Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy describes the information collected through this website (“Site”) and how that information is used and shared. Foster Care Counts, doing business as Foster Nation (together with its affiliates, “Foster Nation,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), and its suppliers may collect or receive the types of information described below in connection with your access to and use of the Site (together, “Collected Information”). This Privacy Policy is incorporated into and made a part of our Terms of Use.
By accessing or using this Site, you agree on behalf of yourself and any organization or company that you represent (together, “you”) that you have read and understand this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, do not access or use this Site.
This Privacy Policy also explains your rights and choices regarding your personal information, how we communicate changes to this Privacy Policy, and how you may contact us regarding questions or issues with respect to anything contained in this Privacy Policy.
If you have any questions or concerns about our use of your personal information, please contact us using the contact information provided at the end of this Privacy Policy.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may modify or amend this Privacy Policy at any time, which changes will be effective immediately upon their posting on the Site. Material changes will be posted conspicuously on the Site or otherwise communicated to you.
Information We Collect and How We Collect It
The information that we may collect from or about you broadly falls into the following categories:
Information that you voluntarily provide to us, for example, your contact information, donation information, payment information, event registration information, and user-generated content.
Information that we passively collect through your use of the Site, for example, data collected by the servers used to operate the Site (e.g., IP addresses), data collected by cookies, and data collected by analytics services.
Information You Voluntarily Provide to Us
Personal Information
You can visit this Site without providing us with your personal information but you will be required to provide personal information in order to use certain features of the Site. We will collect any personal information from or about you that you choose to provide to us, which may include your name, email address, physical address, and payment information. For example, you must provide your personal information to sign up for our email newsletter, to make a donation, to submit information requests, to provide user-generated content, and when responding to communications from us.
We will use personal information as described below, including to process and communicate with you in connection with your donations and requests for information, subject in each case to your communications preferences, applicable laws, and the terms of this Privacy Policy.
Mailing List Information
If you sign up or otherwise opt in to receive promotions from us, you will need to provide your email address. You may also provide your name. We will use this information to provide you with promotional and other electronic communications. You may opt out of receiving promotional emails from us at any time by following the unsubscribe instructions contained in the applicable email. We may use third-party email providers to deliver these communications to you.
Some of our mailing lists are managed by The Rocket Science Group, LLC (doing business as MailChimp). MailChimp may collect the IP addresses assigned to your device, your operating system type, and demographic information about you. MailChimp also uses cookies and other tracking technologies to collect information about your online activity and uses web beacons to track behavior, for example, which recipients open emails and when, which recipients click on links contained in those emails, and your web browser and email client type. MailChimp may combine this information with information about you obtained by searching the Internet (e.g., your use of social media platforms). MailChimp may use your information and share it with third parties and for purposes of promoting its services, communicating with you, to comply with legal requirements, and to protect its legal rights. We encourage you to review MailChimp’s Privacy Policy.
Donation Information
Donations made online must be made by credit or debit card or, where the option is available, by PayPal. All credit and debit card information is provided directly to our PCI-compliant third-party payment processor. Foster Nation does not directly access, handle, or store your credit or debit card information. To make a donation through the Site, you will need to provide your name and your credit or debit card number, expiration date, security code, and billing address. You may also provide your telephone number.
Our online donation portal is provided by Classy, Inc. We encourage you to review Classy’s Terms of Service and Classy’s Privacy Policy. If you make a donation using PayPal, you may need to log in to your PayPal account. PayPal may use Collected Information as described in its PayPal’s Privacy Policy.
We will also collect any additional information you choose to provide when making a donation through the Site (e.g., comments). We will maintain a record of the donations that you make using the Site. All donations made to Foster Nation are at the organization’s discretion for purposes consistent with its tax exempt purposes.
If you make a donation, your name and any comments you provide may be listed publicly on the Site and in donor listings that we publish from time to time. If you do not want to be recognized for your donation, please let us know.
