Privacy notice

Compassion Ireland is a leading children’s charity, registered in the Republic of Ireland (CHY19426) and also a company limited by guarantee (493955).

This Privacy Notice explains what to expect when Compassion Ireland collects and uses your personal information. We encourage you to read this notice carefully and if you’d like to learn more about our data protection and privacy policies or get further clarification, please contact our friendly team and we will be happy to assist.

Address: Data Protection Lead, Compassion Ireland, Suite 3 Eden Gate – Centre, Delgany, Co. Wicklow, Ireland

Phone: 01 513 3719 or Email: info@compassion.ie

Compassion Ireland is committed to respecting your privacy and ensuring the personal information you have entrusted to us is held securely and processed in accordance with all applicable data protection and privacy laws.

Select the links to read more:

• How we collect personal information
• The personal information we collect
• Why we collect your personal information
• The legal basis for processing your personal information
• Marketing permissions
• Sponsorship rate
• Who we share your information with
• How long we keep your data
• Your information rights and choices
• Reporting concerns or compliments
• Changes to this privacy notice
• Cookies

HOW WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION

We collect personal information in the following ways:

Directly from you when you:

• Make the generous decision to become a sponsor to bring hope to a child living in extreme poverty;
• Make a donation;
• Register for a myCompassion account;
• Visit our website. Please see our Cookies section for more information;
• Sign up to join and become part of our incredible family of volunteers;
• Register to take part in our exciting challenges, free interactive events or to visit our Compassion projects overseas;
• Request for resources to share about Compassion;
• Contact us with an enquiry;
• Complete a survey;
• Are a church leader and/or have a key role in a church working in partnership with Compassion Ireland;
• Act as a Compassion Ambassador advocating for children in poverty;
• Register to host a Compassion event;
• Apply for a job to join our great team.

From other sources:

• When you register to sponsor a child through our global Compassion partners, and you live in the Republic of Ireland, the administration of your sponsorship experience will be processed by Compassion UK, which is an affiliate of Compassion Ireland.

The personal information we collect

• Personal identifiers such as your title, name and year of birth;
• Contact details including postal address, Eircode, email and telephone number;
• Financial information such as your bank details;
• Personal Public Service (PPS) Number;
• The event location where you registered to sponsor a child;
• Family, spouse or friends, when you are sponsoring jointly as part of a supporter group;
• Letters you write to your sponsored child;
• Records of your contact with us.

Special categories data

Under data protection law, some personal information is recognised as ‘special categories data’. This includes, but is not limited to, information which reveals your religious beliefs, health issues, race or ethnic origin.

Compassion Ireland is a Christ-centred organisation committed to preserving its Christian ethos. Where necessary and consented to, we may collect details about your church affiliations and personal faith.

Additionally, we collect details about any health concerns or disability to make the necessary arrangements for travel overseas, participation in a Compassion Challenge or where you have disclosed this, so we can meet any additional customer service requirements.

We also receive prayer requests and the information may reveal information about your health. As a Compassion family, we share and pray for these needs at our internal group prayer sessions.

Compassion Ireland will always treat any special categories data we process with greater care and process the information in accordance with the all applicable data protection laws.

WHY WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

• For the administration of the child sponsorship programme and where relevant, linking your sponsorship to a Compassion Ireland church partnership.
• The benefits of becoming a sponsor include; sending you information about your sponsored child; their registered project; other relevant life events; child letters; responding to your queries and acknowledging the gifts you give. We will also send you notifications about your sponsored child’s birthday so that you can send a birthday card and/or gift for your child. During the festive season, we issue a reminder to send a Christmas card so that it can be hand-delivered in time. There are instances when a sponsored child departs the programme for a number of reasons. We will promptly notify you and (in almost all circumstances) give you the opportunity to write a final letter. We will also offer you another child to continue your sponsorship commitment with. Unless we hear back from you, we will automatically link you with another child within one month of your sponsored child departing. If we are unable to contact you, your donations will be allocated to our Unsponsored Child Fund which is used to support children waiting for a sponsor. Please note that once allocated, the funds are non-refundable. 
• To process the monthly sponsorship payment and any other donations.
• To reclaim tax relief on donations, if applicable.
• To verify that you are over 18 and if not, obtain permission from your parent/guardian to process your information or accept any regular donations.
• To enable us to take greater care when engaging with our older supporters.
• To provide online access to information about your sponsored child and the opportunity to write and receive letters electronically.
• When you visit our website, we may gather information about which pages you visit to help us improve and provide you with the best service.
• To determine and improve the effectiveness of our website and marketing campaigns.
• To deliver interactive Compassion Experience events.
• To organise and coordinate Compassion Challenges such as running, cycling and mountain biking.
• To create and steward effective partnerships with Churches and with Compassion Ambassadors.
• To keep you informed about our work. Please see more details in the Marketing Permissions section.
• To manage and coordinate our volunteers.
• For compliance with employment law and other statutory requirements.

