Policy to understand how they will process your information. We will not contact you without explicit permission given by you on these sites. 

When we ask for your personal information, we will discuss communication preferences with you and on any subsequent communications you will always have the ability to opt out or change these preferences. 

In some cases, we may use information in the public domain to support our fundraising purposes. It should be noted that UK GDPR does not apply to information already in the public domain such as Companies House data and that any information collected is done so in a manner that is adherent to data protection regulations. 


What we do with it


We do not give or sell your personal information to any other organisations, except those that are employed directly by us to raise funds or manage fundraising events for us. If you make a donation to Candlelighters, sign up to an event, or sign up to receive communications from us, we will normally collect your name and contact details. We will retain your bank account information if you are making a regular donation. We may also keep other information that you have given us, such as your date of birth, to enable us to build a better profile and understanding of our donors and help to identify potential new supporters. If you are taking part in a sporting or challenge event, we may also keep your emergency contact details for that purpose only and for the duration of the event. 


Why we need it

We use this information to thank you for supporting us and to provide you with further information about our activities where legitimate interest or consent allows. We also use it to fulfil our legal responsibilities for financial and Gift Aid reporting, to administer our events and to enable us to process your donations. 


How long we keep it

We will hold your information for only as long as is necessary to the end of your relationship with us and in accordance with our Data Retention and Destruction Policy. 

Credit or debit cards

If you use your credit or debit card to donate to us, buy something, or pay for a registration online, we will use a specialist payment processor. We will also ensure that card details are handled securely under Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards.  

If you provide your card details to make a donation by phone, only Candlelighters staff who are authorised and trained to process payments should be able to collect or see your card details. We never store your credit or debit card details following the completion of your transaction. All card details and validation codes are securely destroyed once the payment or donation has been processed. 

All purchases or donations should be completed through the donation page or online shop via our website (www.candlelighters.org.uk) or by calling our support centre on 0113 887 8333 

Families

Your personal information

We process and hold personal information that is needed by us to run the operations of the charity and for which there is a valid lawful basis. If your family is receiving support from us, we may need to obtain up-to-date medical and social care information in order to provide a safe and effective service, in the best interest of the child or young person. 

We do not share sensitive information or confidential health information without your consent unless under legal obligation. We will only share information after families have signed a “consent to share” form at the start of delivery service, which details the circumstances in which we may share information. 

In certain circumstances, we receive and will share personal information with other professional organisations, such as hospitals, GPs, community nursing teams, Local Authorities and schools. 


How we collect your personal data

We obtain personal information from you when a referral is made to us. We may also obtain personal information about you from other professionals involved in your child’s care. 


How we process your personal information

We may use your personal information for:

•  Providing you with services or information that you have requested
•  Keeping a record of our communications with you
•  Complying with our legal obligations, policies and procedures.

The safety of children is very important to us and we will only display the name of a child or family and any associated information if we have consent from the family members involved, unless otherwise required to do so by our legal obligations. 


Data profiling and data appending

We may use personal information for analysis and profiling to help us to understand family needs. On occasion we may also make use of publicly available demographic information. We will only use data collected in this manner for the purposes to which you have consented. 


Disclosure

We will not sell or share personal details with any third party for the purposes of their own marketing. 

We may disclose your personal information to third parties if we are obliged to by law or the disclosure is necessary for the purposes of national security or criminal investigation or if we have your consent. 


How we protect your personal information

We adopt appropriate data collection, storage, processing practices and security measures to protect against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure or destruction of your personal data stored on our database or systems. 


Where we store your information

All the information that you provide to us or which is shared with us is stored on our secure database. 


How long we keep it

We retain your personal information in line with our Data Retention and Destruction Policy. 

Role applicants

Your personal information

In the course of our activities and legal obligations as an organisation, we will process personal data (which may be held on paper, electronically, or otherwise) about our applicants; and we recognise the need to treat it in an appropriate and lawful manner, in accordance with UK GDPR. 

We process the personal information you provide to us when you apply for a job or to volunteer with us. We may also receive personal data from third parties such as independent recruitment agencies. 


Why we need it

We use this information to assess your suitability for the role applied for and where applicable during the interview process.  

We only request information from you to that is required to satisfy legitimate recruitment information, to satisfy relevant health and safety requirements and to satisfy relevant equal opportunities legislation. It will also be used to obtain third party references or to meet statutory obligations. 