If you make a donation in honor of another person, that person’s name may be listed publicly on the Site and in donor listings that we publish from time to time. Further, if you elect to provide us with an email address for that person, we may send that person an email acknowledging the donation. Please do not make a donation in honor of another person if you do not have that person’s permission for us to list his or her name publicly.
Purchase Information
Product purchases must be made by credit or debit card. All credit and debit card information is provided directly to our PCI-compliant third-party payment processor. Shopify, our online storefront software provider and payment processor, may use Collected Information as described in Shopify’s Privacy Policy. Foster Nation does not directly access, handle, or store your credit or debit card information. To make a purchase through the Site, you will need to provide your name and your credit or debit card number, expiration date, security code, and billing address. We will maintain a record of the purchases that you make using the Site.
Fundraising Portal
To set up a fundraising campaign for Foster Nation or to donate to campaigns set up by other users, you will be redirected to our online fundraising portal, which is provided by Classy, Inc., and you will be required to either create a Classy account or to log in the Classy portal using your Facebook account as described below under “Single Sign-On.” Information provided through the fundraising portal (e.g., your name and contact information, campaign narratives) will be submitted directly to Classy and will then be shared with Foster Nation. We encourage you to review Classy’s Terms of Service and Classy’s Privacy Policy.
User-Generated Content
You are responsible for any comments, data, text, images, video, audio, and other content and material that you create, post, transmit, upload, publish, distribute, broadcast, submit, or otherwise provide via the Site, including by telling us about your experiences in the foster care system, uploading a photograph of yourself, or setting up a campaign on the fundraising portal (together, “User-Generated Content”). User-Generated Content that you provide is posted on the Site at your own risk. We cannot guarantee that User-Generated Content you provide will not be viewed by unauthorized persons. You understand that, even after removal, copies of User-Generated Content you have provided may remain viewable in cached and archived pages and may have been copied or stored by Internet archives and other Site users. Foster Nation may, at its sole discretion, publish User-Generated Content on the Site. For more information on User-Generated Content, please review our Terms of Use.
Event Registration Information
If you RSVP to or register or otherwise sign up for a Foster Nation event, you may be required to provide us with certain information. Required information may vary by event and will be disclosed at the point of registration. Required fields may include, for example, your name and contact information, your applicable areas of interest, and your level of education. You may also be asked to provide relevant documents, such as a resume. Event-related information will be used for purposes of planning and providing that particular event and to communicate with event participants.
Our Social Media Pages
Foster Nation is active on social media, including Facebook and Instagram. You may have the opportunity to comment on those social media platforms regarding Foster Nation and the products and services we offer. Foster Nation reserves the rights to post on its websites and social media pages any comments or content that you post on our social media pages.
Information We Collect through Your Use of the Site
IP Addresses and Related Data
The servers used to operate and provide the Site may collect data pertaining to you and the equipment, software, and communication methods you use to access the Internet and the Site, including Internet protocol (“IP”) addresses assigned to the computers and other devices from where you access the Internet, your Internet service provider (ISP), your device ID number, your approximate geographic location, your web browser type, the pages you access on the Site, the websites you access before and after visiting the Site, the length of time you spend on the Site, date and time stamps, and clickstream data. Foster Nation may use this information to administer the Site and its servers, to generate statistical information, to monitor and analyze Site traffic and usage patterns, to monitor and help prevent fraud, to investigate complaints and violations of our policies, and to improve the Site’s content and the products, services, materials, and other content that we describe or make available through the Site (see also how we use analytics services as described below). We may combine this information with other Collected Information (including personal information) and information obtained from third parties for security reasons and to protect our rights or the rights of others as discussed below. The suppliers that we use to provide the Site may collect information about your visits to the Site and other websites. Some of this information may be collected using cookies and similar tracking technologies as explained further below under “Cookies.”
