Privacy Policy

Last Updated: March 12, 2025

Introduction

Your privacy is important to us at Philanthropia Charitable Giving Fund, a Pennsylvania nonprofit corporation and its affiliates (collectively “Philanthropia,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), and we are committed to safeguarding, preserving, and respecting your privacy rights. This online privacy policy (the “Policy”) describes how we collect, use, disclose, and secure the personal information we gather about you through our website, [insert website] (the “Site”), when you use our sites, apps, and when you otherwise interact with us (collectively, the “Services”).

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share, and protect your personal information when you use our services, including making donations through our platform, and outlines your rights and choices. We adhere to applicable United States privacy laws, including the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) and Nevada’s privacy law (SB 220), as well as nonprofit industry best practices for donor privacy. By using Philanthropia’s services, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Information We Collect

We collect personal information that you provide to us directly, as well as information automatically collected when you use our site. The types of information we may collect include:

Contact and Identifying Information: Such as your name, email address, postal address, phone number, and organization (if you are affiliated with a company or charity). We collect this information when you sign up for an account, make a donation, or contact us for support.
Donation Information: Records related to any donations you make through Philanthropia, including the amount donated, the date of donation, the charity or cause you supported, and any dedication or message you include with your donation. If you request a donation receipt or tax acknowledgment, we will also retain details necessary for that purpose.
Payment Information: If you make a donation or purchase, you may provide payment details (such as credit card number or bank account information). Philanthropia does not store full financial account numbers or credit card numbers on our servers. Payment transactions are processed by our third-party payment processors, and we only maintain information such as the payment method type, billing address, and a transaction confirmation for record-keeping.
User Account Information: If you create an account, we may collect your login credentials (like username and password) and any preferences or profile information you choose to provide (for example, a profile picture or communication preferences).
Communications: Copies of your communications with us, such as emails to customer support or feedback you provide, and your communication preferences (e.g., opting into newsletters or updates).
Automatically Collected Information: When you visit our website or use our app, we automatically collect certain data about your device and usage through cookies and similar tracking technologies. This may include your IP address, browser type, device identifiers, pages or screens viewed, how long you spend on pages, and referring webpage. We use cookies and analytic tools (for example, Google Analytics) to gather this information. (See Cookies and Tracking below for more details.)

We collect personal information directly from you (for example, when you fill out a form or make a donation). In some cases, we may also receive information from third parties – for instance, if a friend makes a donation on your behalf or if we partner with a charity that provides us donor details for acknowledgment purposes. We only collect what is necessary for the purposes described in this policy.

How We Use Your Information

We use your personal information to operate, provide, and improve our services, as well as to comply with legal obligations. Specifically, we may use your information for the following purposes:

To Process Donations and Transactions: We use your information to facilitate donations you make (including processing payments and forwarding the funds to your chosen charity), to generate donation receipts or acknowledgment letters, and to notify the recipient charity of your gift (unless you choose to remain anonymous).
To Communicate with You: We use contact information (like your email and/or mailing address) to send you confirmations and receipts for your donations, updates on the causes you support, and important account or transaction notifications. If you subscribe to our newsletter or updates, we will send those communications, and you can opt out at any time.
Donor Recognition and Anonymity Requests: By default, we may share your name and contact information with the charity you donated to so they can acknowledge your donation and keep you informed about their work. However, if you request to donate anonymously, we will honor that request and not share your identifying information with the recipient charity (see Your Rights and Choices below).
Customer Service and Support: To respond to your inquiries, requests, and feedback, and to provide customer support when you contact us.
Improving and Personalizing Our Services: We may analyze how users interact with our website to troubleshoot issues, protect against fraud, and improve the user experience. This includes using data analytics to enhance our platform’s functionality and to personalize content (such as displaying your past donations or suggesting new causes you might be interested in).
Legal and Compliance: To comply with applicable laws and regulations, such as tax and charitable solicitation laws. For example, we retain donation records as required for Internal Revenue Service (IRS) compliance and financial audits. We may use and disclose personal information as necessary to respond to lawful requests by public authorities, subpoenas, or court orders, and to meet obligations under charity regulations.
Security and Fraud Prevention: To protect our donors, charities, and systems, we monitor for fraudulent activities and may use your information to verify identity, detect security incidents, and prevent misuse of our services.

We will not use your personal information for purposes that are not compatible with those listed above without notifying you and obtaining your consent if required.

