Bristol & Weston Hospitals Charity is the official charity for our 10 hospitals across Bristol and Weston. 

We promise to respect any personal data you share with us and keep it safe. We aim to be clear when we are collecting your data and not do anything with your data that you would not reasonably expect.  

As the local charity supporting patients at Bristol and Weston hospitals, our mission is to make a real difference to patients, their families and the staff who treat them. We fundraise to create welcoming environments, support staff training and development and provide state of the art equipment and fund innovative research. Each year we support projects that go above and beyond what the NHS can provide.

If you have any questions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us on [email protected] or on 0117 927 7120.

 

Contents

 Overview

 The type of data we collect

 Data analysis, wealth screening and targeting communications 

 Direct marketing 

 Sharing your story

 Children's data

 How we keep your data safe and who has access to it

 Keeping your information up to date

 Changes to this policy

 

OVERVIEW

Bristol & Weston Hospitals Charity promises to respect any personal data you share with us and keep it safe.

We aim to be clear when we are collecting your data and not do anything with your data that you would not reasonably expect.  

Developing a better understanding of our supporters through their personal data allows us to make better decisions, fundraise more efficiently and, ultimately helps us to provide more support for the Bristol city centre and Weston hospitals. Please see the Data Analysis, Wealth Screening and Targeting Communications section below for more information.

We will only send marketing communications to you via email, SMS and phone if you have explicitly stated you are happy for us to do so.

We believe there is limited impact on the rights, freedoms and expectations of our donors and supporters. Supporters and donors are able to easily exercise their right to object to direct marketing, by emailing us on [email protected] or calling us on 0117 927 7120.        

If you would like to receive such communications but have not opted in please contact us on [email protected] or 0117 927 7120.

The type and quantity of information we collect and how we use it depends on why we have asked you to provide it.  We will only collect data we need including data that will help us improve our services. 

 

THE TYPE OF DATA WE COLLECT

If you are kind enough to support us, for example, by making a donation, volunteering, registering to fundraise, signing up for an event or buying something from our shop, we will usually collect the following information:

• Your name.
• Your contact details (postal and email addresses, landline and mobile telephone numbers).
• Your communication preferences to ensure you get the information you want, when and how you want it.
• Your date of birth to enable us to accurately identify records.  It is also used, with other data, if access to personal information is requested.
• Your bank or credit card details for donations. These details are destroyed once the transaction has taken place. All online financial transactions will be encrypted using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer).
• If you are taking part in a high risk event we may also ask for sensitive health information, passport details, next of kin, insurance details.

In some instances we may ask for addition information which is not mandatory, however, it will help us improve our service to you and our other supporters:

• If you are comfortable telling us, we would really like to know why you have decided to donate to us.
• In what ways you would consider supporting the hospitals via Bristol & Weston Hospitals Charity.
• If you have previously had contact with us we would really like to know how you feel about the level of service you received from Bristol & Weston Hospitals Charity.

Once you have provided your information we will fulfil your requests in the following ways:

• Contact you in the way you have requested.
• Provide you with the information on our work and activities, services or products or information you have requested, where you have consented to being contacted.
• Send information, updates and appeals that we feel may be of interest to you, where you have consented to being contacted.
• Administer your donation or support your fundraising activities, including processing Gift Aid.
• Keep a record of your relationship with us.
• To contact you where you have been identified as a contact person for an organisation, such as a school (if we obtain your contact details in this way, we will only use them to contact you in your capacity as a representative of that organisation).
• For internal record keeping relating to any donations, feedback or complaints.
• Understand how we can improve our services, products or information and communication with you.
• To invite you to participate in voluntary surveys or research.
• If you enter your details onto one of our online forms, and you do not ‘send’ or ‘submit’ the form, we may contact you to see if we can help with any problems you may be experiencing with the form or our website.
• We may also use your personal information to detect and reduce fraud and credit risk.
• Where it is required or authorised by law. 

In our Supporter Promise, we pledge to make it clear and easy for you to choose how you hear from us. If you do not wish us to use your personal data for the purposes as outlined above, please tick the relevant box on the form on which we collect your data.  Alternatively, you can email us on [email protected] or call us on 0117 927 7120.

You can also update or change any of your communication preferences at any time including telling us that you do not want us to contact you by various types of communication by:

• Indicating that you do not wish to receive email communication by clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link at the end of our e-newsletters.
• Asking us to stop sending you marketing texts by sending us an "opt-out" text message, following the instructions we provide you in our initial text; or Contacting us on [email protected] or call us on 0117 927 7120.

 

DATA ANALYSIS, WEALTH SCREENING AND TARGETING COMMUNICATIONS

The Bristol Royal Infirmary, the first hospital in Bristol, was founded in 1735 with the help of philanthropic donations. Philanthropy continues to have a significant impact on patient care and remains crucial to providing a better patient experience than the NHS can provide alone.

To help continue the tradition of philanthropic support of the hospitals, we may gather publicly available personal information about our supporters who we think can give us a major donation as they have been referred to us by existing major donors, key charity or hospital staff or have already given a £500/annum or more.  We do this to understand our supporters so we can focus our conversations with you about fundraising in the most effective way. 

