Our Commitment to Protecting Your Privacy

United Way of Chatham-Kent (UWOCK) is committed to protecting the privacy of individuals, corporations and clients by complying with all applicable privacy legislation as it affects its volunteers, donors, agencies and employees.

UWOCK recognizes that we rely on the support hundreds of individuals who engage with us in support of their community. We recognize that information is precious, and our supporters trust us to treat their information with respect for their privacy and a commitment to protecting the confidentiality of data. It is essential that we protect the privacy of the personal information individuals may choose to share with us or that we may gather by other lawful means. We are committed to ensuring that all personal information is properly collected, used only for the purposes for which it is collected, and is disposed of in a safe and timely manner when no longer required.

What is Personal Information?

Personal information refers to information about an identifiable individual, but excludes certain business contact information, specifically name, title, business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization. From time to time, UWOCK may, acting reasonably, collect information about identifiable individuals from published or public sources for the purposes of developing relationships with individuals.

The areas in which UWOCK collects and uses personal information in accordance with this policy are principally, but not limited to:

Community: UWOCK’s work to improve social conditions involves working with individuals acting on their own initiative or as representatives of community agencies, governments and other partner organizations that share common social objectives. UWOCK gathers and uses personal information to keep individuals informed about relevant UWOCK activities and work, and with permission may share personal information with others who share similar social objectives and a desire for networking. UWOCK also gathers and uses personal information to provide professional development programs in the sector and with permission, shares personal information with previously identified program partners or vendors for the purposes of conducting program activities.

Donations: UWOCK will collect and use personal information necessary to process donations and payments, redirect a donation or any part of a donation to another charity as instructed by the donor, issue tax receipts, confirm renewal of giving and maintain a donation history, keep donors informed about giving opportunities and the work of UWOCK, acknowledge and recognize donations, and comply with federal and provincial regulatory guidelines and reporting requirements.

Workplace Philanthropy: UWOCK supports workplace organizations who wish to run internal employee giving and engagement philanthropy programs. UWOCK may be provided with employee names, business contact information and other employee-related information in order to provide personalized giving and volunteering experiences, whether paper pledge forms or secure online systems, to carry out workplace philanthropy programs. UWOCK will work with organizations delivering workplace campaigns to determine data needs that ensure an optimal experience for employees, and which also meets the organization’s personal data management policies. The data provided to UWOCK is used only for the purposes of setting up the systems and facilitating the workplace philanthropy program. In some situations, the workplaces run philanthropic programs that reach beyond employees to include other related individuals such as retirees or contractors. UWOCK follows the same practices in working with organizations in these situations as with employees.

Volunteering: UWOCK will collect and use personal information to establish and maintain the volunteer relationship, assist volunteers in performing their volunteering roles and responsibilities, and keep them informed about relevant UWOCK activities and the work of UWOCK.

Event Participation: UWOCK will collect and use personal information necessary to communicate with individuals about events, contests and promotions that they participate in, issues concerning related transactions, information about other events that they may be interested in and the work of UWOCK; to recognize participation and award prizes; and to comply with federal and provincial regulatory guidelines and reporting requirements.

UWOCK Employees: UWOCK collects and uses personal information to establish, maintain, administer and terminate the employment relationship including ongoing obligations regarding benefits, medical history and pension.

Our Privacy Principles

The following principles reflect our pledge to protect the privacy of your personal information:

Accountability
We are responsible for all personal information in our possession, including any personal information transferred to third parties for handling or administrative purposes.

We keep your personal information in strict confidence. All employees, agents (including authorized volunteers) and authorized service providers of UWOCK are required to protect the confidentiality of your personal information. All employees and agents are required to sign and adhere to a Code of Conduct & Ethics which ensures they are informed about the importance of privacy protection. UWOCK provides employees and contractors with information and training to ensure they are knowledgeable about our privacy policy and related policies.

Identifying Purposes
When we collect personal information from you, the purpose for which it is being collected will be identified at the time the information is collected. With your consent, we will collect information about you for various purposes, including to:

  • Establish your identity.
  • Administer your involvements with us, including your donations, event participation, community engagements, volunteering, or employment, and contact you about your continued involvement.
  • Know who our donors, volunteers and other supporters are in order to manage and develop our resources to fulfill our mission to serve the greater good of the community.
  • Respond to your information requests
  • Periodically send you newsletters, event invitations, or other relevant information. (Please note that we publish up to four newsletters annually).
  • Send thank-you cards, and with your consent, give public recognition of your financial and/or non-financial contributions.
  • Share information with other individuals or organizations, including organizations which you redirect donations to, volunteer at on our behalf, or interact with on our behalf.
  • Generate statistics and aggregate reporting to help us and our partner organizations understand where we can have greater impact on the community.
  • Meet legal and regulatory requirements.

