Privacy Policy

Swell Fundraising, LLC (“Company”) Effective as of October 1, 2012

Websites located at www.swellfundraising.com , swell.gives, littleblackdress.gives, smartparty.org or homerunfundraising.com (the “Site(s)”) are operated by the Company (Company may hereinafter be referred to as “us”, “we”, and “our”). Company has created this privacy policy to demonstrate our firm commitment to the privacy of our visitors and customers. Company is committed to respecting your privacy and recognizing your need for appropriate protection and management of personally identifiable information you share with us (the phrases “personally identifiable information”, “PII” and “personal information” mean any information by which you, individually, can be identified, such as your name, address telephone number, etc.). The purpose of this privacy policy is to inform you when you visit our Site how we use such information, and the choices you have regarding our use of, and your ability to review and correct, your information.

 

As a valued client, donor or guest of the Site, we are committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy addresses our privacy practices relating to the general use of our Site by anyone who visits, browses or otherwise uses the Site (collectively, “You”). Before submitting information to the Site, please read this Privacy Policy. By visiting the Site, submitting information, making a donation or using any of our products or services, you acknowledge that you accept the practices and policies outlined in this Privacy Policy and consent to having your data transferred to and/or processed in the United States. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy, please do not use the Site.

1. Security

The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however.  If you have any questions about security on our Site, you can contact us at privacy@swellfundraising.com. When you enter sensitive information (such as a credit card number) on our order forms, we encrypt the transmission of that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL).

2. Safe Harbor

Company adheres to the U.S. safe harbor policy privacy principles of notice, choice, onward transfer, security, data integrity, access, and enforcement. If you have any questions regarding this policy, contact Company through the Site or write to us at Swell Fundraising, Attn: Privacy Questions, 2901 2nd Avenue South #220 Birmingham, AL 35223.

3. Modifying Your Personal Information

If your personally identifiable information changes, or if you wish to update, delete or remove it simply email our Customer Support at privacy@swellfundraising.com or by contacting us by telephone or postal mail at the contact information listed below. We will respond to your request  within 30 days.

4. Opt Out

You may “opt out” of receiving our newsletter or marketing e-mails by simply unsubscribing from the service. Additionally, you can opt out by providing us written notice identifying which communications you choose by emailing us at privacy@swellfundraising.com

5. Information Collected by the Sites

Swell software is utilized by nonprofit organizations to create online events, sell tickets, accept donations, use the peer network of guests, create social media awareness and the projection of information on screens during the event. The interactivity and transparency of donor activity is a key part of the Swell experience. In doing so, we seek to create this experience with the least personal information possible. In some cases the information we seek is necessary for the processing of donations and, in those cases, is only provided to the recipient nonprofit organization and not displayed publicly. The following information clearly states what information is collected, for what purpose and how it can be used.

 

a. Information Collected from Individuals

The following actions and information is used to generate an event ticket and a fundraising page with your name and the amount of any transactions referred by you to the Swell site. In some instances, you may choose to link your picture to the Personal Fundraising Page.

 

i. If you access a ticket (purchase or complimentary) to a Swell powered event, we collect your name, phone number and email address as well as the names, phone numbers and email addresses of your guests, if applicable;

ii. If you register as an “online guest” to create your fundraising page, we collect your name, phone number and email address.

 

1. Your Name: As a registered attendee of the event (and site), your first name and last name as entered on the site will appear in the custom URL link to your personal fundraising page and on the top header of the personal fundraising page.

2. Your Phone Number: Attendee phone numbers are provided to the nonprofit client and are not used by the Company any further, except in an instance where you might seek assistance from Swell support.

3. Your Email: The attendee email address is not displayed publicly but provided to the nonprofit host for communication pre and post event. This email may be used by Swell clients via the Swell platform to send tickets, communication and confirmation of activity.

 

 

We may obtain address information about you from third-party sources for fraud prevention or for legal compliance.

 

 

b. Passive Gathering of Information Electronically

 

1. Cookies

During the course of any visit to the Site, the pages you see, along with something called “cookies,” are downloaded to your computer. Cookies are small pieces of information that are stored by your browser on your computer’s hard drive. These cookies do not contain or collect any PII, but they do enable us to provide features such as personalization. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you usually can change your browser to limit or prevent cookies. Cookies in themselves do not personally identify the individual user, but rather the computer that is being used to access the Site. You may have the opportunity to set your computer to accept all cookies, to notify you when a cookie is issued, or to not receive cookies at any time. Different browsers may address cookies differently. If you set your browser to not accept cookies, it may result in certain personalized services not being provided to you when you use that computer.

 

2. Web Beacons

A web beacon is a transparent image file. Web beacons enable the Company to track website usage information, such as the number of times a given web page has been viewed. Web beacons are invisible to you and (unlike cookies) are not placed on your computer. They may be used in association with cookies to understand how visitors interact with the pages and content on the pages of the Site.