How We Share Your Information

Philanthropia respects your privacy and does not sell your personal information to third parties. We share personal information only in the following circumstances, and always for the purposes described above:

Recipient Charities: When you make a donation through Philanthropia, we share the necessary donor information with the charity or nonprofit receiving your donation. Typically, this includes your name, contact information (such as email or mailing address), and donation details, so the charity can thank you, issue a tax receipt, or record the donation. You have the option to request anonymity; if you choose to donate anonymously, we will not disclose your name or contact details to the recipient charity. We will still inform the charity of the donation amount and any message or dedication, but attribute it as an “anonymous donor” or similar.
Service Providers: We use trusted third-party service providers to perform certain functions on our behalf and help us operate our services. This includes payment processors (for handling credit card or bank transactions), cloud storage and database providers, email service providers (to send confirmation emails or newsletters), analytics services, and customer support tools. These service providers are given access only to the information necessary to perform their functions, and they are contractually obligated to protect your information and use it solely for our purposes in compliance with this Policy.
Legal Compliance and Protection: We may disclose personal information if we believe it is required to comply with a law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request. This includes disclosing information to tax authorities or regulators as needed (for example, providing donation records to the IRS if required for auditing purposes). We may also share information as necessary to enforce our Terms of Service or other agreements, to protect our rights and the rights of others, to investigate fraud, or to address security or technical issues.
Organizational Transfers: In the event that Philanthropia undergoes a significant business transaction, such as a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or transfer of some or all of our assets, personal information may be transferred to the parties involved in the transaction as part of due diligence or the completion of the transaction. In such cases, we will ensure that your personal information remains protected by appropriate safeguards and that any successor entity continues to honor the commitments in this Privacy Policy.
With Your Consent: We may share your information with other third parties in circumstances where you have expressly consented to or requested such sharing. For example, if you ask us to feature your testimonial on our website or agree to participate in a joint promotion with a partner, we will share your information only with your permission.

Philanthropia does not sell, trade, or rent your personal data to third parties for their own marketing or fundraising purposes. We do not share or exchange donor personal information with other organizations, nor do we send communications to our donors on behalf of other unrelated organizations. In other words, aside from sharing your data with the specific charity you choose to support (and with our service providers as described above), we will not disclose your personal details to any outside party without your explicit consent.

Nevada Residents: While Philanthropia does not sell personal information, Nevada law (SB 220) allows consumers to opt out of the sale of their data. We honor this right by providing a way to submit opt-out requests. If you are a Nevada resident and wish to formally request that we never sell your personal information, you may contact us at hi@philanthropia.io. Once we receive such a request, we will record your preference and ensure your data is not sold, as required by Nevada law.

Data Retention

We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy or as required by law. The duration for which we keep different types of information may vary:

Donation and Financial Records: We generally retain records of donations and related personal information for at least seven (7) years. This retention period is meant to comply with IRS regulations, tax laws, and standard nonprofit record-keeping practices. Keeping these records helps us provide proof of donations (for example, if you or the charity need documentation for tax deductions) and supports our internal accounting and audits.
Account Information: If you have an account with us, we will keep your account information (like your profile and contact details) for as long as your account is active. If you decide to close your account or request deletion, we will delete or anonymize your personal information associated with your account, except for any information we are required to retain for legal or compliance reasons.
Communications and Preferences: We may keep correspondence (such as emails to customer service) and records of your preferences for a reasonable period of time, in case we need to refer to them for any follow-up or to manage your preferences over time.
Web Analytics Data: Information collected through cookies and tracking technologies may be retained for analytics purposes for a period of time (for example, aggregate site usage data might be kept for 26 months in Google Analytics by default), after which it is deleted or anonymized.

When we no longer need your personal information for the purposes identified, we will securely delete, destroy, or de-identify the data. If you request that we delete your data (see Your Rights and Choices below), we will also take reasonable steps to erase your personal information from our systems, provided we do not need to keep it for legal, accounting, or fraud-prevention purposes. Even after deletion, some residual copies may remain in backup storage for a short period, but we have processes to eventually purge those as well.

Your Privacy Rights and Choices

You have certain rights and choices regarding your personal information. Philanthropia is committed to respecting these rights and enabling you to control how your data is used and shared. To exercise any of the rights or options described below, please contact us at hi@philanthropia.io. We will respond to your request as required by applicable law (generally within 45 days for California residents’ requests, with the possibility of a reasonable extension). For your security, we may need to verify your identity (for example, by confirming information we already have on file) before fulfilling your request. Your rights and choices include:

Access Your Information: You have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to receive information about how we use and share it. This includes the categories of personal information we have collected, the sources of that information, the purposes for collecting it, and the categories of third parties with whom we have shared your information. We will provide this information in a portable and readily usable format, free of charge.
Delete Your Information: You have the right to request that we delete personal information we have collected from you. Upon your request, we will delete your personal data from our active databases and instruct our service providers to do the same, subject to certain exceptions. For example, we may retain information needed to complete a transaction you initiated, to comply with a legal obligation (such as maintaining donation records for tax purposes), or to detect security incidents and fraud. We will inform you if any such exceptions apply when responding to your request.
Opt Out of Sale of Personal Information: As noted, Philanthropia does not sell your personal information. However, you have the right to direct us not to sell your personal data should that ever change. If you are a California or Nevada resident, you can submit a request to opt out of the “sale” of your personal information (or to record your preference that your data not be sold) by contacting hi@philanthropia.io. Once we receive such a request, we will refrain from selling your data unless you later provide permission.
Donor Anonymity: If you prefer that your name and contact information not be shared with the charities you support (i.e., you wish to donate anonymously), you can indicate this preference during the donation process or by contacting us. We will honor your request for anonymity and ensure that your identifying information is withheld from the recipient organization.
Communication Preferences: If you no longer wish to receive certain communications from Philanthropia, such as our newsletter or updates about causes, you can opt out at any time. You may unsubscribe using the link provided in those emails or email us at hi@philanthropia.io with your request. Please note that even if you opt out of promotional messages, we may still send you transactional or essential communications (for example, donation receipts or important account notices).

