June 22 revision

Donor Bill of Rights

We support the Donor Bill of Rights.

Philanthropy is based on voluntary action for the common good. It is a tradition of giving and sharing that is primary to the quality of life. To assure that philanthropy merits the respect and trust of the general public, and that donors and prospective donors can have full confidence in the not-for-profit organizations and causes they are asked to support, we declare that all donors have these rights:

To be informed of the organization's mission, of the way the organization intends to use donated resources, and of its capacity to use donations effectively for their intended purposes.
To be informed of the identity of those serving on the organization's governing board, and to expect the board to exercise prudent judgment in its stewardship responsibilities.
To have access to the organization's most recent financial statements.
To be assured their gifts will be used for the purposes for which they were given.
To receive appropriate acknowledgment and recognition.
To be assured that information about their donations is handled with respect and with confidentiality to the extent provided by law.
To expect that all relationships with individuals representing organizations of interest to the donor will be professional in nature.
To be informed whether those seeking donations are volunteers, employees of the organization or hired solicitors.
To have the opportunity for their names to be deleted from mailing lists that an organization may intend to share.
To feel free to ask questions when making a donation and to receive prompt, truthful and forthright answers.

The text of this statement in its entirety was developed by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP), Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), and the Giving Institute: Leading Consultants to Non-Profits.

The Wikimedia Donor Privacy Policy

The content of this page is an official policy approved by the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Wikimedia maintains the highest level of respect for the privacy of its donors. In furtherance of our commitment to honor your rights, we have developed this Donor Privacy Policy to guide our staff and volunteers on how they may and may not use your personal information.

What information we collect

Wikimedia. We use personal information collected from donors for the purposes of processing payments and communicating with donors about Wikimedia as well as conducting the fundraising and other operations of Wikimedia. This information may include name, amount donated, address, telephone number, donor comments, e-mail address, and any other personal information provided to us (“Donor Data”). For donations by check, Donor Data also includes the data visible on the check.

As part of providing an online experience for donors, we may store various data that are collected as part of standard web operations (including things like user agent strings, ip addresses, referrer strings, and cookies). We may use this data for the purposes described in this policy.

Payment Processors and Other Service Providers. Payment processors allow donors to give electronically using a payment services account (such as PayPal) or a credit card. These processors collect certain information from donors, and you should consult their privacy policies to determine their practices.

To provide donors the best possible experience, we work with service providers and may share Donor Data and other information with them. Such service providers include, for example, collocation facilities and bandwidth providers as well as organizations that help non-profit organizations with fundraising.

How we use that information

Donor Data. Donor Data may be used for these kinds of purposes:

Distributing receipts and thanking donors for donations
Informing donors about upcoming fundraising and other activities of Wikimedia
Internal analysis, such as research and analytics
Record keeping
Reporting to applicable government agencies as required by law
Surveys, metrics, and other analytical purposes
Other purposes related to the fundraising operations

Unless otherwise stated, we do not publish, sell, trade, rent or exchange Donor Data. Anonymized donor information may be used for promotional and fundraising activities. Comments that are provided by donors may be publicly published and may be used in promotional materials. We may use available information to supplement the Donor Data to improve the information we use to drive our fundraising efforts. We allow donors the option to have their name publicly associated with their donation unless otherwise requested as part of the online donation process.

We use data gathered for payment processors and other service providers only for the purposes described in this policy.

Financial information

It is our internal policy to limit access to financial information to professional staff and volunteers who need to process that information for the purposes described above. Personal financial information is not sold to or traded with other parties.

We use partners to provide online payment processing services. The privacy policies of these organizations will be presented to you on their respective websites and typically also as part of your donation process. If you pay by credit card, we do not store your credit card information, bank account numbers, or other financial account data sent directly to those processing services.

Donations to Wikimedia made by check go to a bank lockbox. This provides a particularly high level of security and confidentiality.

Contact us

If you have questions about this Donor Privacy Policy or requests about the status and correctness of your donor data, please email donate<at>wikimedia.org or write to:

The Wikimedia Foundation Inc. 
149 New Montgomery Street, 3rd Floor 
San Francisco, CA 94105 
USA

If you want to make a donation by check, please send the check to:

The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box 894879 
Los Angeles, CA 90189-4879 
USA

Security

We are committed to protecting donor personal information from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. Among other things, we undertake a range of security practices, including measures to secure web access to sensitive data and undertake efforts to address security vulnerabilities for various tools and databases.

Other Disclosures

We may disclose information when required by law, when needed to protect our rights, privacy, safety, property, donors, or users, and when necessary to enforce our terms of service.

Updates

We may change the Donor Privacy Policy from time to time. Any and all changes will be reflected on this page. Substantive changes may also be announced through the standard mechanisms by which we communicate with our users and community. You should periodically check this page for any changes to the current policy.

Data Destination

Wikimedia is a worldwide organization. By donating, you consent to the transfer of the collected information to the United States and other places as may be necessary to carry out the purposes and objectives set out in this policy.

Data Retention

We seek to retain donor-related information only as needed to fulfill the purposes described in this policy unless a longer retention period is required by law or regulations. For For example, tax laws in the United States and the State of Florida require the Foundation to keep contact information and contribution level of donors on file.

Scope

This particular policy applies to the entity that is posting it. If you visit the Wikimedia donation page from a location that has a Chapter, you may be redirected to that Chapter’s website. Chapters are independent and may post different policies and practices depending on local law requirements and other considerations. Chapters who participate in the fundraising, however, are expected to adhere to the general principles set out in this policy.

This policy does not address data from sources other than donations, such as edits or content contributions to projects.

Last Updated June, 2011

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