What we do with it

Your personal information will only be held and processed for the purpose of the selection process and if successful with subsequent employment.  

All the personal information we hold about you will be processed in a secure environment and by authorised HR personnel and shared with relevant managers as part of the recruitment process. 
We will only share your personal data with independent third parties with your consent and when directly required as part of the recruitment process. In these circumstances, they will only process your personal information in line with our instructions and we are responsible for your information at all times. 


How long we keep it

We will keep the personal information of unsuccessful candidates for a period of twelve months after the closing application date, after which time it will be securely destroyed. 

We do not hold speculative CVs sent to us for any reason. 

Employees, interns and work placements

For information on how Candlelighters processes the personal information of employees, interns and work placements, please refer to the Candlelighters Employee Privacy Notice.

Volunteers

For information on how Candlelighters processes the personal information of volunteers, please refer to the Candlelighters Volunteer Privacy Notice.

Sharing experiences with Candlelighters

Your personal information

You may share information with us about your experience of the support you and your family receive, or have received from Candlelighters, or the fundraising or volunteering activity you have carried out for us. 


What we collect

Families and supporters kindly let us use images, video content and their case studies to help bring our fundraising and campaign activity to life. These could include details about the health of their child and of the experiences they have had. 


What we do with it

We keep this information stored securely and will only use them with the subject’s permission. The safety of children is very important to us. If we display a child’s case study we do not display their personal or contact details unless we have permission to do so. 


Why we need it

To promote Candlelighters, we use photographs of children and families we support for our fundraising, charity literature and media purposes where consent has been discussed and agreed. By featuring photographs and stories we can engage with people in a much more tangible and visual way. The photographs and stories express what we do from the families who know us best and help us in our efforts to seek support for the charity.  


How long we keep it

We keep this information for two years after consent has been given, unless specified otherwise, after which time it is archived or further permission is requested. 

Website, social media and email

Our website uses cookies to ensure visitors get the best experience on our website as well as to provide information on how our site is being used, which enables us to enhance the online experience. For example, cookies may tell us whether you are visiting our site for the first time or returning. Some cookies are necessary to allow visitors to move around the website and use its features, such as shopping baskets, or some collect information about performance and others allow for functionality like remembering language choices and passwords and there are also cookies that allow targeting or advertising based on browsing habits. 

You have the right to choose whether to accept these cookies and can indicate to do so by choosing your cookie preferences within your browser settings. The help menu in the toolbar will tell you how to manage these, including how to have your browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, and how to disable them all together. 

You can read more about cookies here.


Social media

Candlelighters uses social media to promote our work and may use your personal data, which is already in the public domain, from social media channels such as Facebook, X, Linked in, Instagram and YouTube depending on your settings or the privacy policies of these services. We collect meta donations through social media platforms. Where members of the public engage with our posts or publish content relevant to our work, we may like the posts, follow them, reply or write to them. We conduct research on what people say on public social media platforms to better understand how people feel about our sector and to improve our work. This research may be done by staff or companies we work with. 

If you are a social media user, we will use social media tools as part of our relationship with you. These tools include Facebook Custom and Lookalike audiences. Through using these tools we will provide some of your data to the social media platform to allow them to identify your social media profile. You will then be shown advertising relating to Candlelighters which we think you will be interested in seeing. The social media platform will also use your profile to identify those with similar characteristics to you who we think may also be interested in finding out more about the work we do. These individuals will then be shown advertising about Candlelighters. You can object to your information being shared with social media platforms. Please contact [email protected] if you wish to object. 

To change your settings on your own social media, please refer to their privacy notices, which will tell you how to do this. 


Email

We use a third-party email service provider to deliver some of our mails. We collect statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies to help us monitor and improve our communications.  

We may use your email address and phone number to match to your account on Facebook or other social media sites in order to show you Candlelighters content while you are using these services. We will only do this where you have opted in to our marketing emails or phone calls, and your personal data is kept secure at all times. We may also use your email address and phone number to link to Facebook or other social media sites in order to identify other users of these sites whom we believe would be interested in Candlelighters, and we may then show them our content. 

Keeping your personal information

We keep your personal information only for as long as we need to use it for the purposes set out in this notice. 

