The National Pro Bono Centre (“NPBC”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. The NPBC is required to comply with the law concerning the management and storage of personal data, which is governed by the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Compliance with the UK GDPR is overseen by the UK data protection regulator which is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).  The NPBC is accountable to the ICO for its data protection compliance.

Controller

The National Pro Bono Centre (collectively referred to in this privacy policy as The National Pro Bono Centre, NPBC, “we”, “us” or “our”) is the controller of and is responsible for your personal data. For the purposes of this policy, you are the data subject.

Purpose of this privacy policy

This privacy policy aims to give you information on how we collect, process and protect the data you may provide through your use of our website, www.nationalprobonocentre.org.uk, when you fill out our online forms, post an opportunity or event, apply for a volunteering vacancy,  partake in fundraising activities for us, make a donation or contact us directly.

This website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

It is important that you read this privacy policy together with any other privacy policy or fair processing policy we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data.

The information we collect about you

We may collect your non-sensitive information through our interactions with you. We do not collect any special categories of personal data. This includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious beliefs, political opinions, health information etc. We also do not collect any information about criminal convictions and/or offences.

The information collected is limited to what is adequate, relevant and necessary for the purpose for which it is collected. This may include, but is not limited to, the following directly and indirectly obtained information:

• Information about your identity, including your name.
• Contact details including email address, contact address, phone number.
• Details about your organisation or employer, particularly in relation to the posting of volunteering opportunities.
• Any other details you may provide about your organisation if advertising a volunteering position. This includes but is not limited to any social media username, application contact email and any attachments you may include.
• Contact details, organisation and venue information when you post an event on our website through the events calendar.
• Information you may provide in an application for a volunteering opportunity if not applying directly to the advertising organisation.
• Your donor information if you make a donation to us (financial details will be dealt with directly by our payment provider) including name and address (unless you have chosen to remain anonymous) and type of payment.
• Technical information about your use of our website, including your IP address and geographical location.
• Information you may share with us or our related charities on social media, including any username and any photos you may tag us in.
• Information you post in any comment sections of our website. This will include your website address and IP address.
• Information from surveys we may conduct from time to time.
• Any other information you may provide us with through the use of our online forms or other contact methods including by phone, email, post or in person.

How do we use this information?

We intend to use the information you provide in the following ways.

• To contact you regarding a question you have posed on a contact form or via any other contact method.
• To contact you about a volunteering position you have posted.
• To approve your volunteering position for posting on our website.
• To process information supplied on Gift Aid forms as required (including details necessary to establish whether you are a UK taxpayer).
• To fulfil any statutory and legal requirements placed upon us in relation to financial, staff and volunteer information.
• To improve our website through monitoring how you use it.
• To facilitate pro bono services.

We will inform you if we intend to use your personal data for any other legitimate business purpose.

In some circumstances we may anonymise or pseudonymise your personal data so that it can no longer be associated with you.

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required to do so by law or for regulatory reasons.

We will not share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

If you kindly decide to make a donation to us through our website you will be forwarded to the page of our chosen payment provider. Any information you provide, including any financial details are not held by us. Instead, the third-party payment provider will be responsible for the protection of your data and we recommend that you read their privacy policy carefully before entering any personal information. If you agree, the payment provider may pass on your details in order for us to contact you to thank you for your donation. You also have the option to opt-in to receiving our marketing emails. They may also share your details with certain third-parties in order to comply with their legal obligations and/or to process card payments or Gift Aid. This will be made clear in their privacy policy.

Legal bases for processing your data

When we process your personal data, we rely on one or more of the following lawful grounds:

• Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you as the data subject are party or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract; for example, payroll information, service contracts etc.
• Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we as the data controller are subject; for example, HMRC or auditing requirements etc.
• Processing is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests, except where such interests are overridden by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms which require the protection of your personal data; for example, the facilitation of our charitable objectives, the processing of technical information about the use of our website in order to ensure the best engagement with our users, to process enquiries and complaints in an efficient manner. For more information about our legitimate interests please do not hesitate to contact us using the details found at the end of this policy.
• Where consent is relied upon, we will establish this from you. This consent can be withdrawn at any time.

Fundraising and marketing

We will always aim to respect your preferences when sending you any form of communication.  Marketing communications from The National Pro Bono Centre, made on the basis of our legitimate business interests, will also include instructions on how to opt out of receiving further emails from us.  You can also contact us at mdobsonsmith@nationalprobonocentre.org.uk.

Cookies

For further information about the cookies used on this website please see our cookie policy.

International transfers

We do not intentionally transfer your personal data outside the UK or the European Economic Area or as otherwise permitted under international “data-bridge” or “adequacy” decisions made by the UK government relating to the flow of personal data from the UK to another country without the need for further safeguards; for example, the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.  However, if you are visiting our website from a country outside the UK or EEA, this is likely to result in the transfer of information across international boundaries. By visiting this website and communicating electronically with us, you consent to these transfers.

Keeping your data secure

We use all reasonable efforts to safeguard your personal data both electronically and in hard copy. However, submitting your details through the internet cannot be guaranteed to be entirely secure and therefore you submit any information to us via this method at your own risk.

We limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality and will be bound be a controller/processor agreement.

Also, we will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. An example of this is where we keep records of donations subject to Gift Aid for at least 6 years in order to comply with HMRC rules. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

Our retention periods are reviewed on a regular basis.

Links to third-party websites

Our website may contain links to third-party websites. This privacy policy applies only to The National Pro Bono Centre website www.nationalprobonocentre.org.uk and we recommend that you read the privacy policies of any other websites you visit. Please be aware that we cannot be held responsible for the content or security of such websites.

Your legal rights

To exercise any of your legal rights listed below, please contact us using the details found at the end of this policy.  You have the right to:

Request access to your personal data. This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it. This request will be carried out free of charge and within one month, unless it is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. In such instances we may require longer to process your request and a nominal fee may be charged to cover the costs of providing you with this information. In this instance we will notify you and keep you updated.

Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, although we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. Such requests are subject to any applicable legal and ethical reporting or document retention obligations imposed on us.

Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third-party) and you want to object to processing as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:

• If you want us to establish the data’s accuracy.
• Where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it.
• Where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
• You have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third-party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

Complaints

We would appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns in the first instance, so please contact us using the below contact details. However, should you wish to escalate your concern, you have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues, the website for which is www.ico.org.uk.

Contact details

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, would like to exercise your legal rights listed above or require any further information, you can contact us in the following ways:

Full name of legal entity: The National Pro Bono Centre

Registered Charity No. 1137708

Email address: mdobsonsmith@nationalprobonocentre.org.uk

Changes to this privacy policy

We keep our privacy policy under regular review. This version was last updated in November 2023.