Privacy policy

Developing a better understanding of our supporters through personal data allows us to engage with you in the most appropriate way, with information that is important to you and that shows the value and impact of your support. 

We want to ensure that our communications with you are as relevant and timely as possible to provide the best experience of supporting Trees for Cities.  
We may collect information about you whenever you interact with us, for example when you:

• Enquire about our activities or services, visit our website or donate to us;
• Contact us through the following channels:, email, phone, SMS, social media or post.
• Sign up to receive updates on a campaign or our activities;
• Post content to our website/social media sites (including Facebook and Twitter);
• Volunteer for us;
• Produce content to be shared on our website and social media channels;
• Attend a meeting with us and provide us with information about you;
• Take part in one of our events or fundraise on our behalf;
• Apply for a job with us;

We may also receive information about you from third parties – but only if you’ve given them permission to share your information.

When you give information to us directly

You may provide your details when you request specific information, make a donation, participate in one of our events, sign up to our newsletter, engage with us via social media channels, or when you telephone, email, write to us or send us a text.  

When you give information to us indirectly

Your information may be shared with us when you use other fundraising sites, and you have provided your consent to be contacted by Trees for Cities.  For example, if you are fundraising for us via Just Giving or Virgin Money Giving.  These organisations will have their own privacy policy and/or privacy statements, so please ensure you understand this when providing your data.

Social media

Depending on your settings or the privacy policies for social media and messaging services like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter, you might give us permission to access information from those accounts or services.  

When we collect information as you use our website

Information about your visit is recorded and stored when you use our website.  See our web browser cookies policy for details of cookie use.  

When your information is available from other public sources

We may collect personal information about you from the public domain, such as from social networks, company websites, political and property registers, and news archives.  See categories of personal information we collect for details.

The type and quantity of information we collect and how we use it depends on why you are providing it.

For example, if you support us by making a donation, volunteering, registering to fundraise, or signing up for an event, we may collect, where relevant:

• Your name
• Your contact details
• Your date of birth
• Your bank or credit card details (only if you are making a donation)
• Whether you are a tax payer (so we can claim Gift Aid)
• Where it is appropriate we may ask for your reason for giving, about your specific interests relating to Trees for Cities’ work and how you would like us to contact you.

We may supplement what we know about you with information from third party sources to help us better understand your interests and to ensure any requests for additional support are tailored to you and how you might support us.  This also helps us not to send irrelevant or inappropriate communications to our supporters, so that we can operate as cost effectively as possible.  These third party sources may provide us with the following information:

• Your parliamentary constituency
• An estimate of the size and composition of your household
• Information about your interests

We may also use publicly available sources to keep your information up to date (e.g. the Post Office’s National Change of Address database).  This may include information found in places such as Companies House or the electoral role or published information.

When we collect information as you use our website 

In running and maintaining our website we may collect and process information about your use of our site including details of your visits, such as pages viewed and the resources that you access. Such information includes traffic data, location data and other communication data.

Wherever possible we use aggregated or anonymous information which does not identify individual visitors to our website.  

Like most websites, we use “cookies” to help us make our site – and the way you use it – better. Cookies mean that a website will remember you. They’re small text files that sites transfer to your computer (or phone or tablet). They make interacting with a website faster and easier – for example by remembering your preference settings and automatically filling your name and address in text fields.

See our web browser cookies policy for details on how we use cookies and how you can control your cookie preferences.

Job applicants – personal information

As part of our recruitment process, Trees for Cities collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. Your information will be shared internally only for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. If your application is unsuccessful, the charity will hold your data on file for six months after the end of the relevant recruitment process. If you agree, we may hold your data for a further six months for consideration for future employment opportunities. 

If your application is successful your personal information will be processed in accordance with your employment contract and other applicable human resources policies we have. This information will be stored in a confidential HR file and retained during your employment. 

Special categories of personal data

Data protection law recognises that certain categories of personal information are sensitive. These special categories cover health information, race, religious beliefs and political opinions.

We do not collect special categories of personal data about our supporters unless there is a clear reason for doing so - such as the collection of data about age and race at community and volunteer planting days to satisfy funder requirements, or for participation in a marathon or fundraising event where this information is needed to provide appropriate facilities or support to enable you to participate. Clear notification will be provided on applications for such events so that it is clear what information we need and why we need it.

We do not knowingly collect any personal information from a child without the consent of the child's parent(s). Children under the age of 16 should obtain parental consent before donating or ordering from our website.  All Trees for Cities events will have clear rules on whether or not children can take part, and the collection of data will be managed in accordance with each individual event, with appropriate safeguards in place.