THE LEGAL BASIS FOR PROCESSING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Compassion Ireland will rely on the following legal bases to process your personal information:

1. Legitimate Interest

We will process your information for a purpose you would reasonably expect. We will have pre-determined that it is necessary to process your information for this purpose and balanced this with your rights and interests. For example, when you become a sponsor, we use your name and contact details to administrate the sponsorship experience.

2. Consent

We give you the choice and control over our processing activities where relevant. For example, we ask for your permission to send you marketing information by email or text.

3. Contract

If you have a contract with Compassion Ireland for example as an employee or you haven’t got a contract but need to provide your information as a first step (e.g. apply for a job with us) we rely on the legal basis that the processing is necessary for the performance of a contract.

4. Legal Obligation

In some cases, we are required to process your personal information where there is a legal requirement.

MARKETING PERMISSIONS

We love sharing news about how your support is changing the lives of children, families and communities in the name of Jesus. This includes sending you information about our work, news, appeals, campaigns, events, information on volunteering and prayer requests.

Email and text marketing:
We will ask for your permission to contact you by email or text for marketing purposes.

Postal marketing:
From time to time we may send you information about our work unless you have told us you would prefer not to receive this information by post.

Telephone marketing:
We may call to update you on the vital work we are doing. If your number is listed on the National Directory Database (NDD) Opt-Out Register, we will only make marketing calls to you if you have given us permission to do so.

Compassion Ireland is committed to respecting your choice to receive marketing information. You can update your permission and contact preferences at any time by:

• Logging onto your myCompassion account
• Calling our friendly team on 01 513 3719
• Emailing info@compassion.ie
• Clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link included in each email communication we send

FUNDRAISING

Our work would not be possible without the commitment of our supporters as partners in our ministry, who have taken a stand against child poverty.

Depending on the age of the child at the start of the sponsorship, they will graduate from the Compassion programme aged 18-22 years depending on their personal situation and where they live. Most sponsors support their sponsored child for the full length of the programme. However, we understand that circumstances can change for both the sponsor and the child. To help us learn more about our supporters and their unique sponsorship journey, we analyse information about your interactions with us to better understand your interest and ability to support a child for the full length of the sponsorship programme, accept to sponsor another child should your sponsored child depart from the programme or your capacity to sponsor additional children.

Important note:

• You can contact us at any time to opt-out of your personal information being processed in this way by emailing info@compassion.ie or calling us on 01 513 3719.

SPONSORSHIP RATE

At Compassion Ireland, we are passionate about ensuring we are good stewards of the resources God has given us. To help us meet the rising costs of the programme, Compassion Ireland may increase the child sponsorship rate after completing intensive scrutiny, to ensure that we are making a difference in the lives of the children we serve. We will notify you of any changes to the sponsorship rate before processing.

WHO WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION WITH

Compassion Ireland is a global partner of Compassion International which works in 29 countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA). Additionally, Compassion Ireland is an affiliate of Compassion UK which administrates the sponsorship service for Irish supporters. We will only share personal information which is either consented to, necessary to fulfil the sponsorship experience or to coordinate visits to our overseas child development programmes. Compassion International is committed to ensuring that its overseas national offices have adequate levels of data protection safeguards when processing your personal information.

We may also share your personal information with trusted suppliers where it is necessary to provide products you have requested from us (such as child letters) or where they are contracted to develop or maintain our systems.

We monitor information security compliance and have written contracts which obligate our partners or suppliers to process your personal information only on our instructions and in accordance with applicable data protection and privacy laws.