Web beacons also may be used to track whether you have opened an HTML email. When the email is opened, a part of the code that makes up the HTML page calls a web server to load the web beacon that then generates a record showing that the email has been viewed. Web Beacons may also recognize when the email was opened, how many times it was forwarded and which URL’s (links within the email) were clicked.

the Company does not use web beacons to collect or otherwise record any type of PII provided by or about any User.

 

3. Pixel Tags

In addition, we use “Pixel Tags”(also referred to as clear Gifs, Web beacons, or Web bugs). Pixel Tags are tiny graphic images with a unique identifier, similar in function to Cookies, that are used to track online movements of Web users. In contrast to Cookies, which are stored on a user’s computer hard drive, Pixel Tags are embedded invisibly in Web pages. Pixel Tags also allow us to send e-mail messages in a format users can read, and they tell us whether e-mails have been opened to ensure that we are sending only messages that are of interest to our users. We may use this information to reduce or eliminate messages sent to a user. We do not tie the information gathered by Pixel Tags to our Users’ personal information.

 

4. How We Respond to Do Not Track Signals

We do not currently respond to “do not track” signals or other mechanisms that might enable consumers to opt out of tracking on our Site.

 

5. Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to help analyze how users use the Site. Google Analytics uses Cookies to collect information such as how often users visit the Site, what pages they visit, and what other sites they used prior to coming to the Site. We use the information we get from Google Analytics only to improve our Site and Services. Google Analytics collects only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit the Site, rather than your name or other personally identifying information. We do not combine the information generated through the use of Google Analytics with your Personal information. Although Google Analytics plants a persistent Cookie on your web browser to identify you as a unique user the next time you visit the Site, the Cookie cannot be used by anyone but Google. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to the Site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy.

 

6. Web Data Collection

We also may automatically collect Site usage information, such as the numbers and frequency of users to the Site, pages visited and similar data. This data is used in the aggregate, that is, as a statistical measure, and not in a manner that is intended to identify you personally. Aggregate information generally is collected through the use of cookies and web beacons as discussed above. This aggregate information is provided to Swell nonprofit clients to determine the awareness generated by the online activity of their event. Swell clients may, in turn, provide this aggregate data to their event sponsors.

 

7. Third Party Hosting

Company contracts with a third party to maintain and host the Site. Therefore, any information you submit, including personal information, will be placed and stored on a computer server maintained by this third party host. The third party has agreed to implement technology and security features and strict policy guidelines to safeguard the privacy of your personal information from unauthorized access or improper use.

 

8. How We Use Information

When you provide us with your PII, we may use such information for a number of purposes, including:

o To facilitate communication between the Company and you to respond to your questions or comments related to your ticket, gift or other interaction with the software.  

o To administer your account, process donations, provide products or services to you;

o To provide a report to a Charity or an event supporting a Charity to whom you have made a donation or to a fundraiser to whom you have made a donation, supported a project or joined a team (even if you have marked the donation as non-public);

o To provide you with important functionality changes to the Site, new Swell Fundraising services and special offers from the Company and reputable third parties that we think you will find valuable;

o To enforce our agreements with you, prevent fraud and other prohibited or illegal activities, for other legally permissible purposes and generally to ensure that we comply with applicable laws;

 

If you do not want us to collect personally identifiable information about you, you can simply decide not to submit it to us.

9. A Special Notice about Children

Children (under the age of 18) are not eligible to use the Site unsupervised, and we ask that children do not submit any personal information to us. If we become aware that a child under 18 has provided us with personal information, we will delete their information immediately and terminate the child’s account. If you are under the age of 18, you may only use this Site in conjunction with, and under the supervision of, your parents or guardians.

 

10.Disclosure of Information to Third Parties

The personal information disclosed by participants of a Swell event will only be provided to and utilized by the nonprofit host. The Company may, on a limited basis, utilize the data gathered to operate the software on your behalf and applications that directly impact the guests’ experience at a fundraising event.

 

11.Compliance with Law and Fraud Protection

We may disclose any information, including, without limitation, PII, that we deem necessary, in our sole discretion and without your prior permission, to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request. We may also exchange information, including, without limitation, PII, with other companies and organizations for credit fraud protection, risk reduction and related activities or to protect the rights, property of safety of the Company, its agents, employees or affiliates or others. The Company reserves the right to disclose PII for a user who we believe is in violation of our Privacy Policy or other terms of service as posted on the Site, even without a subpoena, warrant, court order or other governmental request.

 

12.Sale or Transfer of Information

In the event of a sale, merger, liquidation, dissolution or sale or transfer of substantially all of the assets of the Company or its associated applications, personal information and/or other information collected about you from the Site may be assigned or transferred to the party acquiring all or substantially all of the equity and/or assets of the Company in order to permit the party to continue the operation of the applications. By using the Site and providing personal information to the Company, you consent to the sale and transfer of your information as described in this paragraph.

 

13. Credit Card Information

The Company does not collect, store or otherwise maintain any credit card information from individuals who make a donation through the Site. Donations, including information associated with your credit card, are processed by our partners, including Authorize.net and Stripe. 