Analytics
Like many websites, the Site may use third-party analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, to collect and process information about your use of our Site, including when you visit the Site, URLs of the websites that you visit prior to visiting the Site and when you visit those websites, and IP addresses assigned to the devices from where you access the Internet. Our analytics providers may set and read cookies to collect this data and your web browser will automatically send data collected by those cookies to our analytics providers. Our analytics providers may use this data to provide us with reports that can be used to improve the Site’s structure and content. For more information on how Google uses this data, visit Google’s Privacy Policy and Google’s page on How Google uses data when you use our partners' sites or apps. To prevent this data from being used by Google Analytics, follow the instructions to download and install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on for each web browser you use. Using the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on will not prevent Foster Nation from using other analytics tools and will not prevent data from being sent to the Site itself or to Google. For more information about how Google Analytics uses cookies to measure user interactions on websites, visit Google Analytics Cookie Usage on Websites. You may disable cookies as discussed below, but that may impact your use and enjoyment of the Site.
Cookies
The Site may automatically use cookies to track your use of the Site in order facilitate and enhance the user experience on the Site and for other purposes as described below. Cookies are small pieces of information that are stored on your device’s hard drive by your web browser. The Site may use both cookies that we implement and cookies implemented by our suppliers and other third parties, including Squarespace, Inc., our website hosting services provider. For more information on how Squarespace uses cookies, please see Squarespace's Cookie Policy and "About the cookies Squarespace uses".
We use cookies to track how you access and use the Site, to learn when and how users visit the Site, to learn how popular Site pages are and aren’t, to learn which search terms are used to find the Site, and to learn which websites direct you to the Site. We also use cookies to help display certain information on the Site and to improve your enjoyment of the Site, for example, by remembering your contact and other information when you access or use the Site.
Most web browsers automatically accept cookies. You can disable cookies but disabling cookies may impact your use and enjoyment of the Site. Changing your cookie preferences in one web browser will not necessarily carry over to other web browsers, so you may need to adjust your preferences each time you get a new computer, install a new web browser, upgrade an existing web browser, or alter or delete a browser’s cookie file. Our Site suppliers may use cookies and other tracking technologies, such as pixel tags, to track Site visitors across the Internet to understand how you get to the Site. We do not have access or control over these cookies and this Privacy Policy does not cover the use of third-party cookies.
Due to this automatic collection of data using cookies, we do not honor “do not track” requests.
Embedded Content
The Site may incorporate content, including feeds scripts embedded in the Site’s code and visible content (for example, videos), provided by third parties. In some cases, those third parties collect data about how you interact with their content. For example, Vimeo may collect or otherwise have access to usage data on videos embedded on the Site as described in the Vimeo.com Privacy Policy.
Single Sign-On (Fundraising Portal Only)
You may log into our fundraising portal, which is provided by Classy as discussed above, using your Facebook account by providing your Facebook log-in information when prompted. If you choose to use this single sign-on feature, Classy may access, handle, and store information that you have provided through Facebook. This single sign-on feature may require the Site to implement cookies, plug-ins, and application protocol interfaces (APIs) provided by Facebook. We do not and cannot control any policies or terms of any third-party service, including Facebook. All information you have provided to Facebook is subject to Facebook’s Data Policy.
How We Use and Share Collected Information
In addition to the uses and sharing described above, Foster Nation and its suppliers may use and disclose Collected Information as described below. We do not use, sell, rent, or otherwise disclose Collected Information except as stated in this Privacy Policy and as permitted by applicable law.
Purpose Collected & Communication with You
We will use and share your personal information and other Collected Information for the purpose for which it was collected, for example, to process and communicate with you in connection with your donations and to provide you with information and communications that you request. If you make a donation through the Site, we may use Collected Information to communicate with you regarding your donation. We also maintain donation-related information and other Collected Information to track donation activity and maintain our donation records. User-Generated Content will be used for the purpose for which it was provided and to publish that content on the Site. For example, if you set up a fundraising campaign through the fundraising portal, information you submit about that campaign will be used to post that campaign on the fundraising portal. If you sign up for a Foster Nation event, we may use the information you provide in signing up for the event to plan and provide that event and future Foster Nation events, as well as to communicate with you regarding the event details.