We may gather information from publicly available sources, for example, Companies House and the Electoral Register.  We sometimes use the internet to find out about your interests and causes you support, membership of clubs and associations, average house value in your area, typical earnings in a given sector in order to better understand your interests and preferences so we can contact you with the most relevant communications.  We may carry out wealth screening, a process which uses trusted third-party partners to automate some of this work.  They may also use major industry directories, newspapers and journals.

This process helps us to make appropriate requests to those who may be able and willing to give more than they already do.  Importantly, it enables us to raise more funds, sooner, and more cost-effectively, than we otherwise would. We therefore believe that using your personal information in this way is necessary for our legitimate interest of efficiently raising income to support the hospitals.  Although there will be some impact on your rights, freedoms and expectations we do not consider it will cause undue harm because we have informed you of what we would do, and why.  Targeting our resources effectively and efficiently is an issue donors consistently tell us is a key priority for them.

We’d really like to know more about you and may send you a questionnaire or ask to come and meet you.

Due Diligence

We also use publicly available sources to carry out due diligence on donors in line with the charity’s Gift Acceptance and Anti-Money Laundering to meet money laundering regulations.

 

DIRECT MARKETING

With your consent, we will contact you to let you know about the impact we are making and to ask for donations or other support. We make it easy for you to tell us how you want us to communicate, in a way that suits you. Our forms have clear communication preference questions and we include information on how to change your preferences (e.g. opt out) on each piece of marketing we send you. 

We also have a Supporter Survey which we may send you as a way of finding out your communication preferences. 

If you don’t want to hear from us any more, please just let us know and we will update your records and we will no longer contact you.  You can email [email protected], telephone us on 0117 927 7120 or complete a form we may have sent you.

We have not, and will not sell or share personal details with third parties for their own marketing purposes.

If we run an event in partnership with another organisation, your details may need to be shared, for example the Great Weston Ride cycle series. We will be very clear about what will happen to your data when you register.

We only share data where we are required by law or with carefully selected partners who do work for us, for example, mailing companies who send out large mailings for us because we cannot do ourselves. All our partners are required by their contract with us to treat your data as carefully as we would, to only use it as instructed, and to allow us to check that they do this.

 

SHARING YOUR STORY

Some people choose to tell us about their experiences with the Bristol city centre and Weston hospitals to help further our work in supporting the hospitals. This is likely to include them sharing sensitive information related to their health and family life in addition to their biographical and contact information. We use some of the information provided, including gender, ethnicity or the type of illness people have experienced to develop written case studies to use in our fundraising.

If we have the explicit and informed consent of the individuals, or their parent or guardian if they are under 18, this information is likely to be made public by us at events, in materials promoting our fundraising work, or in documents such as our annual report. 

 

CHILDREN'S DATA

We sometimes collect and manage information from children, and manage it in a way which is appropriate to the age of the child.  Information is usually collected when children attend our events or fundraise for us. But it can also be sensitive personal data about children who are featured in our case studies.

We will always seek explicit consent from a parent or guardian before collecting information about children.  Our events have specific rules about whether children can participate, and we make sure advertising for those events is age appropriate.

 

HOW WE KEEP YOUR DATA SAFE AND WHO HAS ACCESS TO IT

We ensure that there are appropriate technical controls in place to protect your personal details.  For example our online forms are always encrypted and our network is protected and routinely monitored. 

We undertake regular reviews of who has access to information that we hold to ensure that your information is only accessible by appropriately trained staff, volunteers and contractors.

We use external companies to collect or process personal data on our behalf, for example, when we send out a large mailing like our newsletter Reach or our Christmas appeal. We do comprehensive checks on these companies before we work with them, and put a contract in place that sets out our expectations and requirements, especially regarding how they manage the personal data we have shared.  

Some of our suppliers may run their operations outside the European Economic Area (EEA). Although companies may not be subject to same data protection laws as companies based in the UK, we will take steps to make sure they provide an adequate level of protection in accordance with UK data protection law. By submitting your personal information to us you agree to the transfer, storing or processing at a location outside the EEA.

We may need to disclose your details if required to the police, regulatory bodies or legal advisors.

We will only ever share your data in other circumstances if we have your explicit and informed consent.

 

KEEPING YOUR INFORMATION UP TO DATE

Where possible we use publicly available sources to keep your records up to date, for example, the Post Office’s National Change of Address database and information provided to us by other organisations as described above. We really appreciate it if you let us know if your contact details change.

You have a right to ask us to stop processing your personal data, and if it is not necessary for the purpose you provided it to us for (e.g. processing your donation or registering you for an event) we will do so immediately. To exercise your right to be forgotten, get in touch with us at [email protected] or submit a right to be forgotten request form. 

You have a right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you.  If there are any discrepancies in the information we provide, please let us know and we will correct them.

If you want to access your information, please send a description of the information you would like to see and proof of your identity (such as a copy of your passport) by post to Director of Fundraising & Marketing, Bristol & Weston Hospitals Charity, Whitefriars, Lewins Mead, Bristol BS1 2NT.  We do not accept these requests by email so we can ensure that we only provide personal data to the right person.

If you have any questions please send these to the Director of Fundraising & Marketing as above or go to Information Commissioner’s guidance here.

 

CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make any significant changes in the way we treat your personal information we will make this clear on our website or by contacting you directly.