We Take Privacy Serious.

GCEF  PRIVACY POLICY

UPDATED AUGUST  21, 2022

This policy describes what personal information we collect and how we use it.

Granite City Entrepreneurship Foundation (“GCEF,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) operates to serve all site visitors. That goal powers all of the decisions we make, including how we gather and respect personal information. This privacy policy (this “Privacy Policy”) exists to be as clear and straightforward as possible, because we know that you (“You,” “user,” “site user,” or “valued user”) care about how information you provide to us is used and shared. Our aim is for you — a valued user of our site — to always feel informed and empowered with respect to your privacy on GCEF.  

This Privacy Policy applies to all information received by GCEF, both online and offline, on any Platform, (“Platform”, includes the GCEF website, social media, and GCEF-associated linked sites), as well as any electronic, written, or verbal communications.

Our Commitment to Our Donors ("Donor Privacy Policy")

We will not sell, share or trade our donors’ names or Personal Information with any other entity, nor send mailings to our donors on behalf of other organizations. This Donor Privacy Policy applies to all information received by GCEF, both online and offline, on any Platform, as well as any electronic, written, or verbal communications.

Acceptance of Terms

By visiting GCEF and/or using our Services, you agree to the terms (“Terms”) of this Privacy Policy and our accompanying Terms of Use. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy or the Terms of Use (collectively, this “Agreement”), please do not use the GCEF website. 

Capitalized terms not defined in this Privacy Policy shall have the meaning set forth in our Terms of Use ("Terms of Use").

The Information We Collect

GCEF collects information when you visit our website, create an account, edit your account information, or use features on the platform to donate to a charity. Some of this information is technical information automatically logged by our servers. Outlined below are the types of information, both directly from you and indirectly through the collection of information by third-party service providers (together, “Partners”) that we specifically collect.

You authorize us to use, store and otherwise process any personal information which relates to and identifies you, including (but not limited to) your name and address, to the extent reasonably necessary to provide the services which are available through our website, our Partners, successors, assignees, associates, sub-contractors, or other third parties.

1.         Personal Information ("Personal Information")

For purposes of this Privacy Policy, Personal Information means any information or set of information that identifies or could be used by or on behalf of GCEF, or any of our Partners to identify a natural or legal person. Personal Information does not include information that is encoded, aggregated, anonymized, or publicly available information that has not been combined with non-public Personal Information.

Examples of different purposes for which we may collect Personal Information include, but are not limited to: 

• Donations made directly to GCEF and to GCEF made through resources including Classy Inc. from which we collect Personal Information such as your name, billing address, and e-mail address, if you have not already provided these details. We collect information about your donation, including the amount of your donation. The Classy Inc. privacy policy can be reviewed here: https://www.classy.org/terms/privacy
• Job applications;
• Surveys. Periodically, GCEF may invite you to participate in completing online surveys. If you have created a GCEF account, information we collect from these surveys may be associated with you personally;
• Contact you regarding your donation(s), as to the quality of the service, as well as any potential errors that may have occurred;
• Voluntary submissions to GCEF requesting information about our products and services, signing up to receive information from us, or sending us an e-mail;
• E-mail subscriptions. GCEF may also compile a subscription list to which you voluntarily submit your name, mailing address, and/or email address. The purpose of such a subscription list would be to send you periodic updates to subscribers on matters of interest, provided you will have the ability to opt out of further communications in accordance with procedures described in each such update.