We collect some data automatically:  If you are simply browsing our website as an anonymous visitor, Trees for Cities may still receive certain information from you, such as your IP address (a number that uniquely identifies a specific computer or other network device on the internet). We collect this for security purposes (e.g. to block disruptive use) and to enable us to track the number of visits and visitors’ geographic locations.

We collect personal information only in connection with specific and necessary activities for use in a number of ways, including for the following purposes:

• To provide you with the services or information you have requested;
• To update you about any changes to our services;
• To administer your donation, including Gift Aid processing;
• To help us improve our services, campaigns or information provision;
• To personalise the way Trees for Cities content is presented to you; where we provide personalised services, we may analyse the information you supply so that we can offer more relevant, tailored information.  
• To contact you where you have been identified as a contact person for an organisation, such as a school.  (If we obtain your contact details in this way we will only use them to contact you in the ways in which you have agreed to be contacted);
• To invite you to participate in surveys or research about Trees for Cities or our work (participation is always voluntary);
• To analyse website use to improve and update the activities and content offered by Trees for Cities’ website for the most user-friendly navigation experience.  
• To fulfil any sales contracts you have entered into with Trees for Cities;
• To contact you about any content you provide;
• To use IP addresses and device identifiers to block disruptive use and  establish the number of visits from different countries; 
• To allow you to participate in interactive features on our website when you choose to do so, e.g., we may help you complete forms by inserting your contact details for you to edit
• When we are legally required to hold certain personal information to fulfil statutory obligations, e.g. for the collection of Gift Aid.
• For marketing purposes where you have specifically, actively and freely consented to receive marketing communications from us;
• We will also hold information about your details so that we can respect your preferences for being contacted by us;
• We may also need to analyse personal data to detect and reduce fraud and credit risk.

Targeted fundraising activity

We carry out targeted fundraising activity to ensure that we are contacting you with appropriate, relevant and timely information that will ultimately provide an improved experience for you as a supporter of Trees for Cities.

In doing so we may use profiling techniques or use third party wealth screening companies and insight companies to provide us with more detailed information about you. Such information is compiled using publicly available data about you, or information that you have already provided to us.

This activity assists us in understanding more about the people who support us and helps us to make appropriate requests to supporters who may have the desire and means to consider making a major donation towards one of our projects.

You can opt out of your data being used for profiling and wealth screening by contacting our marketing and communications team at Trees for Cities, Prince Consort Lodge, Kennington Park, London SE11 4AS.  Email: info@treesforcities.org – tel: 020 7587 1320.

Trees for Cities will only contact you for marketing purposes if you have provided us with specific, active and freely given consent to do so.  

When we collect any personal information on our website you will be given the option to receive communications from us by post, SMS, email and telephone, and specify what information you would like to receive.

If you have provided us with consent to use your details for marketing purposes, then we may also contact you about our projects and fundraising activities and other ways to support us

Changing your communication choices

If at any time you wish to change how we communicate with you, or update the information we hold, please get in touch with our Marketing and Communications Team:

• Write to: The Marketing & Communications Team, Trees for Cities, Prince Consort Lodge, Kennington Park, Kennington Park Road, London SE11 4A
• Email: info@treesforcities.org
• Call (Mon-Fri 0900-1700): 020 7587 1320

All such requests will be actioned within 28 days.  You can also update your preferences by clicking on the button at the end of all email communications.

We place great importance on the security of your personal information and take appropriate measures to ensure that the information disclosed to us is kept secure.

We undertake regular reviews of who has access to information we hold to ensure that personal data is only accessible by appropriately trained staff and contractors.

Despite all of our precautions however, no data transmission over the internet (including email) can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.  So, whilst we strive to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of any information which you disclose to us online, and you must understand that you do so at your own risk. 

International transfers of personal information:   
For financial and technical reasons on occasion we use the services of a supplier outside the European Economic Area.  

In such cases we take steps to put in place suitable safeguards to protect your personal information when processed by the supplier, such as the application of EU approved standard contractual clauses. If you would like to receive further information about our safeguards, please contact Trees for Cities’ Data Protection Lead Trees for Cities, Prince Consort Lodge, Kennington Park, London SE11 4AS, or email dataprotection@treesforcities.org

For a list of organisations with which we work that are based outside of the EEA, please click here 

Security–confidential financial information

All payments made through our website are encrypted using secure SSL technology transaction protocols.

