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CAFOD

At CAFOD, we are committed to protecting personal information and we take our responsibilities regarding the security of supporter and volunteer information very seriously.

This privacy notice explains what personal data we collect about you, how and why we use it, who we disclose it to and how we protect it.

Who is CAFOD?

CAFOD is the official aid agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Inspired by Gospel values and as part of the Catholic community of England and Wales, we come together in partnership with others, locally and globally:

  • To reach those in greatest need, save lives and relieve suffering.

  • To support and enable people, communities and our local partners to be artisans of their own destiny.

  • To challenge and transform the structures and behaviours that drive poverty, vulnerability, inequality, injustice and exclusion and harm the natural world.

  • To educate, enable and inspire the Catholic community of England and Wales to act in solidarity for the common good.

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Who is responsible for your data?

Our Privacy Notice applies to the personal data that CAFOD collects and uses.

References in this Privacy Notice to “CAFOD,” “we,” “us” or “our” mean the CATHOLIC AGENCY FOR OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT, a charity registered in England and Wales (number 1160384) and a company limited by guarantee no 09387398. Our registered office is Romero House, 55 Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7JB.

We are the “data controller” for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018.

We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office, registration number ZA106788.

CAFOD has a designated Data Protection Officer who can be contacted via dataprotection@cafod.org.uk.

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Personal data we collect about you

When using the term “personal data” in our Privacy Notice, we mean information that relates to you and allows us to identify you, either directly or in combination with other information that we may hold.

We collect some personal data from you, for example, when you donate to us, use our website, use our services or contact us.

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What data we collect and when

We may collect and process the following categories of information about you:

Personal information, including contact details

For example, your name, postal address, telephone number and date of birth (where relevant).

We collect this when you contact us or donate by post, telephone or on our website.

Bank details

We and our authorised third-party payment processors collect your banking information (name, sort code and account number) or credit card details (name, number, CVV code or date of expiration).

We collect this when you make a donation online or by phone, set up a regular gift (e.g., direct debit or standing order) with us or send us a cheque in the post. We only retain your financial information for the purposes of collecting a direct debit but not when it is processed by an accredited third-party payment processor. All credit/debit card financial information processed by CAFOD is redacted.

Communications

We may collect information about you whenever you interact with us by email, post or phone. For example, when you contact CAFOD regarding our activities, send or receive information, register for an event or to receive news updates, make a donation or register for gift aid. 

Third-party information

We collect contact details and other information indirectly from third parties such as:

  • Fundraise Up, our online donations provider, capture and share information with us about the CAFOD webpage, email, QR code, Meta (Facebook, Instagram), Google or other social advertising you clicked from to arrive at our donation page. We use this data to measure and improve the effectiveness of our marketing efforts. Find out more about CAFOD's use of Fundraise Up

  • Our raffle provider, Woods Group Ltd, captures the last CAFOD email, advertisement, social media post or page on the CAFOD website you clicked before arriving at our raffle website, and is appended to your supporter record when you join the raffle.

  • Event organisers (eg marathon organisers) or fundraising sites like JustGiving, where you have agreed to support CAFOD.

  • When you have provided permission for a company or other organisation to share your data with third parties, including charities. This could be when you buy a product or service or register for an online competition.

Non-personalised data

Websites

We collect non-personalised information about how our websites are used, such as your searches for information, non-personal data such as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, details of webpages visited and files downloaded. Website usage information is collected using cookies.

Please see the section on cookies below. This information is collected when you use our websites.

Social media

We collect your posts and messages when you interact directly with CAFOD on social media.

This information is collected when you use platforms such as Meta’s Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), Instagram or LinkedIn.

Recruitment

We collect personal data as part of our staff or volunteer recruitment processes.

This information is collected when you apply for a job or for volunteering opportunities with CAFOD.

Legacy administration

We collect personal data necessary for legacy administration.

This information is collected when a supporter has died, leaving a legacy to CAFOD, and you are the executor, or you have an interest in the estate.

Special Category data

We collect and use personal data that you provide to us, as CAFOD supporters, to contact you and inform you about CAFOD’s activities. We recognise that many of our supporters (but not all) hold religious beliefs and, as this is defined as a special category of personal data, we put in place procedures to ensure that additional security and access restrictions are applied to all the personal data CAFOD holds, in accordance with UK GDPR data processing principles and the Data Protection Act 2018.

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Sharing your personal data

CAFOD does not share your data with any other charity, public body or commercial organisation for their marketing purposes.

We may disclose your personal information to third parties if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligations, or in order to enforce or apply any agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of the organisation, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of safeguarding or other statutory regulations we have to comply with.

We will share your personal information with those organisations with whom we have reciprocal agreements for providing services for fulfilment, joint campaigns or other actions in line with our charitable purposes.

We may share your email address, in a way that cannot be used for any other purpose, with social media companies like Meta (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram), X (formerly known as Twitter) or LinkedIn, in order to exclude you from CAFOD appeals being advertised on that platform. Social media companies do not use or retain this information for any other purpose. More details follow under Profiling and Research.

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