Donor privacy policy

Humanity & Inclusion deeply values our donors and their sustaining support of our mission. We take the stewardship of our donations and donors very seriously and believe a strong donor privacy policy is essential to showing respect for the generosity of those who make our work possible. This donor privacy policy applies to donors who make financial contributions via a range of means (e.g., online, via mail, EFC, through a donor-advised fund, over the phone, so forth).

Donors and other people interested in our work are invited and encouraged to specify their communication preferences, and we work hard to respect those requests.

Generally, our donors receive our bi-annual mailed newsletter, The Next Step, and between one and three other mailings per year. We strictly honor the wishes of donors who prefer to receive fewer mailings, and our records track those preferences. 

We do occasionally ask donors and other supporters about the kind of information of greatest interest to them, and we use this information to provide relevant communications. We have published a U.S. Annual Report since 2007. These, and other relevant financial documents, are available for public review.

Please note that none of the funds donated through this website will benefit activities in the following countries: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, the Crimea Region, or Syria unless the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issues a specific license for doing so, as is the case following the Syria earthquake in February 2023. Humanity & Inclusion does not have programs in all of these countries, but in the ones in which the organization does work, we maintain all relevant OFAC licenses. 

Donation information & data protection

In the process of accepting donations, we may request personal information, such as name, address, phone number, email address, and credit card number. Donor contact information and gift history are maintained in our secure databases, to which access is strictly limited, and password protected. No credit card or financial information is ever stored by our organization, whether the gift is processed online, over the phone, or via mail. 

All online donation pages are protected by an SSL certificate. You'll know this is enabled when you see a lock appear next to the URL. If you click on this lock icon, you can see Humanity & Inclusion's certificate. When you donate to Humanity & Inclusion online, your credit card information is secured by Fundraise Up's secure payment processor. Fundraise Up's integrated payment processing capabilities are powered by Stripe, which has the highest level of certification attainable in the payments industry: PCI Level 1. Fundraise Up uses 256-bit encryption and maintains SOC II, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS Level 1 security compliances. Your credit card number is used only for that particular transaction. Your card is never stored.

Personal preferences

Our supporters may at any time request to be removed completely or partially from our emails, social media, and conventional mailings, and we comply immediately with requests we receive. To update your contact preferences or opt out of any or all forms of communication, please email us or call us at (301) 891-2138. We also offer our donors the option of donating anonymously, meaning we will not publicly recognize their gift in any way.

In years past, we have occasionally exchanged contributor postal mailing lists with other organizations, specifically to help us expand our supporter community in a cost-effective way. We have not, however, rented lists from other organizations since 2018, nor provided any recent donor information to other organizations since 2018. Any donor who prefers that we not exchange their name and postal address can opt out at any time by contacting us. Please note that we do not exchange or rent out e-mail addresses provided to us by our supporters.