2.       Non-Personal/Other  Information

In addition to the Personal Information, we and our Partners may collect additional information that does not personally identify you (“Other Information”). Other Information may include information collected:

         a.         From Your Activity.  Information that we or our Partners may automatically collect when you visit, access, and/or use the Platform, including, but not limited to your IP address, Internet service provider, browser type and language, referring and exit pages and URLs, date and time, amount of time spent on particular pages, which sections of the GCEF or Partner website you visit, number of links you click while on the Platform, search terms, operating system, general geographic location, and technical information about your mobile device.   

         b.         From Cookies, JavaScript Tags.  Information that we or Partners automatically collect using technical methods, including but not limited to cookies (“Cookies”), JavaScript tags, web beacons, pixel gifs, Flash cookies, and other locally stored objects. Cookies are small packets of data that a website stores on your computer’s hard drive so that your computer will “remember” information about your visit. We may use both session cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent cookies (which stay on your computer until you delete them) to enhance your experience using GCEF and to allow us and our Partners to collect Other Information. You may be able to disable cookies and/or other locally stored cookies by disabling them in your browser or on your device. Please consult your Internet browser’s documentation for information on how to do this and how to delete persistent cookies. However, if you decide not to accept cookies from us, GCEF may not function properly. We use JavaScript tags to trigger a sequence of events that includes viewing a first-party cookie (or setting that cookie if it does not already exist) and to help us tailor and optimize GCEF.

            c.         Do Not Track (“DNT”).  GCEF assumes no responsibility for responding to “Do Not Track” web browser signals. Consult external website polices regarding their responses to DNT signals. 

Partners

Partners include, but are not limited to:

Google Analytics.  GCEF uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”).  Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site. The Other Information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States.  Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage.  Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.  You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.  By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.

Google Analytics collects information anonymously. It reports website trends without identifying individual visitors. You can opt out of Google Analytics without affecting how you visit our site – for more information on opting out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites you use, visit this Google page.

            a.         Google Analytics.  GCEF uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses Cookies to help the website analyze how users interact with the Platform. Other Information generated by the Cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of Cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser; however, please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.

Google Analytics collects information anonymously. It reports website trends without identifying individual visitors. You can opt out of Google Analytics without affecting how you visit our site. For more information on opting out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites you use, visit Google Ad Settings. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy.

         c.         Interest Based Advertising.   GCEF incorporates remarketing by utilizing third party vendors (such as Google) to display content specific advertisements to visitors who have previously visited the GCEF site and/or expressed interest in the GCEF products when such visitors go to other websites that also incorporate similar remarketing tools. GCEF and other third-party vendors, including Google, use first-party cookies and third-party cookies together to inform, optimize and serve ads based on a User’s past visits to the GCEF site.

If you choose, you can opt out by turning off cookies in the preferences settings in your browser.

            d.         Classy.   https://www.classy.org/terms/privacy

            e.         From You.   You are considered a Partner through the information that you voluntarily provide to us that does not identify you personally.

GCEF reserves the right to add or delete Partners at any time, at GCEF’s sole discretion, subject to the terms of the Partner’s privacy policy.

The Information Collected by or Through Third-Party Advertising Companies

We may share Other Information about your activity on the Platform with third parties for the purpose of tailoring, analyzing, managing, reporting, and optimizing advertising you see on the Platform and elsewhere. These third parties may use Cookies, pixel tags (“pixel tags,” “web beacons,” “pixel gifs,” or “clear gifs”), and/or other technologies to collect such Other Information for such purposes. Pixel tags enable us, and these third-party advertisers, to recognize a browser’s Cookie when a browser visits the site on which the pixel tag is located in order to learn which advertisement brings a user to a given site.   

Search Engines and Other Sites

Search engines and other sites not affiliated with GCEF, such as archive.org or google.com, may crawl the Site and make available to the public publicly-available content and postings from the site. The Site may also contain links to other websites. GCEF is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other websites. GCEF encourages its visitors and users to be aware of such search engines and other sites when they leave the Site and to read the privacy statement of each website they visit.

How We Use and Share the Information     

We use Personal Information and Other Information to provide you Services, process your donations, solicit your feedback, inform you about our products and services, personalize communications and fundraising appeals that we believe will be of interest to you, and to improve our Services to you.     