Compassion Ireland and any of its affiliate entities may be under duty to disclose your personal information where required in order to comply with any legal obligation.

HOW LONG WE KEEP YOUR DATA

Compassion Ireland will only keep your personal information for as long as it is required and in accordance with statutory requirements. For example, the Office of the Revenue Commissioners requires that we keep the annual or enduring certificates completed by our donors, for the number of years covered by the certificate for tax relief purposes. Where the information is no longer required, we will ensure that it is disposed of in a secure manner.

If you have indicated that you do not wish to hear from us in the future, we will keep the minimum information necessary to ensure we avoid contacting you any further.

YOUR INFORMATION RIGHTS AND CHOICES

Under data protection law, you have the right:

• To request to obtain copies of the personal information Compassion Ireland holds about you. You can make a request verbally or in writing. If you make you request verbally, we will ask that you also follow up in writing so that we can have a record of your request.
• To correct or update your personal information processed by Compassion Ireland which you think is inaccurate or incomplete.
• To ask Compassion Ireland to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
• To ask Compassion Ireland to restrict or limit the way we use your personal information.
• To object to the use of your personal information in certain circumstances where Compassion Ireland has no legitimate reason for continued use.
• To object to the use of your personal information for marketing purposes.
• To ask Compassion Ireland to transfer the information you have given us from one organisation to another or give it to you.

The e-Privacy Regulations 2011 gives you the right:

• To choose whether or not to receive marketing communication from us by email, text or telephone. Please see the Marketing Permissions section for more information about how to change or update your contact permissions and preferences.
• To know about the cookies Compassion Ireland uses, so that you can decide whether to give us permission to store a cookie on your device. Please see the Cookies section for more information.

For more information about your information rights visit www.dataprotection.ie

Reporting concerns or compliments

COOKIES

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. Compassion Ireland uses cookies to enable our website to function effectively, to improve your experience and to determine and improve the effectiveness of our website and marketing campaigns.

Here is a brief overview of the types of cookies we use on the Compassion Ireland website, which consist of four categories:

• CMS cookies – our Compassion Ireland website is created in a CMS (Content Management System) called WordPress, which places a small number of standard WordPress cookies on your computer as you use it. Other Compassion websites (for example, Compassion Challenges, Compassion Experience, Compassion Explorers) are created in different CMS systems and they can create cookies too. Additional cookies will be placed on your computer if you are an editor on one or more of these CMS systems (for example if you are a Compassion Ireland staff member or an IT contractor).
• Cookies to improve your experience – we use a small number of cookies on our website to help you get the best experience. For example, we place a cookie on your computer when you first log-in to myCompassion, to save you logging in the future. This cookie is removed when you log out of myCompassion. Similarly, the first time you load the Compassion Ireland homepage, you will see a notice at top of the page about cookies. We place a cookie on your computer when you press ‘X’, so that you don’t see this notice in future. We also embed YouTube and Vimeo films on our website regularly. We are unable to prevent these sites, or external domains, from collecting information on your usage of this embedded content. If you are not logged in to these external services then they will not know who you are but are likely to gather anonymous usage information for example, number of views, plays, loads etc.
• Analytics – Examples include Google Analytics or Crazy Egg. Google Analytics cookies collect information about how visitors use a website and help us to continually improve our blog. For instance, which pages visitors go to most often and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies don’t collect information that identifies you. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. Compassion UK uses this data to help us to understand: which pages people visit on the site, which internet browsers are being used, what is popular on our website, which pages on the website are visited before people donate or sponsor a child. Crazy Egg is a website design tool we use to measure the way visitors to our site interact with specific pages. We use cookies to see where users click on the page so that we can make it easier for our supporters to find the information they are looking for.
• Paid advertising (Google, Facebook and Bing) – we use cookies from trusted third parties to measure the effectiveness of paid advertising to ensure the money we spend is used effectively. They also enable us to either service advertisements to or exclude people who have visited our websites. Cookies from Google, Bing and Facebook allow us to track traffic to our website to tell us if our marketing campaigns are successful, and ensure we are spending our advertising budgets as efficiently as possible.

How to manage your cookie settings

Many web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Google Chrome or Safari, will allow some control over cookies through their settings. To manage your cookie settings, please refer to your browser software. For more information about cookies and how to delete them, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org