Privacy Policy

Updated: [8/22/2022]

United Way of the Midlands (“United Way” or “we”) is committed to protecting the privacy of our donors. This policy describes how United Way of the Midlands treats information we collect about you. Generally, we use the information we collect from you to process gifts and to provide a more personalized online experience. The only time we would release personal information outside the provisions of our privacy policy is if we conclude, in good faith, that it is necessary to comply with legal requirements, to enforce our rights, or to protect United Way, you or our others. Please read the rest of this policy for more information on how we use your information. United Way of the Midlands does NOT sell, trade, or rent your personal information to others.

DONOR SATISFACTION
United Way operates under high ethical standards. We promote voluntary giving. If you feel you were coerced into making a contribution, please contact our office for a confidential refund at 803.733.5400.

WHAT INFORMATION DOES UNITED WAY COLLECT? HOW DO WE USE IT?
We collect the following types of information about you:

  • Personal Information. This is information that directly or indirectly identifies you, such as your name, email address, or other identifying information about you, or that would, when combined with other information you provide or that is broadly available, be likely to identify you.
  • Other Information. Other Information is information that is not Personal Information, that is, by itself, it does not individually identify you, such as browser type, operating system, technical data, and usage. We may link together different types of Other Information or link Other Information to Personal Information.

The amount and type of information that we gather depends on the nature of the interaction. For example, we may collect information in the following ways:

  • When you pledge, we need to know your name, e-mail address, mailing address, credit card number, the card's expiration date and the security code on the back of the card. This allows us to verify and process your credit card and fulfill your pledge.
  • When you join our email list, we need only your name, e-mail address and zip code.
  • PCI Compliance: Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of requirements designed to ensure that all companies that process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment.  United Way of the Midlands and our credit card processing vendors all meet these standards.

We only collect such information insofar as is legal and appropriate. If you do not wish for us to collect any information about you, you can simply not utilize our website or otherwise supply Personal Information. Your choice not to provide information may, however, prevent you from using our site.

We collect this information from you in the following ways:

  • Information You Give Us. When you make a pledge or join our mailing list, we will ask that you provide us with Personal Information. 
  • Information We Get from Your Use of our Website or Applications. We may collect information about your use of our website or applications (together the “Site”). This information includes:
    • Log information. When you use the Site, we may automatically collect and store certain information in server logs. This may include, for example:
      • details of how you used our Site.
      • internet protocol address.
      • device event information such as crashes, system activity, hardware settings, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and referral URL.
      • cookies that may uniquely identify your browser or your account.

In addition, our Site may utilize “cookies” and other tracking technologies like pixel tags and web beacons (often called “smart cookies”) to improve the functionality of the Site. Cookies are text files that are sent by servers to web browsers and stored on your computer. They tell us which parts of the Site you’ve visited, for various reasons, for example, so we can alert you to software compatibility issues and save your preferences for future visits to the Site. Web beacons and pixel tags are images embedded in a webpage or e-mail for the purpose of measuring and analyzing usage and activity. The Site, or third party service providers acting on our behalf, may use web beacons and pixel tags to help us analyze usage and improve our functionality. Some cookies and other technologies may serve to recall Personal Information  previously provided by a user.

We also use information collected from cookies and other technologies to improve your user experience and the overall quality of our services. We use cookies to help us identify and track visitors, their usage of the Site, and their access preferences. We may use your Personal Information to see which web pages you visit at our Site, which websites you visited before coming to our Site, and where you go after you leave our Site. We can then develop statistics that help us understand how our visitors use our Sites and how to improve them. Visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using browsing the Site; provided, however, that we disclaim, and you hereby waive, any claim or liability that may arise due to your partial or incomplete access to the content of any of the Site as a result thereof.

We also may use cookies provided by Google Analytics or other third parties to help us measure how visitors use the Site. The information collected is used for a variety of purposes, including, but not limited to, site traffic reporting, unique visitor counts, and content optimization. Although Google Analytics logs the information coming from the Site on our behalf, we control how the data may and may not be used. You can opt-out of this Site analysis tool by clicking: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

We also use your Personal Information for the following purposes, or may use it for these purposes in the future:

  • To respond to questions that you may have.
  • To process donations that you make.
  • If you submit a resume to work with us, we may use it for hiring decisions and retain the resume or information in it for our own records or in order to contact you later.
  • To inform you of updates that may be of interest to you.
  • To provide administrative notices or communications.
  • To manage your participation in events and other promotions where you have signed up for such events and promotions. 
  • To operate, evaluate and improve our services and our Site.
  • To analyze and enhance our fundraising communications and strategies.
  • To analyze trends and statistics regarding visitors’ use of our Site.
  • To protect against and prevent fraud, unauthorized transactions, claims and other liabilities.
  • To improve our customer service.
  • To respond to and support users.
  • To comply with all applicable legal requirements.

