Privacy notice
This privacy notice tells you what to expect when the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FoR) collects personal information.
We are committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.
We may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes.
Basic principles
We support your right to privacy and will not use any information we hold about you in ways you are unhappy with (unless we have a legal obligation so to do). We will not sell your information to anyone, will not share it without your permission and will not hold it longer than needed.
How do we store your data?
We hold members’ information on a password-protected database in Microsoft Access. This is backed up on Microsoft OneDrive. Mailing lists for publications or for regional mailing lists are exported to spreadsheets in Microsoft Excel.
Why do we hold your information?
We mainly hold your information so we can contact you. Some things we need to do, like tell our members about our Annual General Meeting. Other things we want to do, like tell you about the work we do, invite you to our events, put you in touch with other FoR members or ask you for money – but we won’t do any of these things without your permission.
Who do we hold information about?
We hold information about our members (someone who chooses to join FoR – see here for more details) and our supporters (someone who doesn’t join FoR but still wants to support our work – usually financially). This information comprises:
- Names
- Addresses and other contact details
- Religious denomination
- Your communications preferences (what contact you want to have with us)
How long do we hold information?
even if you stop donating to FoR, your membership will not lapse unless you tell us that you’d no longer like to be a member. Unless you tell us otherwise, after joining FoR you will always be considered a member of the fellowship and we will hold a record for you on our database.
Some information about members, specifically their name and a minimum of contact details so that we can clearly identify them (usually just address), we will keep until after their death so that we can add newly deceased members to our Roll of Honour, which recognises and celebrates past members of FoR. We will check if you are happy for us to do this (obviously before your death).
Why do we ask for the religious affiliation of members?
Religious or philosophical beliefs are considered ‘sensitive personal data’ in UK and EU legislation (also referred to as ‘special category data’). We ask for this information in order to help us prepare material that is relevant for the beliefs and practices of our members, to inform you about relevant denominational peace fellowships, and potentially to invite you to join networks with other FoR members of the same denomination (where there is no denominational peace fellowship). We will also use this information in aggregate to identify which Christian denominations we are successful or unsuccessful in engaging.
For Methodists, we have a system of automatic joint membership, where Methodist members of FoR also become members of the Methodist Peace Fellowship (MPF) at no extra cost, and vice versa. Please let us know if this applies to you but you don’t want to be a member of the MPF.
Who sees my data?
Any staff or volunteers whose role requires them to contact you or see donation information, plus any specific contractors we hire to carry out a service e.g. our annual financial audit – an external accountant will be able to see the information on your record. Data is anonymised where possible, e.g. if only the location needs to be used to map out clusters of members.
Information about Gift Aid is shared with HM Revenue and Customs, to enable the processing of this. If you are supporting FoR with direct debits or standing orders, information to process this will be shared with our banks. Charities Aid Foundation donations are also shared with our banks.
Contact information we hold about Methodists who are also members of MPF will be shared with MPF, and their information is shared with us. This happens annually, to ensure that our databases hold the same, accurate information. (In the past some members have told one of our organisations about address changes, for example, but not the other.)
We also need to send your contact information to Holywell Press, the company that prints and posts PeaceLinks, and they sometimes pass the addresses on to a local mailing house on occasions when they can’t post it out themselves. This is in the form of a Microsoft Excel mailing list and is used by them only for the purposes of printing address labels on letters or envelopes.
We use Mailchimp to send out e-news, so your email address and some minimal data on how often you read the newsletter is stored on Mailchimp’s computers.
Beyond that, we do not share personal data with anyone else, unless required to do so by law.
How can I see my data?
Ask us! If you request to see what information we hold about you (officially called a Subject Access Request) we will endeavour to find and share with you any information we hold about you. If you want us to delete some or all of the data we hold about you, please ask. We will usually comply, and in situations where we believe there are legitimate reasons to retain some information, we will discuss this with you before taking action.
If I’m unsatisfied with what you do on data protection, where do I go?
In the first instance, please contact the chair of trustees via chair@ for .org .uk. If you are not satisfied with their response, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office via https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ or phone 0303 123 1113.