 

a. Stripe

Stripe, based in Palo Alto, CA, is a credit card processor that allows you to access your money faster, and have it automatically transferred to your bank account on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Donations will appear on the donor’s credit card statement under the name of the non-profit to whom they contributed. All donations made through Stripe go directly from the donor to the Non-Profit’s Stripe merchant account.

 

All information associated with your use of Stripe will be handled in accordance with the terms of the Stripe Policy. When you donate through the Company and use Stripe to process your donation, you agree to the Stripe Terms of Use.

 

b. Authorize.net

We have partnered with Authorize.Net , a leading payment gateway since 1996, to accept credit cards and electronic check payments safely and securely for our customers.

The Authorize.Net Payment Gateway manages the complex routing of sensitive customer information through the electronic check and credit card processing networks. See an online payments diagram [link to http://www.authorize.net/resources/howitworksdiagram/] to see how it works.

The company adheres to strict industry standards for payment processing, including:

· 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology for secure Internet Protocol (IP) transactions.

· Industry leading encryption hardware and software methods and security protocols to protect customer information.

· Compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

 

For additional information regarding the privacy of your sensitive cardholder data, please read the Authorize.Net Privacy Policy [link to http://www.authorize.net/company/privacy/].

SwellFundraising.com and its collection of sites is registered with the Authorize.Net Verified Merchant Seal program.

 

14.Information You Publicly Post

Any PII you post publicly on the Site (“Publicly Available Content”) is available to the public without any expectation of privacy or confidentiality. Copies may remain viewable in cached and archived pages or if other users have copied or stored your Publicly Available Content even if you remove the Publicly Available Content. To request removal of your personal information from these areas of the site, contact us using the information below. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your personal information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why. The profile you create on our site will be publicly visible.

 

15.Information you Provide to Facebook and Other Social Networking Sites

The Site allow users to access Facebook to interact with friends and to share on Facebook through Wall and friends’ News Feeds. We do this currently through a third-party service. That third-party service may store some of the information as part of their provision of services to us. If you do not use Facebook or another social networking site (SNS) to log in then that third-party does not receive any data. If you are already logged into the Site and Facebook or another SNS, when you click on “Connect with Facebook,” or a similar connection on another SNS, you will be prompted to merge your profiles. If you are already logged into the Services but not logged into Facebook or another SNS that we support, when you click on “Connect with Facebook,” or a similar connection on another SNS, you will be prompted to enter your SNS credentials or to “Sign Up” for the SNS. By proceeding, you are allowing the Site to access your information and you are agreeing to the Facebook or other SNS’s Terms of Use in your use of the Services. Conversely, if you are not currently registered as a user of the Site, and you click on “Sign in” using Facebook or another SNS that we support, you will first be asked to enter your Facebook or SNS credentials and then be given the option to register for the Site. In this case, we may receive information from Facebook or another SNS to make it easier for you to create an Account on the Site and show our relevant content from your Facebook or SNS friends. Once you register on the Site and connect with Facebook or another SNS you will be able to automatically post recent activity back to Facebook or the other SNS. Any information that we collect from your Facebook or other SNS account may depend on the privacy settings you have with that SNS, so please consult the SNS’s privacy and data practices. Further, you can edit privacy settings for the reviews that appear on Facebook, or disconnect your Services activity stream by visiting the Facebook Applications Settings page.

 

16.Changes to this Policy

We may update this privacy policy to reflect changes to our information practices. Company reserves the right to modify the terms of this privacy policy at any time and in its sole discretion, by posting a change notice on this page. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices. YOUR CONTINUED USE OF THE WEBSITE FOLLOWING OUR POSTING OF A CHANGE NOTICE WILL CONSTITUTE BINDING ACCEPTANCE OF THOSE CHANGES.

 

17. Important Disclosures, Practices and Contact Information

 

a. Outbound Links

The Site may contain links to third-party websites input by Swell clients. Please be aware that the Company cannot control and is not responsible for the information collection practices of such websites, which may differ from those of the Company. We encourage you to review and understand the privacy policies of these web sites before providing any information to them.

 

b. Data Security

We maintain a variety of safeguards designed to protect your PII from unauthorized access and disclosure. For example, we use industry accepted tools and techniques to protect against unauthorized access to our systems.

 

 If you share your computer or use a computer that is accessed by the general public, remember to sign off and close your browser window when you have finished your session. This will help to ensure that others cannot access your PII.

 

c. Contacting Us

If you have any questions about the Company or the swellgives.com platform, please contact us at info@swellfundraising.com.

 

d. Users From Outside the United States

The Site is hosted in the United States and is governed by United States law. If you are visiting the Site from outside the United States, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored and processed in the United States where our servers are located and our central database is operated. The data protection and other laws of the United States and other countries might not be as comprehensive as those in your country. By using the Site, you consent to your information being transferred to our facilities and to the facilities of those third parties with whom we share it as described in this Privacy Policy.

e. No Rights of Third Parties

This Privacy Policy does not create rights enforceable by third parties.

Visibility

 

This Privacy Policy is visible and accessible at all times on a Swell-powered event site.