We also may use the information we obtain about you in other ways for which we provide notice at the time of collection. We may ask for your consent before using information for a purpose other than those set out in this Privacy Policy.

WILL UNITED WAY OF THE MIDLANDS DISCLOSE THE INFORMATION IT COLLECTS TO OUTSIDE PARTIES?
As part of the use of your information for the above purposes, we may disclose information to our vendors and other contractors who perform various functions on our behalf. We take steps to ensure these third parties safeguard your Personal Information against improper disclosure and in accordance with the law. 

We also may provide Personal Information to our affiliates or other trusted businesses or persons who provide services to you or us, based on our instructions and in compliance with our Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.

If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, asset sale, joint venture or other, similar transaction, your information may be transferred to, or accessed by, a successor or other entity and may be subject to that entity’s privacy policies, which may vary from this Privacy Policy. 

We also may provide information about you to other third parties with your consent or for one of the purposes above, e.g., following a subpoena or other legal process or to a regulatory agency in order to protect against fraud or investigate a criminal or civil matter or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect our rights and interests, third parties, or the public at large.
In summary we're committed to protecting your privacy. We do not sell, trade, or rent your Personal Information to others.

HOW DOES UNITED WAY PROTECT CUSTOMER INFORMATION?
When you make a pledge or access your account information, we offer the use of a secure server. The Transport Security Layer (TSL) protocol is used to encrypt all information you input before it is sent to us. Furthermore, we take reasonable steps to protect customer data against unauthorized access. We only disclose Personal Information to employees, contractors, agents and affiliated organizations that need to know that information in order to process it on our behalf or to provide services. Some of those employees, contractors, agents and affiliated organizations may be located outside of your state, province or country. By using our Site or providing us information, you consent to the transfer of such information to them.

HOW DO I KNOW THAT A DONATION THROUGH THE SITE IS SAFE?
If you choose a direct payment gateway to complete your purchase, then our vendor (e.g. PayPal, Stripe) stores your credit card data. Please view their terms of service agreements and privacy information to see their personal data handling policies.

SECURITY STATEMENT
We provide our visitors with Internet electronic commerce security software. All transactions on our web site using a secure browser are encrypted using Transport Layer Security (TLS) and 256-bit AES-based encryption to protect your personal and credit card information from the moment you sign up as a member and throughout any transaction that involves the transfer of credit card information online. TLS technology only works when you have a secure browser. To verify whether your browser is secure, look for the specific security lock or key icon at the bottom of the page. This icon indicates the browser is talking to our servers with secure, encrypted computer language. If you have any concerns, e-mail us or use one of the alternative giving options such as pledging by telephone.

WHAT IF I DON'T WANT TO USE MY CREDIT CARD THROUGH THE SITE?
No problem. Simply call us at 803-733-5400 and we would be happy to take your pledge over the phone.

THIRD PARTY LINKS
Our Site may contain links to webpages or tools operated by parties other than United Way. We do not control such websites or tools and are not responsible for their contents or the privacy policies or other practices of such websites or service providers. Our inclusion of a link to an outside website or tool does not imply any endorsement of the material on such website or tool or any association with its operators. You should take precautions to ensure that whatever links you select or software you download (whether from this Site or other websites) is free of such items as viruses, worms, trojan horses, defects and other items of a destructive nature. Other websites and services may have their own privacy policies, which you will be subject to upon accessing the third party’s website. We strongly recommend you review the third party’s terms of service and policies.

CHILDREN
The Site is not intended for use by children. We do not intentionally gather Personal Information about individuals who are under the age of 13. If a child has provided us with Personal Information, a parent or guardian of that child may contact us to have the information deleted from our records. If you believe that we might have any information from a child under age 13, please contact us at 803.733.5400. If we learn that we have inadvertently collected the Personal Information of a child under 13, or equivalent minimum age depending on jurisdiction, we will take steps to delete the information as soon as possible. 

DO NOT TRACK
Some browsers have a "Do Not Track" feature that lets you tell websites and online services that you do not want to have your online activities tracked. Such browser features and industry standards are not uniform, so our websites and online services do not respond to those signals.

YOUR CONSENT
By using our Site, you consent to the collection and use of Personal Information and other information by United Way. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page and update the Effective Date above so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it. 

WHO CAN I CONTACT IF I HAVE FURTHER QUESTIONS?
Joey Wallace
1818 Blanding Street
Columbia, SC 29201
jwallace@uway.org