We have adopted a Data Retention and Destruction Policy that sets out the different periods we retain personal information for in respect of these relevant purposes. The criteria we use for determining these retention periods is based on various legal requirements; the purpose for which we hold data and whether there is a legitimate reason for continuing to store it (such as in order to deal with any future legal disputes); and guidance issued by relevant regulatory authorities including, but not limited to, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). 

Personal information that we no longer need is securely disposed of and/or anonymised so you can no longer be identified from it. Some personal information may be retained by us in archives for statistical or historical research purposes although we will do this in a manner that complies with applicable data protection law. 

We continually review what personal information and records we hold, and delete what is no longer required. We never store payment card data after the transaction has been completed. 

Links

The Candlelighters website may include links to other sites, not owned or managed by us. We cannot be held responsible for the privacy of information collected by websites not managed by us.

Lawful basis for processing

The law requires us to set out the lawful grounds on which we collect and process your personal information as described in this notice. Depending on the purposes for which we use your data, one or more of the grounds listed below may be relevant: 

Legitimate interest

We rely on the “legitimate interest’ ground for processing where we believe it is in the legitimate interests of you, as the data subject, or of Candlelighters, to process your data. When we process your personal information in this way, we also consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative), and your rights under data protection laws. We will not use your personal information for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you, for example where collection and use of your information would be excessively intrusive (unless, for instance, we are otherwise required or permitted to by law). We will only use your information in accordance with the purposes described in this notice. Examples of processing based on the legitimate interests ground are: 

•  Sending direct marketing material to supporters by post for fundraising purposes;
•  Conducting research to better understand who our supporters are and better target our fundraising activity;
•  Measure and understand how our audiences respond to a variety of marketing activity so we can ensure our activity is well targeted, relevant and effective;
•  Taking and using photographs and/or films of event participants and attendees;
•  Administering events;
•  Staff recruitment and taking applications for volunteers and contacting volunteers about their role
•  The use of CCTV recording equipment in and around our premises for monitoring and security purposes
•  Promoting Candlelighters on social media, Google, YouTube and other online platforms

Consent

In some instances, we will rely on obtaining your consent to use your personal information in a certain way (for example, asking for your consent to use your email address to send you direct marketing information, and we may ask for your explicit consent to share sensitive personal information with us) 

Legal obligation

We may need to collect, process and disclose personal information to comply with a legal obligation. For example, where we are ordered by a court or regulatory authority or we are legally required to hold donor transaction details for Gift Aid or accounting/tax purposes. We may also use personal information to cross check and prevent known malicious activities on Candlelighters operated services. 

Performance of a contract

For example if you purchase something from our online shop or agree to work for us, we need to be able to process your information for the purpose of meeting our contractual obligations.

Your data protection rights

Under UK GDPR, you have certain rights in relation to your personal information, although those rights will not apply in all cases or to all the information that we hold about you. For example, we may need to continue to hold and process information to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights.  

We recognise your rights under UK GDPR and will act upon them accordingly. Under certain circumstances, by law, you have the right to: 

•  be informed of why, where and how we use your information
•  request access to your personal information
•  have your personal information corrected if it is inaccurate or incomplete
•  have your personal information erased from our systems where there is no longer a need for us to continue holding it (e.g. HMRC or other legal requirements)
•  restrict the use of your information, where you have previously provided us with your consent
•  ask us to transfer your personal information to another person or organisation
•  object to how your information is used

Where you have provided consent to be contacted or to receive a service, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. We will action all requests within 28 days of receipt. 

To withdraw your consent, or if you have any questions, please send these to [email protected], or contact us by telephone on 0113 8878333.   

Once we have received notification that you have withdrawn your consent, we will no longer process your personal information, except where legally required and, subject to our retention policy, we will dispose of your data securely. 

For further information please refer to the Information Commissioner’s guidance. 

If you are at any point unhappy with the way that we handled your personal data, you can make a complaint at any time to us by emailing us at [email protected], calling us on 0113 887 8333, or you can write to us at Candlelighters, 8 Woodhouse Square, Leeds LS3 1AD .  You can also complain to the?Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). 

Updates to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in how we use your information. You may wish to check this policy each time you provide your information to Candlelighters.  

This policy was last updated January 2023. 

    

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