Privacy Policy | Greater Chicago Food Depository

The Greater Chicago Food Depository (“the Food Depository,” “we,” or “us,” or “our”) cares deeply about your privacy and recognizes the importance of protecting your personal information. We have developed this Privacy Policy (“Policy”) to explain our practices regarding the collection, use and dissemination of information provided by donors, volunteers and advocates (“Supporters”), individuals who ask us for help obtaining food, benefits and other services (“Program Participants”), and by visitors (“Visitors”) to our websites (“Sites”).

We encourage you to read this Privacy Policy thoroughly so that you may fully understand your rights. The Policy is designed to provide you with information regarding the following topics:

Personal Information We May Collect
How We May Use Your Personal Information
How We May Share Your Personal Information
How We Endeavor To Keep Your Personal Information Secure
Accessing and Correcting Your Information
Cookies and Analytics; Your Advertising Choices
Privacy of Minors
Other Websites and Social Media Buttons
Choices/Opt Outs
Policy Changes
How To Contact Us

If, after reviewing this Policy, you have additional questions, please contact us through any of the methods identified in Section 11 below.

1. Personal Information We May Collect

Supporters: We collect personal information in a variety of ways depending on how you interact with us, which may include your name, email address, home or billing address, telephone number, or demographic information including your age or gender. We also collect records of the amount, date, and manner of any donations. We collect personal information when you visit our Sites or communicate with us. For example, our Sites provide a number of forms on which we request information from Supporters to make donations, volunteer, and sign up to receive communications about hunger and nutrition initiatives. We also collect personal information from Supporters who attend Food Depository events and organize virtual food drives and fundraisers.

We use third-party services to process credit card payments for donations and merchandise sales. Credit card information is retained by the third-party services only as long as is necessary to complete the transaction (or for the duration of automatic recurring donations) and is subject to the third-party service’s privacy policy. Credit card information is not shared by the third-party services directly with, or maintained by, the Food Depository.

Program Participants: We collect personal information that you provide to us when you seek information about services, such as food supply and assistance in applying for public benefits, or when visiting our network of partners. Depending on the form you are completing and the program you’re interested in, we may collect personal information such as name, address, date of birth, phone number, and similar information. We use software to collect personal information about Program Participants who visit many of our affiliated food pantries in order to make visits as quick and efficient as possible.

Site Visitors: We may collect personal information from you automatically when you visit our Sites, which may include your IP address, your device and browser type, information about your interaction with our Sites and digital advertisements. For more information, please see Section 6 below regarding Cookies and Analytics; Your Advertising Choices.

2. How We May Use Your Personal Information

Supporters: The Food Depository may use your personal information in order to advance our mission to end hunger for purposes such as:

Communicating with you and establishing a relationship about the Food Depository’s programs, needs, and initiatives surrounding hunger and nutrition
Engaging in marketing campaigns
Processing donations and merchandise sales, and sending donation receipts
Organizing and planning activities and events surrounding volunteering and fundraising
Learning about supporters and soliciting feedback, such as by conducting surveys
Responding to your comments, questions and requests

Program Participants: The Food Depository may use your personal information in order to provide services to further our mission to end hunger for purposes such as:

Communicating with you and establishing a relationship about the Food Depository’s network of programs and services
Assisting you to apply for services you may be eligible for, such as public benefits
Connecting you with services you have requested or indicated an interest in
Soliciting feedback, such as by conducting surveys
Conducting research and analysis. Any reports will not identify you or other Program Participants individually, but will discuss program participants in groups or as a whole.
Responding to your comments, questions and requests

Site Visitors: We may use personal information about your use of our Sites for purposes such as to monitor and improve our Sites; for internal business analysis; to prevent fraud and activities that are illegal; and to protect our rights and the rights and safety of our Program Participants, Supporters and others.

To opt-out of receiving communications from the Food Depository, please contact us as explained in Section 11 below.

3. How We May Share Your Information

Supporters: We may share your personal information with service providers that assist with our operations, including through payment processing, verifying supporter information, facilitating scheduling and email communications, providing security services and cloud-based data storage, hosting our Sites and assistance with other IT-related functions, and with third parties such as ad networks, internet service providers, and other commercial entities, which may use it for targeted advertising and marketing of our and other services, providing analytics and measurement information, and other functions that help us and others build support for our programs and the programs of third parties. (See Section 11 regarding how to opt out). We also may publish donors’ names and giving levels in public documents such as our annual report in order to recognize their support, unless requested otherwise.

Program Participants: Our network of affiliated food pantries may use your information for food distribution services. If you choose to apply for SNAP benefits or other public benefits and provide consent, your information will be shared with the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) for purposes of assistance, coordination, services and communication. We may share your personal information with service providers that assist with our operations, including those providing security services and cloud-based data storage, hosting our Sites and assistance with other IT-related functions. We will not share personal information you provide, including mobile information, with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. We obtain signed waivers from Program Participants when we collect stories and photos/video for use in public communications and marketing activities. We will not publish personal information about you without consent.