We may also use and/or share Personal Information, Other Information, and User Content as described below:  

• All of your User Content on the Platform will be publicly viewable and shareable by other users both within and outside the Platform.
• In an ongoing effort to better understand visitors to our site and our products and services, we may analyze Other Information in aggregate form in order to operate, maintain, manage, and improve our products and services. This aggregate information does not identify individuals personally. We may share this aggregate data with our affiliates, agents, and business partners. We may also disclose aggregated user statistics in order to describe our products and services to current and prospective business partners and to other third parties for other lawful purposes.
• We may share some or all of the Personal Information and Other Information with any of our parent companies, subsidiaries, or other companies under common control with us.

Accessing and Modifying Information and Communication Preferences

Upon request, GCEF will grant individuals reasonable access to Personal Information that we and our agents hold about them. For example, visitors to the Platform who have provided Personal Information to us may review and/or make changes to the same by contacting GCEF. In addition, individuals may manage their receipt of marketing communications by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link located on the bottom of any GCEF marketing e-mail or by following the instructions found on the Platform. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to process such requests in a timely manner. You should be aware, however, that it is not always possible to completely remove or modify information in our subscription databases. 

How We Protect the Information

We take commercially reasonable steps to protect Personal Information and Other Information from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. Please understand, however, that no security system is impenetrable. We cannot guarantee the security of our databases, nor can we guarantee that the information that you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to and from us over the Internet. In particular, e-mail sent to or from the Platform may not be secure, and you should, therefore, take special care in deciding what information you send to us via e-mail.

To help prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect. Our website uses a Transport Layer Security, the standard security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This link ensures that all data passed between the web server and browsers remain private. All online donation transactions are handled by Payment Card Industry (PCI)-compliant vendors. PCI refers to the technical and operational standards that businesses must follow to ensure that credit card data provided by cardholders is protected.

Important Notices to Non-U.S. Residents

Our Platform and our servers are operated in the United States. If you are located outside of the United States, please be aware that any Personal Information you provide to us will be transferred to the United States. By using the Platform and by providing us Personal Information in any manner, you consent to this transfer and our use of the information and data provided by you in accordance with this Privacy Policy. 

If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us as described in the “How to Contact Us” section below. We will investigate your question, respond to your inquiry, and attempt to resolve any concerns regarding your privacy question. 

Links to External Websites

GCEF’s website or any externally-facing communications from GCEF (from any Platform, online or offline, verbal, written, or electronic) may contain links to third-party websites. GCEF has no control over the privacy practices or the content of those websites and is therefore not responsible for the content or the privacy policies of those third-party websites. You should check the applicable third-party privacy policy and terms of use when visiting any other websites.

Children 

We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under the age of 13 through the Services. If you are under 13, please do not give us any Personal Information. We encourage parents and legal guardians to monitor their children’s Internet usage and to help enforce our Privacy Policy by instructing their children to never provide Personal Information through the Services without their permission. If you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 13 has provided Personal Information to us, please contact us, and we will endeavor to delete that information from our databases.

California Residents

It is GCEF’s policy not to disclose any personal information we collect to third parties for direct marketing purposes under any circumstances. However, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 requires that all California residents be afforded the option to exercise your choice of whether your personal information may be shared with third parties for direct marketing purposes or not, as well as to receive information specified in the statute if your personal information is disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes. Accordingly, if you are a California resident and you wish to inform GCEF whether you permit or refuse the sharing of your personal information with third parties for direct marketing purposes, or if you wish to request certain information if your personal information were to be disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes, please contact us as described in the “How to Contact Us” section below.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy is effective as of the date stated at the top of this Privacy Policy. We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. Please be aware that, to the extent permitted by applicable law, our use of the Personal Information and Other Information is governed by the Privacy Policy in effect at the time we collect the information. Please refer back to this Privacy Policy on a regular basis.

How to Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact GCEF via:

• postal mail to: Privacy Administrator, GCEF, 705 Gold Lake Dr Suite 205, Folsom, CA 95630. 

Our intent is to promptly reply to every message we receive. This information is used to respond directly to your questions or comments. We also may file your comments to improve our services in the future.