If you use your credit or debit card to donate to us or make a payment online or over the phone, we will ensure that this is done securely and fully in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) to protect personal and sensitive financial information from theft and fraud.  
https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/pci_security/

When you make a donation on-line, we ask for your name, address, e-mail address, and credit card information.  We use your information to process your donation(s) and to verify credit card data. We may use your mailing address to send you thank you letters and receipt confirmation, and unless you have opted out of this option, we may also use your postal address to keep you informed about how your donation is helping us achieve our mission, along with news and other ways to get involved.

We do not store your credit or debit card details following the completion of your transaction.  All card details and security codes are destroyed once the payment or donation has been processed by staff who are authorised and trained to process payments.

We will never sell your details to other organisations.

We use third party services such as printers and email service providers to assist with mailings and provide them with encrypted files of names/addresses/email addresses. We always implement a contract with suppliers which imposes robust data protection requirements, including the provisions of this policy, to provide maximum protection of your personal details.  

If we run an event in partnership with other organisations your details may need to be shared.  In such cases we will make it clear what happens to your data when you register, and we will ensure that the partner organisation keeps your data secure, and does not use it for their own purposes.

We will also comply with legal requests where disclosure is required by law (for example to government bodies for tax purposes, or to law enforcement agencies for the prevention and detection of crime), subject to such bodies providing us with a formal and relevant request in writing.

Under new data legislation everyone has “the right to be forgotten”. We will only keep your data as long as it may be necessary to comply with legal requirements and tax and accounting rules.  

We will retain all information regarding your gift aid contributions for 7 years to comply with legislation. If we have had no interaction with you after this time has passed, we will anonymise all information regarding Gift Aid that we store on you.

To carry out legacy administration and to communicate effectively with the families of people leaving us legacies, it may be necessary to keep certain data provided indefinitely.  This also enables us to identify and analyse the source of legacy income we receive.

You retain the control of how we use your personal information, and have the right to ask us to stop processing this data.  If it is not necessary for the purpose you provided it for (e.g. processing your donation or registering you for an event), we will do so.   You can also enter your details on the Fundraising Preference Service (FPS) website and once you have made a request through the FPS we will ensure that your new preferences take effect within one calendar month of your request.

If you have indicated that you do not wish to be contacted for marketing purposes, we will maintain your details on a suppression list.  However, we may still need to contact you for administrative purposes, including (but not limited to):

• Processing a donation you have made and any related Gift Aid
• Providing you with the information you need in order to participate in an activity or event for which you have registered
• Explaining and apologising if we have made a mistake.

You also have the right to request a copy of the personal information Trees for Cities holds about you.  For this we require you to prove your identity with a copy of one of the below:    

• Passport
• Driving licence
• Birth certificate
• Utility Bill (from last 3 months)
• Current vehicle registration document
• Bank statement (from last 3 months)
• Rent book (from last 3 months) 

If you want to access your personal information please contact:  Data Protection Lead, at Trees for Cities, Prince Consort Lodge, Kennington Park, London SE11 4AS (email: dataprotection@treesforcities.org).  

Under the General Data Protection Regulation which became law in the UK on 25 May 2018, you are also granted a number of additional rights. These include:

• The right to rectification
• The right to erasure
• The right to data portability
• The right to object
• Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling.

For more information on these rights please read the relevant guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/.

Complaints: if you would like to make a complaint about how we process your personal data, please contact: Data Protection Lead, Trees for Cities, Prince Consort Lodge, Kennington Park, London SE11 4AS (email: dataprotection@treesforcities.org). If you are not happy with the way your complaint is dealt with, you should contact the Information Commissioner’s Office: https://ico.org.uk/concerns/. You are entitled to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office without first referring your complaint to us.

When we collect and use your personal information, we will make sure this is only done in accordance with at least one of the legal grounds available to us under Data Protection law.

One of these is where we have obtained your specific consent to use your information for a previously notified purpose, such as to send you email/text marketing or to provide you with a product, service or information at your request.

In certain instances we may collect and use personal information where this is necessary in our legitimate interest as a charity. This includes being able to:

• Send direct marketing material to supporters by post or email, or contact them by telephone or SMS for fundraising purposes (subject to checking records held by Fundraising Preference Service (FPR), the Telephone Preference Service (TPR) and the Mailing Preference Services (MPS) and any other marketing preference services)
• Conduct research to better understand who our supporters are and better target our fundraising activity;
• Monitor who we deal with to protect our charity against fraud, money laundering and other risks;
• Maintain and administer our donor database and systems.
• Another is where we have a legal obligation to use or disclose information about you – for instance, where we are ordered by a court or regulatory authority, or we are legally required to hold donor transaction details for Gift Aid or accounting/tax purposes.