Non-Discrimination: Philanthropia will never discriminate against you for exercising any of these privacy rights. This means we will not deny you our services, provide a different level of service, or charge you a different price or fee (if any) because you exercised your rights under applicable privacy laws. We are committed to respecting your choices and ensuring you continue to have a positive experience supporting charities through our platform.

Data Security and Breach Notification

We take the security of your personal information seriously and implement reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect it from unauthorized access, loss, misuse, or alteration. These measures include encryption of sensitive data (for example, using SSL/TLS to secure data transmitted on our site), secure data storage practices, regular security audits, and restricting access to personal data to authorized personnel who need it for their job duties. We also require our service providers to follow strong security practices.

Despite our efforts, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure. In the event of a data breach that compromises the security or privacy of your personal information, we will act promptly to contain the issue and investigate the scope. If a breach occurs, we will notify affected users as soon as possible, consistent with applicable law. Where required by law, we will provide this notification within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach (for example, certain regulations require notice to regulators within this timeframe). Notification may be given via email, postal mail, telephone, and/or by prominent posting on our website, depending on the nature of the breach and the contact information we have for you. We will also fulfill any reporting obligations, such as informing regulatory authorities or law enforcement agencies when required. Our breach notices will outline, to the extent we know, what happened, what information was involved, what we are doing to address the situation, and any steps you may need to take to protect yourself.

Third-Party Links and Services

Our website and services may contain links to third-party websites or integrations with third-party services (for example, a link to a charity’s own website, or redirecting to a payment processor’s checkout page). Please be aware that this Privacy Policy does not apply to the privacy practices of those third parties. If you choose to visit a linked site or use a third-party service, you should review the privacy policy of that site or service, as their privacy practices may differ from ours. Philanthropia is not responsible for and does not control the privacy and data practices of any third-party websites, services, or charities that are not operated by us. We provide these links and integrations for your convenience and to facilitate your donations, but it is up to you to review their policies before providing any personal information or completing transactions on those sites.

Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Philanthropia uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to enhance your experience on our site, for analytics, and for functionality. Cookies are small text files that websites place on your device to store data that can be recalled by the web server in the domain that placed the cookie. We use cookies to remember your preferences (for example, keeping you logged in or remembering your selected charities as you navigate the site), to understand how users navigate our site (via analytics cookies), and to improve our services. These technologies help us provide a smoother, more personalized experience and gather aggregate data about site traffic and interactions.

We do not currently use any cookies for third-party advertising purposes, and we do not sell information collected by cookies. Because our services are primarily directed to a U.S. audience, we do not employ an EU-style cookie consent banner at this time. By using our website, you agree to the placement of cookies and similar technologies in your browser as described in this Policy. However, we want you to have control over your online privacy. If you prefer not to accept cookies, you can adjust your web browser settings to refuse new cookies, delete existing cookies, or notify you when you receive a new cookie. Please note that if you disable or delete cookies, some features of our site may not function properly – for example, certain preferences might not be saved or you may need to log in each time you visit. (For more information on managing cookies, refer to your browser’s help documentation. Most browsers, such as Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge, allow users to control or clear their cookies through the settings menu.)

Additionally, we respect the desire for privacy regarding online tracking. However, at this time, our website does not respond to “Do Not Track” signals or similar mechanisms transmitted by web browsers. There is currently no uniform industry standard for recognizing or honoring Do Not Track signals. We will continue to monitor developments in this area and will re-evaluate our practices if a standard emerges. In the meantime, you can limit tracking by managing cookies as described above and by using browser extensions or settings that enhance privacy.

Children’s Privacy

Philanthropia’s services are generally not directed to children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without parental consent. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under 13, we will delete such information as soon as possible. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided personal information to us, please contact us so that we can take appropriate action to remove the data and ensure the child’s privacy is protected.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update or revise this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. If we make material changes to how we collect or use your personal information, we will notify you by posting a prominent notice on our website or by sending an email to the address associated with your account. The “Last Updated” date at the top of this Policy indicates when the latest changes were made. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information. Your continued use of Philanthropia’s services after any updates to this Policy will constitute your acknowledgment of the changes and agreement to be bound by the updated Policy.

Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal information, please contact us at:

Email: hi@philanthropia.io

You may also reach out to us at the above email address to exercise any of your privacy rights (such as accessing or deleting your data, or opting out of certain data uses). We are here to help and are committed to addressing your inquiries promptly and transparently.

Thank you for trusting Philanthropia with your charitable giving. We value your privacy and are dedicated to safeguarding your personal information as you help make the world a better place through your philanthropy.