Supporters and Program Participants: We may disclose your personal information as required or permitted by law to comply with a court order, subpoena or similar legal process, regulatory requirement, or other governmental obligation; in connection with an acquisition, reorganization or divestiture; or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is legally permitted or otherwise necessary to protect our or others’ rights, property, or safety, including to law enforcement agencies, and judicial and regulatory authorities. Additionally, we may disclose your personal information to third parties to help detect and protect against fraud or data security vulnerabilities and for other purposes that we disclose.

All the above categories exclude text messaging originator op-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.

4. How We Endeavor to Keep Your Personal Information Secure

We employ a number of measures designed to protect the personal information we collect. Physical, technical and administrative measures are used to protect the security, confidentiality and integrity of personal information. However, security risk is inherent in all internet and information technologies, and we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information. There are also steps you can take to better protect against unauthorized access to your personal information. For example, you should choose a strong password that is unique and not reuse passwords across multiple sites and services or share your password with others.

5. Accessing and Correcting Your Information

You can contact us to review personal information that may have been collected about you and to correct any errors. For more information about contacting us, please see Section 11 below. We may not be able to accommodate all requests, such as those that would impact record retention, violate any law or legal requirement, or cause the information to be incorrect.

6. Cookies and Analytics; Your Advertising Choices

Cookies are small, sometimes encrypted text files that are stored on a visitor’s device by websites that you visit to uniquely identify the visitor’s browser or to store information or settings in the browser for the purpose of helping you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, enabling functionality, helping us understand user activity and patterns, and facilitating analytics activities. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, please visit www.allaboutcookies.org. Web beacons are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, which are embedded invisibly on web pages. We and third parties may use web beacons (also known as clear GIFs, web bugs, pixel tags, or action tags, among other names), in connection with our Sites to perform functions like tracking the activities of visitors to our Sites, helping us manage content, and compiling statistics about usage of our Sites and services. We and third parties may also use pixel tags in emails to help us track email response rates, identify when our emails are viewed, and track whether our emails are forwarded.

When you visit the Sites, we may place a “cookie” or other online tracking device (e.g., web beacons) that recognizes you when you visit them. These are used for technical convenience to store information. For instance, we may use a session cookie to store form information that you have entered so that you do not have to enter such information again. We may use information stored in such text files and images to customize your experience on this Site and to monitor use of this Site. You may set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie. Many web browsers also allow you to block cookies. If you block cookies, you may not be able to access certain parts of this Site. You can disable cookies from your computer system by following the instructions on your browser or at www.youradchoices.com.

We use Google Analytics to evaluate the use of our Sites. Google Analytics uses cookies and other identifiers to collect information, including personal information such as how often users visit the Sites, what pages they visit, and what other websites they visited prior to and after visiting our Sites. To learn more about how Google Analytics collects personal information, review Google’s Privacy Policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US#infocollect.

7. Privacy of Minors

The Food Depository’s Sites are not intended for use by minors under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from minors in violation of applicable law. If a parent or guardian believes their minor child has provided personal information to us, please contact us as described in Section 11.

8. Other Websites and Social Media Buttons

Our Sites may contain links to other websites or social media buttons. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of those websites or social media platforms. This Privacy Policy applies only to our organization and the personal information we collect.

9. Choices/Opt Outs

You have the following choices with respect to your personal information:

Marketing communications to Supporters. You may opt out of marketing emails by following the opt-out or unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of the email or by contacting us as described in Section 11. You may continue to receive service-related, transactional and other non-marketing emails or communications. Message and data rates may apply to text messages. To stop receiving text messages, reply STOP to the number from which you received the text message. Read additional information regarding our mobile terms and conditions for Supporters.
Supporter information shared with commercial entities. As a Supporter, you may opt-out of the sharing of your personal information with commercial entities for marketing purposes by others by contacting us as described in Section 11.
Cookies. Most browsers let you remove and/or stop accepting cookies from the websites you visit. To do this, follow the instructions in your browser’s settings. Many browsers accept cookies by default until you change your settings. If you do not accept cookies, however, you may not be able to use all functionality of the Sites, and our Sites may not work properly. For more information about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set on your browser and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.
Analytics. We and third-party analytics providers use cookies and tracking technologies. You may adjust your cookie settings by following the directions directly above. You must opt out on each browser and on each device.
Do Not Track. Some internet browsers may be configured to send “Do Not Track” signals to the online services that you visit. We currently do not respond to “Do Not Track” or similar signals.
Decline to Provide Personal or Other Information. We need to collect personal information to provide certain services. If you do not provide the information requested, we may not be able to provide those services.

10. Policy Changes

We will review and update this Policy as required to keep current with rules and regulations, new technologies and security standards. We will post those changes on the Sites with an updated date of the Policy.

11. How to Contact Us

Please let us know if you have any questions regarding this Policy or to request a copy of the Policy in an alternative format.

Website: Send us a message through this Site using the webform (https://www.chicagosfoodbank.org/contact/?subject=privacy-policy). Please reference the Privacy Policy in your subject line.

Mail
Greater Chicago Food Depository
4100 West Ann Lurie Place
Chicago, IL 60632
Attention: Privacy Policy

Telephone: 773-247-3663 during business hours (8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday through Friday)