In all cases, we balance our legitimate interests against your rights as an individual and make sure we only use personal information for a purpose that you would reasonably expect in accordance with this policy, and in a way that does not intrude on your privacy or previously expressed marketing preferences.

This policy may change from time to time.  If we make any significant changes we will publicise them clearly on our website or contact you directly with more information.

The date of the most recent revision will appear on this page. 

Date of Last Revision: 24 May 2018

To enable us to determine which of our emails are more interesting to our users, Trees for Cities emails may contain a single tracking pixel. This pixel can allow us to see whether emails are opened and also which links people click the most. The pixel will be deleted when you delete the email.

If you do not wish the pixel to be downloaded to your device, please set your email client to receive plain text emails from us.

If you opt in to receive emails then you are giving your consent to receive emails from us, which can include including our e-news, breaking news updates, job opportunities, volunteering opportunities, and information about fundraising, based on your preferences. You can unsubscribe from email by clicking the unsubscribe link in any of our emails at any time.

By using our website, our social media pages (such as Facebook), subscribing to our services, donating and/or shopping online you agree that we can place the types of cookies set out below on your device, and use your data in accordance with this policy.

Changing your cookie preferences – or turning cookies off:  Should you wish to remove or not use cookies from our site, the ‘Help’ menu in the toolbar of most browsers will tell you how to change your browser’s cookie settings, including how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, and how to disable cookies altogether.

Doing so, however, is likely to substantially limit the functionality of our website and that of most others, as cookies are a standard part of modern websites.   

TIP: rather than switching off all cookies in your browser you may find that anti-spyware software achieves the same objective by automatically deleting cookies considered to be invasive.

Helpful information on the use of cookies, their regulation and how it might it affect you, and how you can control your cookies is available on the website of the Information Commissioner’s Office at ICO-cookies-regulation and control.  

This website also advises how to report any concerns you might have.

Our website uses cookies, as do most others, to enable us to provide you with the best experience we can.  

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that is downloaded on to your computer when you visit a website. Cookies can do a number of things, e.g. allow information about your visit to be recorded, remember preferences, and count the number of people visiting a website. 

Our cookies do not store personally identifiable information. 
None of the data we get from cookies will contain information that will enable anyone to contact you via telephone, email, or any other means. Tracking is limited to this site and is not shared with third party advertisers.

The rules on cookies are covered by the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. These Regulations were revised in 2011, and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) - with whom we are registered - is responsible for enforcing these rules.

Our cookies help us to:

• make our website work as you need and expect, and provide a more personalised service; 
• remember your settings during and between visits, and whether you have accepted our terms and conditions;
• allow you to add comments to our site;
• remember if we have already asked you certain questions (e.g. you declined to use our app, or to take a survey);
• improve the speed and security of the site;
• allow you to share pages with social networks like Facebook.

Types of cookie

1.   Necessary cookies

These cookies are essential to enable you to move around the website and use its features, such as accessing secure areas.  Without these cookies, services you have asked for cannot be provided.

2.   Performance cookies

These cookies allow us to analyse how visitors use our website and to monitor website and campaign performance so that we can provide a high quality experience and determine how effective our communications and campaigns are.  We may also use cookies at times to evaluate our ordering process and make it as customer friendly as possible.  All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous.  They are only used to improve how a website works.

3.   Functionality cookies

These cookies allow the website to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language or the region you are in) and provide enhanced, more personal features. They may also be used to provide services you have asked for such as watching a video or commenting on a blog. The information these cookies collect can be anonymised and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.

4.   Targeting cookies

These cookies are used to deliver adverts relevant to supporters’ interests.

Our website uses Google Analytics to enable us to compile non-personally identifiable visitor statistics in order to evaluate what is working well, what needs improving, and monitor how website behaviour relates to the full supporter experience.

Information about your use of the website is stored securely by Google on servers in the United States, and is used to compile automated reports on website activity. Google may also transfer this information to third parties if required to do so by law. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.

By using Trees for Cities’ website you consent to the processing of data about you by Google for the purposes set out above.   

For information on how Google Analytics safeguards your data and privacy, please read their ‘Safeguarding Your Data’ statement.