Consent
We obtain personal information about you lawfully and fairly. We collect, use, or disclose your personal information with your permission, except where otherwise required or permitted by law.

Your permission may be expressed (orally, electronically or in writing) or may be implied (by an action or inaction). You may withdraw your permission to the use and disclosure of your personal information at any time. We will comply, subject to legal, contractual, or technical restrictions.

For example, if you ask to not receive any mail from us, we take steps to suppress donation requests or general information, but we will still mail you a tax receipt for a donation or send you a statement of your outstanding payments against your pledged donation. Due to printing and distribution schedules, you may continue to receive some communications that were in process before we received your request. If there are various options to how we may handle your request, we will explain the options so that you can choose how you wish us to handle your request.

Limiting Collection
Personal information collected will be limited to that required for the purposes identified by us.

Limiting Use, Disclosure and Retention
We use your information for the purposes identified to you. When we intend to use your personal information for a purpose not identified to you when the information was collected, we will identify the new purpose and obtain your permission prior to use.

We do not sell your personal information.

We disclose your personal information in the following circumstances:

  • In the case of donors giving through their workplace, your workplace has access to certain personal information in the execution of the Employee Campaign (Workplace Campaign). UWOCK is respectful of the donor’s right to privacy and works with the individuals responsible for the Employee Campaign to limit with whom we share the information, and to only share information necessary for the purposes of the campaign.
    • For example, if you make a donation by payroll deduction, we may provide the information necessary to correctly identify you on your payroll system and the amount of your donation to deduct from your pay. Furthermore, employers may have internal policies on their access and use of employee personal information; United Way respects and works within the requirements of your organization’s policies.We share information with other United Ways if we administer a donation belonging to another United Way We disclose your information only to the specific United Way involved in your donation.
  • If you designate your donation to another charity, we provide your name and workplace, if the donation is part of a Workplace Campaign, and designation amount to the selected charity. You may withdraw permission by contacting us. If you do so, we send the donation on an anonymous basis.
  • We may contract with carefully selected third parties to perform services for us or on our behalf.
  • Where a third party hosts an event using UWOCK’s systems to register participants, your information may be shared with the host solely for the purpose of managing the event and your participation in the event.
  • In all other situations, we will disclose your personal information only with your consent, or as otherwise required or permitted by law.

We will keep your personal information only as long as it is necessary to satisfy the purposes for which it was obtained, or as required by law. When we destroy personal information, we will use safeguards to prevent unauthorized parties from gaining access to that information during the process.

Accuracy
We strive to ensure all personal information in our possession is accurate and up to date. However, we rely on you to provide us with any changes to your personal information – specifically your contact information.

If you believe any of the information we have collected about you is incorrect or incomplete, you have the right to ask us to change it or delete it. If your personal information is inaccurate or incomplete, we will make the necessary changes.

Safeguards
We maintain appropriate technical and organizational safeguards to protect your personal information against loss, theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification.

Access to your personal information is restricted to UWOCK employees, agents and authorized service providers. UWOCK will protect your personal information by safeguards that are appropriate to the sensitivity of that information and the format of the information, whether electronic or physical. Our procedures include physical security measures, organizational measures including security clearances and limiting access on a “need-to-know” basis, and technological measures such as the use of passwords and encryption.

Openness and Transparency
UWOCK’s Privacy Policy is available to you at all times on our website. If you are unable to access our website or require our policy in another format, we will do our best to provide it in an alternative format that meets your requirements.

Individual Access
You may ask whether we hold any personal information about you, see your information and ensure that it is accurate. UWOCK may ask that you submit your request in writing. UWOCK will need to confirm your identity prior to disclosing any information to you, and may charge a reasonable fee to cover the cost of providing the information to you. If a fee is charged, UWOCK will inform you of the approximate cost prior to providing the information to you.

You also have the right to know how we collected your personal information and how we are using it. We will inform you of the specifics to the best of our ability.

Provide Recourse
You are entitled to know whether we hold personal information about you, see that information, and ensure that it is accurate.

If you would like to access your information, or have any questions about this policy or the protection of your policy, please contact:

Maureen Geddes, CEO
United Way of Chatham-Kent
425 McNaughton Avenue W Chatham, ON N7L 4K4
[email protected] 519.354.0430 ext. 298