When you make a donation to our service - our privacy policy

When you donate to us we need to collect some of your personal information. We’ll always collect, use and store your data responsibly, and make sure your data is protected.

The policy might change from time to time, but we’ll update this page when it does.

What information we ask for

Our national donation platform is hosted by a third party supplier called Enthuse. They collect information on our behalf to process your donation and they store it securely. We make sure the suppliers we work with follow data protection law. We manage the relationship with them and their obligations through a legally binding data processing agreement. The agreement outlines our relationship: Citizens Advice is the data controller and Enthuse is the data processor.

They’ll only use your information to do the work we’ve asked them to and only if that information is relevant to the work they’re doing. They can’t give, sell or rent your personal information to anyone else for any reason.

You can find the Enthuse privacy policy on their website. The information they collect and store on our behalf is:

data to identify you, such as your name, username or your date of birth - for example, if you make a donation
your contact details, such as email address, postal address and phone number - for example, to be able to process a donation, claim Gift Aid or if you sign up to receive communications from us
financial data, such as your bank or card details - so that they can process your donation on our behalf
marketing data, such as your preferences for how we communicate with you
your reason for donating and specific interests relating to the work of Citizens Advice - this means we can make sure our communications with you are relevant
records of your history with us, including transaction data, details of your donation

We sometimes receive donations via other third party donation platforms (e.g. Charities Aid Foundation, Charities Trust or other online donation platforms). Please refer to their privacy policies to find out how they keep your data secure.

We download the following information from the Enthuse platform (or occasionally from another third party platform) to enable us to contact you if you have asked us to keep you up-to-date with our fundraising activities or our work:

data to identify you, which includes your name, your address, your email address and phone number
Information about your donations, including the number of times you have donated to us, the donation amounts and whether you have added Gift Aid to your donation (but we do not see any financial data, such as your bank or card details)
marketing data, such as your preferences for how we communicate with you
your reason for donating and specific interests relating to the work of Citizens Advice - this means we can make sure our communications with you are relevant
records of your history with us

We do not see any of your financial data (i.e. bank or card details) relating to your donations that Enthuse processes on our behalf or that any other third party donation platform processes on our behalf. Enthuse deals with all financial processing, Gift Aid claims and any donation refunds requested by you. You can read their privacy policy on their website.

How we use your information

We’ll only use your data for the reason it was collected. For example, for:

processing information internally

deciding how we continue to communicate with you and what we send

reviewing our services and how we operate

The lawful grounds we use to process your personal data are:

contractual - if we enter into a contract with you, we’ll process information to administer that contract
legal obligations - we’ll sometimes pass on personal information to comply with our legal obligations. For example, providing tax and gift aid information to HMRC in the UK

legitimate interest - our legitimate interests enable us to meet our charitable objectives. This includes governance and operational management, publicity and income generation, administration and financial management and control

consent - we rely on consent as a legal basis to process your information when we send you marketing communications about fundraising, campaigning or events. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by emailing preferences@citizensadvice.org.uk or by clicking the unsubscribe link in any emails we send you.

Facebook and Instagram

When we run a fundraising campaign on Facebook and Instagram, we use a cookie (also known as a pixel) on a very small number of fundraising-related pages on our website to help us run the campaign effectively. We identify these pages by adding a static text box that alerts users to the fact that we are using a cookie on the page and includes a link to this privacy policy.

The cookie we use helps us to:

Make the most of our resources by delivering the content to people most likely to engage with it
Build ‘lookalike’ audiences, in order to reach more people who might be interested in the work we do
Engage with people who have shown an interest in our content previously

Please see the 'How we use cookies' section on our website for more information.

Facebook and Instagram might use the information they collect about the pages you’ve visited on our website, to serve you advertising based on this information. You can learn more about how Facebook uses cookies on their website - it includes information about how you can control how Facebook uses cookies in relation to your account.

When we share your information

We might share your information without your consent if we’re required to by law, for example:

to assist police enquiries
in response to court orders
to prevent fraud
to protect your safety or the safety of others

We sometimes share your data within our local Citizens Advice network. For example, if you have specified that your donation is for one of our local Citizens Advice offices, we will securely share the following details with the local office when we transfer your donation to them:

Your contact details, including your name, postal address, email and phone number
The amount of your donation and whether you have added Gift Aid to your donation

Storing your information

We’ll store your information for 6 years. If you tell us you don’t want us to contact you, we’ll still need to store your information for financial reasons.

We'll do all we can to maintain the security, integrity and confidentiality of your data. We'll make sure your information is handled sensitively and securely.

Contact us about your information

You can contact us at any time and ask us:

what information we've stored about you
to change or update your details
to delete your information

You can email us at preferences@citizensadvice.org.uk

If you want to make a complaint

If you're not happy with how we've handled your data, you can make a complaint.