We may use Collected Information to notify you of changes made to the Site (for example, changes to our Terms of Use or this Privacy Policy), to provide you with promotional materials and other communications as described above. If you contact us for support or assistance in using the Site, we may use Collected Information to determine whether or not your system meets the minimum requirements needed to access and use the Site and otherwise to contact you regarding your request.
Sharing Collected Information with Our Suppliers
We may share Collected Information with our Site management and hosting suppliers, donation portal providers, payment processors, online storefront providers, marketing and public relations service providers, email service suppliers, and other suppliers as necessary for us to provide the Site and our products and services to you, to engage in the use and sharing of Collected Information as permitted by this Privacy Policy, and as may be otherwise permitted by applicable law. Our suppliers are authorized to and may use and disclose Collected Information as necessary for them to provide the applicable services to us and as provided by their own privacy policies as noted above.
Evaluation and Improvement of the Site, User Demographics, and Aggregation
We may use and disclose Collected Information: to analyze, develop, and improve the content, materials, products, and services that we make available (including the Site); to inform fundraising, marketing, and communication plans and strategies; to understand the Site’s demographics and user preferences; and to evaluate Site user needs and customize Site content, promotional emails, and users’ browsing experience. In addition, we may aggregate personal information you provide to us and other Collected Information to create aggregate date on Site users that describes users as a group but does not reveal the identity of individual users. We may use and share aggregated information to understand Site users’ needs, to determine Site user demographics and usage patterns, to determine what kinds of products and services we can provide, and to improve and enrich our products, our services, and the Site.
Relatedly, we may provide aggregate information about Site users, Site traffic patterns, and related information to our affiliates and other third parties. We may also combine Collected Information with other information in our possession, such as information pertaining to your donation activity, for purposes of using information as described in this Privacy Policy.
Security and Protection of Rights
We may use Collected Information and share it with third parties to the extent permitted by applicable law, including in the event of a subpoena, court order, or law enforcement request. Foster Nation will use Collected Information and share it with third parties if we believe doing so is necessary to operate the Site or to protect our rights or the rights of others, including disclosing information necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action in the event of a violation of our contracts, terms, or policies.
Business Transactions
All Collected Information is exclusively the property of Foster Nation but, if Foster Nation undergoes a change in control, acquisition, reorganization, merger, or asset sale, all information owned by or in the possession, custody, or control of Foster Nation may be transferred, sold, shared, or otherwise disclosed to the successor of the transaction. That successor will be bound by this Privacy Policy as it applies to that information.
Access by Children
This Site is not directed at children under 13 years of age and Foster Nation does not knowingly collect or use information from children under 13 through this Site.
Information Security
We have appropriate security measures in place to help protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of Collected Information. While we cannot and do not guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration of Collected Information will not occur, our security measures include Secure Socket Layers (SSL) technology, which is used to encrypt information passed between your web browser and our systems. The storage and communication of information can never be completely secure, so we do not guarantee that communications or other information that you submit or that are otherwise provided to us will be completely secure. If you become aware of any breach of Site security or this Privacy Policy, please notify us at team@fosternation.org immediately. If our security systems are breached, Foster Nation will notify you of the breach only if and to the extent required under applicable law.
Access from Outside the United States
If you are visiting the Site from outside the United States, please be aware that Collected Information may be transferred to and stored, maintained, and processed in the United States (where our and our suppliers’ servers and databases are located and operated). The data protection and related laws and regulations of the United States might not be as comprehensive as those in the country from which you access the Site.
Access to Your Personal Information
If you wish to access or update your personal information as it exists in our records, please contact us with your request using the contact information below.
Third-Party Websites
This Site may link to, or be linked to, websites not maintained by, controlled by, or related to Foster Nation. Foster Nation is not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of any third parties or third-party websites. This Privacy Policy does not apply to any third-party websites or to any personal or other information that you may provide to third parties. We encourage you to read the privacy policy for each website you visit.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:
FOSTER NATION
11150 Santa Monica Blvd.
Suite 1500
Los Angeles, CA 90025
310-575-9400 EXT. 1161
Effective Date: September 19, 2024