Privacy Policy

Version 2.4. Effective from 28 September 2026, updated 16 October 2026.

Introduction

National Funding Scheme ("us", "we") is a charity registered in England and Wales (1149800) and Scotland (SC045106), and a company limited by guarantee (08223187), registered at c/o 1 Golden Court, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1EU.

National Funding Scheme provides digital fundraising products and services under the DONATE brand. DONATE is the trading name of the National Funding Scheme.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use the information we collect about you lawfully, under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). This notice explains how and why we use the information you give us, online and otherwise.

What information do we collect about you?

We collect personal data to process donations, communicate with you and respond to requests. We also collect information about how our websites are used through cookies (see the Cookies Policy).

From people at the organisations we work with, we collect:

your full name, telephone number(s), email address and job title;
records of your correspondence with us; and
information you enter on our websites or share with us.

From donors and others using our services, we collect:

your full name, email address and mobile number; and
details of your donation.

We may also ask for, but you do not have to give:

details needed for Gift Aid, including your home address and taxpayer status;
age range and gender; and
information you enter on our websites or share with us.

We will never collect sensitive personal data (such as health information) without your explicit consent.

Our websites automatically collect technical information such as your IP address, browser, access times and referring website. We use it to run and improve the service and to produce general statistics.

How will we use the information about you?

To process your donation, bid, ticket or entry, including Gift Aid.
To send receipts and thank you messages.
To send you a yearly summary of your donations to help with your tax.
To share your donation with the organisation you gave to, as described below.
To provide services and information you have asked for.
To send you marketing, only where you have agreed to receive it.
For our own administration and to keep a record of your relationship with us.
To manage your communication preferences.
To produce reports and insights about donations and payments.
To comply with the law and with requests from statutory agencies.

Our legal basis for using your personal data

Contract: to process your donation, bid, ticket or entry.
Legal obligation: for example to process a Gift Aid declaration for HMRC.
Consent: to send you marketing by email or text message, from us or from an organisation you choose.
Legitimate interests: to run our charity and services, to keep accurate records, and to tell the organisation you give to who you are so it can thank you and keep accurate records of its supporters. We have balanced these interests against your rights, and you can object at any time (see "Your choices when you donate" and "Your rights").

Your choices when you donate

The organisation you give to. When you donate, the organisation you give to receives your first name, surname, email address and mobile number with your donation, so it can thank you and keep accurate records, once it has agreed to our updated terms. Until then it receives your name only. The donation page tells you this before you give. Each donation keeps its own choice: what you share with one donation is never shared with your other donations.

Donating anonymously. You can tick "Give anonymously" before you pay, or later from your donor account, from the link in your receipt email, or from the link in the text message we send after a text donation. The organisation then receives only the amount, date, campaign and Gift Aid value, and your name is not shown on public pages. You can do this for any donation, including ones made before 28 September 2026.

Marketing. The organisation you give to can only send you marketing if you tick the box that allows it. We only send you news from National Funding Scheme if you tick our box. You can withdraw either at any time.

Donations made before 28 September 2026. These keep the rules that applied when you gave: the organisation sees your name, and your email address only if you chose to share it. It never receives your mobile number for those donations.

Prizes. If you win an auction or raffle, the organisation receives the contact details it needs to deliver your prize, even if you asked to stay anonymous. Anonymous then only hides your name on public pages.

Gift Aid. Your home address and Gift Aid declaration stay with us for our claim to HMRC. We never share them with the organisation you give to.

Event tickets and team challenges

When you buy tickets to an organisation's event, or join an organisation's team challenge, we share your name, email address and mobile number with that organisation so it can send your tickets or manage your place, run the event (for example guest lists, check-in and any questions it asks you) and thank you. There is no anonymous option for tickets or challenge places. If you also make a donation at the same time, choosing to make that donation anonymous only hides your name on public pages.

If you enter guest names for other people on a ticket order, we share those names with the organisation for the same purposes.

If a challenge asks for health or emergency contact details, we only collect them with your explicit consent. We share them only with the organisation's administrators for that challenge and delete them after the event, by default 30 days after it ends.

The organisation, and National Funding Scheme, will only send you marketing if you tick the box that allows it.

The DONATE assistant

People at the organisations we work with can use the assistant in the DONATE portal, an AI tool that answers questions and drafts fundraisers for them. What they type, and what the assistant reads from their organisation's DONATE account to answer them, is sent to Anthropic, which runs the AI model for us as our processor, under contract. That can include the names and contact details of the organisation's donors when someone asks about them, but only if their portal access already shows donor details.

The assistant makes drafts. A fundraiser goes live only when a person at the organisation publishes it. Its answers can be wrong, so check what it tells you before you rely on it.

We delete each conversation within 24 hours. We keep what was asked and answered, with email addresses and phone numbers removed, for 30 days to check the assistant's quality. Where a conversation used donor details, we keep the question for 7 days and never keep the answer.

Bank statements. When an organisation uploads its bank statement in the DONATE portal, we can use the same AI provider to read the account name, sort code, account number, bank and date from it, so we can fill in the organisation's bank details for it to check and save. The statement is sent to Anthropic as our processor for this. We do not keep what it read: only the details the organisation chooses to save, and the statement itself with its other documents.

Will we share this information with others?

Apart from the organisation you give to, as described above, we do not share, sell or rent your information to third parties for marketing. Once an organisation receives your details it is responsible for them as an independent data controller, and our agreement with it limits how it may use them.

Our staff, and suppliers acting for us (for example to send messages, process payments, host our systems or run the DONATE assistant), may access your information only to provide those services, under contract and with the same level of care we apply.

We will otherwise only disclose your information where the law or a regulator requires it.

How do we protect your personal data?

We use appropriate physical, technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data, and payments are encrypted. No transmission over the internet is completely secure, but once we receive your information we use strict procedures to prevent unauthorised access.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices of websites we link to.

If your information is transferred outside the UK, we make sure it is protected by safeguards recognised under UK data protection law.

How long do we keep your data?

We keep personal data only as long as necessary for the purpose we hold it for and to meet legal, tax and regulatory requirements. We typically keep donor records for 7 years after your last donation or contact with us. Our retention policy is available on request.

If you ask us not to contact you, we keep basic details on a suppression list so we do not contact you in future.

Your rights

Under data protection law you have the right to:

be informed about how we use your personal data (this notice);
access the personal data we hold about you (we will respond within one month, free of charge, and may ask for proof of identity);
have inaccurate data corrected;
have your data erased in some cases;
restrict how we use your data in some cases;
object to us using your data on the basis of legitimate interests, including sharing it with the organisation you give to (you can do this yourself by marking a donation anonymous);
withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent; and
data portability, where we rely on consent or contract.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the details below. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Changes to this notice

We will post any changes here and update the version and effective date at the top. Where a change affects how we share your data, we will tell you on the donation page before you give.

How to contact us

Email: hello@nationalfundingscheme.org
Phone: 0333 339 5234
Post: National Funding Scheme, c/o 1 Golden Court, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1EU