Effective Date: November 10, 2011

We value the trust you place in us and we are committed to safeguarding your privacy. www.debeaumont.org (the “site”) is operated by the de Beaumont Foundation and is designed to provide information on the Foundation’s history, priority issues, funding areas, and grantees to a variety of audiences including current and potential grantees, other funders, and the general public.

This Privacy Policy is designed to inform you about the information we collect and use and your options with regard to that collection and use on the site through any method. By use of this site, communications to or with us, or use of any of our services, you are agreeing to these terms. If you do not agree with any of these terms, please exit our site and do not submit information to us in any way.

What Information Do We Collect About Our Users and How Do We Use It?

There are two ways we obtain information about you: 1) you voluntarily submit it to us by completing the contact us form on our site or by submitting an online letter of inquiry or other grant application or report form on the apply page and/or through the online grants management tool or 2) we collect it from all our site users electronically to track how the site is used, where our users come from, and their preferences.

On the “Contact Us” page, we collect information you provide on our contact form. We also may collect and store information you provide to us in a letter of inquiry, grant application and report forms, and/or customer service or other communications with the Foundation. All of this information is governed by this Privacy Policy; unless it is indicated otherwise at the time the information is collected or submitted. If special terms are indicated, then those terms, not these, would apply.

This information is not shared with third parties (except those working with us to maintain or operate the site; provide certain customer services; maintain or improve our site integrity and security; maintain the users’, public’s or site’s safety; address risks; or comply with applicable law, as more fully described below.)

Some specific examples of our information management policies are set forth below:

Grant Applicants and Grantees: We collect, track, and maintain information about your account and about all communications with us, including reports of abuse received from you or about you, as well as the resolution of those reports.

Information Provided to Us by Third Parties: We may acquire (but will not share) demographic information from third-parties online or offline to better direct services and offers to you or may acquire referral e-mail and other contact information from you or others recommending our site or other services. We will use that contact information only to forward an invitation or provide the information for which the referral was made.

In addition to information you voluntarily provide to us through forms, communications and interactions with our staff, we collect certain data automatically when you access the site. We collect this using cookies and other web-tracking technologies and use this to learn about how our site is used and how to improve the user experience. This information is not linked to your account or to you, as an individual.

We may also collect information about our users for each site interaction and visit, including your IP address, your browser and available software and hardware information, whether you were referred to our site by a search engine (including the search terms used to find us) or link from another site or offline resource (such as a DVD or CD). This is used to improve our site and messaging efficiency, learn more about where our users come from, understand how our users use the site, and identify ways to improve our site.

We collect additional information from you when you send us an email, submit a form or otherwise request information from us as well as when you report abuses or problems at the site. We use this information for the purpose for which it was provided and also may track the user abuse reports, including the accuracy or inaccuracy of any abuse reports and may use this to help us determine the users who can help us identify problems or provide help in moderating and self-policing our site. This information may also be used in identifying users that violate our Terms of Service or are disruptive at the site.

Sharing Your Information

The de Beaumont Foundation will not sell or license your personally identifiable user information to third parties without your consent, except as disclosed herein. If we enter into a merger, acquisition or sale of all or a portion of our assets, or transfer (by operation of law or otherwise) the site or services provided therewith in whole or in part to any third-party, your information will be shared and transferred as part of that transaction.

We use third-party vendors to provide certain services or functions necessary to operate our site and offer and deliver products and services to you. We share personally identifiable information about our users (to the extent we have such information) only with those involved in providing services, functions, or professional advice to us or as outlined below. We share information with those third-parties and vendors to the extent necessary for them to perform their function on our behalf. All of these third-parties must agree to protect the privacy and security of our users and not to use information they receive during the course of their duties for any purpose other than for which it was provided.

We link to outside websites and services, from time to time. While we try to select appropriate sites, note that we are not responsible for the practices, content or the privacy policies employed by third party sites. Please review those before interacting with those sites.

We may also disclose your personally identifiable information as required or permitted by law, or as we believe may be necessary (as determined in our sole and absolute discretion) to protect the integrity of our site, ourselves or our affiliates, or the safety, privacy and well-being of our users, ourselves and third-party providers or members of the public including the use of and providing information to third-parties, such as:

  • To comply with valid legal process including subpoenas, court orders, or search warrants.
  • To respond to official inquiries of governmental authorities.
  • In cases involving risks to any person or other emergencies, Terms of Service violations, and to evaluate and defend against legal claims in any forum.
  • To outside auditors, legal professionals, security consultants, and regulators.
  • To prevent or manage what we, in our sole and absolute discretion, believe to be the unlawful or abusive use of our services or the site or anticipated harm to our users, the public, the site or ourselves.

Transfer of Information

We reserve the right to transfer your personal information in the event of a transfer of ownership of Foundation or the acquisition of substantially all the assets of the Foundation related to the business which collected such information, such as acquisition by or merger with another organization or upon transfer of the site. In such an event, the de Beaumont Foundation will notify users who have provided email addresses when information about those users is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

The Security of Your Information

We have systems in place to enforce the terms of this Privacy Policy and secure your data. But, no matter how careful we are, no system is 100 percent secure and we cannot guarantee that there will be no unauthorized use or access of your personal information. If we become aware of any information breach that may affect you, we will notify you promptly following our discovery thereof. Should you suspect that there is a security breach or someone is attempting to circumvent our security system, please notify [email protected].

Changes to and Questions About This Policy

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy from time to time. Before using this site, recheck this page and review the “effective date” posted on the top of the Privacy Policy in effect at that time. If it has recently changed, make sure you review it and still agree with its terms. It will apply to any interactions you have at the site and information you provide to us or at this site.

If you have questions or comments about this privacy policy, please contact us at [email protected]. But note that whether or not you have questions or comments, use of the site indicates your agreement to the terms hereof as written.