Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Revised: May 18, 2026

This privacy notice (“Privacy Notice”) for International Relief Teams (“we,” “us,” or “our”), describes how and why we might collect, store, use, and/or share (“process”) your information when you visit our website at http://www.irteams.org, or any website of ours that links to this Privacy Notice.

BY USING OR ACCESSING OUR WEBSITE IN ANY MANNER, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU ACCEPT THE PRACTICES AND POLICIES OUTLINED IN THIS PRIVACY NOTICE, AND YOU HEREBY CONSENT TO OUR PROCESSING OF YOUR INFORMATION IN THE WAYS DESCRIBED HEREIN. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS PRIVACY NOTICE, YOU MAY NOT USE OUR WEBSITE.

SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS

This summary provides key points from our Privacy Notice, but you can find out more details about any of these topics by clicking the link following each key point or by using our TABLE OF CONTENTS below to find the section you are looking for.

What personal information do we process? When you visit, use, or navigate our website, we may process information that identifies, relates to, describes, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with you (“Personal Information” or “your information”), depending on how you interact with us, the choices you make and the features you use. Learn more about the types of Personal Information that we collect about you in the section below entitled “WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?”

Do we process any sensitive personal information? We do not process sensitive personal information except in limited circumstance.  This may include gender or pronoun preferences voluntarily provided by our volunteers, employees, contractors, or donors, and certain essential health or medical information collected from employees or volunteers solely for emergency or safety purposes.  We do not collect or store sensitive financial information. Any payment details you provide while making a donation through our website are processed exclusively by our third party Payment Processors (as defined below), which uses industry‑standard Transport Layer Security encryption. Such financial information never passes through or resides on our servers. Learn more about the types of sensitive personal information that we collect about you in the section below entitled “WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?”

How do we process your Personal Information? We may process your Personal Information to support and advance our mission and operations. This includes, without limitation, to operate and improve our website, develop and administer our programs and charitable initiatives, communicate with you, prevent fraud or misuse, and comply with legal requirements. We may also process your information for other purposes with your consent. Learn more about how we process your information in the section below entitled “HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?” and “WHAT LEGAL BASES DO WE RELY ON TO PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?”

Do we share your Personal Information with third parties? We may share Personal Information in specific situations and with specific third parties. Learn more about when and with whom we share your Personal Information in the section below entitled “WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION WITH.”

How do we keep your information safe? We have organizational and technical processes and procedures in place to protect your Personal Information. However, no electronic transmission over the internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information. Learn more about how we protect your information in the section below entitled “HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE?”

What are your rights with respect to your Personal Information? Depending on where you are located geographically, you may have certain rights regarding your Personal Information.   If  you reside in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), United Kingdom (“UK”), or Canada, you can learn more about what privacy rights, if any, that you have in the section below entitled “DO RESIDENTS OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA (EEA), UNITED KINGDOM (UK), AND CANADA HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?”  If you reside in California, you can learn more about what privacy rights, if any, that you have in the section below entitled “DO RESIDENTS OF CALIFORNIA HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?”

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?
  2. HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?
  3. WHAT LEGAL BASES DO WE RELY ON TO PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?
  4. WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION WITH?
  5. PRIVACY POLICIES OF THIRD PARTIES AND EXTERNAL LINKS.
  6. DO WE USE COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES?
  7. DO WE USE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE?
  8. HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?
  9. HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE?
  10. DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM MINORS?
  11. WHAT CHOICES DO YOU HAVE REGARDING YOUR INFORMATION?
  12. DO RESIDENTS OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA (EEA), UNITED KINGDOM (UK), AND CANADA HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?
  13. DO CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?
  14. CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURES
  15. INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS?
  16. DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE?
  17. HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?

1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

Personal information you disclose to us

In Short: We collect Personal Information that you provide to us.

 

We collect Personal Information that you voluntarily provide to us when you interact with us through our website or otherwise.  This includes without limitation when you use our website or volunteer or participate in our programs or express an interest in obtaining information about our organization, mission, programs, and other charitable activities.  The Personal Information that we collect depends on the context of your interactions with us, the choices you make, and the programs and features of our website that you use.  Examples of the types of Personal Information that we may collect about you, include without limitation:

  • Identifying Information. We may collect information that identifies you such as your name, nickname, social media account names; birthdate; phone numbers; email addresses; and mailing addresses.
  • Characteristics of Protected Classifications Under California or U.S. Law. We may collect information about your age, gender, marital status, and pro-noun preference.
  • Payment/Donation Data. When you make a donation, we collect only the information necessary for us to acknowledge your gift and maintain accurate donation records. This may include your name, contact information, donation amount and type, donation date, and any preferences you share (e.g., newsletter opt ins or program interests). We do not collect or store any sensitive payment information (including payment card numbers, security codes, bank account details, or other financial data). Donations and other payments are processed by third party payment processing vendors we engage (“Payment Processors”), which specialize in handling payment transactions securely. These Payment Processors implement industry standard security safeguards intended to protect payment information throughout the transaction process. We do not intentionally collect or store full payment card information on our own systems. Our primary Payment Processors include FundraiseUp (which provides the donation forms, donor communications, and overall donor experience) and Stripe (which manages secure payment processing and payouts). FundraiseUp and Stripe store and secure the related payment data on our behalf. You may review FundraiseUp’s privacy policy at: https://fundraiseup.com/privacy/ and Stripe’s privacy policy at: https://stripe.com/privacy. If you donate through a donor advised fund, your fund information is collected and stored by DAFwidget (provided by MarketSmart L.L.C.). Their privacy policy is available at: https://dafwidget.com/terms-and-privacy-policy/.
  • Audio and Visual Information. We may collect certain audio or visual information in the course of interacting with you through our website and fundraising activities. For example, we may collect information from you during your use of a telephone or mobile device to access our website. We may also record your voice when you contact our customer service lines, including when you leave voicemail messages. In addition, we may collect photographs or video recordings of you if you attend our promotional or fundraising events where such media is captured. We may also receive and retain images, videos, or audio recordings that you voluntarily provide to us (for example, by email, through our website, or as part of a program or testimonial submission).
  • Professional or Employment-Related Information. We may collect information about your profession and employment history when you apply to be a volunteer, employee or other service provider.
  • Non-Public Education Information. If you apply to be a volunteer, employee or other service provider of International Relief Teams, you may voluntarily provide us, and we may collect, the name of the school(s) you attended and other information relating to your secondary and post-secondary education, including any graduate or professional degrees you have obtained.
  • Other Categories of Personal Information that Relates to or is Reasonably Capable of Being Associated With You. We may collect information from your interactions with our social media pages, networks, chat features, or other services that host user generated content. This may include content you post publicly (such as comments on our Facebook or Instagram posts), as well as information you share when you tag us, mention us, or otherwise link to our social media accounts. We may also collect information related to your engagement with our organization, such as the causes or programs you express interest in, the types of fundraising events or initiatives you participate in, and the causes to which you have donated. In addition, when relevant to your involvement with us (for example, as a volunteer or program participant), we may collect certain practical details you provide—such as your construction or other volunteer related skills, T shirt size, flight or travel preferences, types of travel documents used for international travel, and other information inferred from or derived through your communications and interactions with our us and our programs.
  • Sensitive Personal Information. We may collect gender or pro noun preferences that our volunteers, employees, contractors or donors identify with. We may also collect general health information from our volunteers and employees, including one’s blood type, a general description of one’s health, medications currently taking and if you have any allergies.

Information automatically collected

In Short: Some information — such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address and/or browser and device characteristics — is collected automatically when you visit our website.

We automatically collect certain information when you visit, use, or navigate our website. This information does not reveal your specific identity (like your name or contact information), but it may include device and usage information, such as your IP address, browser and device characteristics, operating system, language preferences, referring URLs, device identifiers, approximate location (e.g., country or state), and information about how you interact with our website. This information is primarily needed to maintain the security and operation of our website, and for our internal analytics and reporting purposes.

Like many organizations, we may also collect information using cookies and similar tracking technologies.  Some of the information that we automatically collect includes without limitation:

  • Log and Usage Data. Log and usage data consist of service related, diagnostic, usage, and performance information that our servers automatically collect when you access or use our website. This may include your IP address, device information, browser type and settings, pages or files viewed, search queries, date and time stamps of your visits, actions you take on the website, device event information (such as system activity, error reports, and crash logs), and hardware configurations.
  • ‍Device Data. We collect information about your computer, phone, tablet, or other device you use to access our website. This may include information such as your IP address (or proxy server), device and application identification numbers, location, browser type, hardware model, Internet service provider and/or mobile carrier, operating system, and system configuration information.
  • ‍Location Data. We collect location data such as information about what state and country your device is located depending on the type and settings of the device you use to access our website. You can opt out of allowing us to collect this information either by refusing access to the information or by disabling your location setting on your device. However, if you choose to opt out, you may not be able to use certain aspects of our website.

For more information on how we use and cookies and other
technologies, please see the section entitled: “DO WE USE COOKIES AND OTHER
TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES?”

Information from third parties and other sources.

In Short:  We may collect Personal Information about you from other sources, including without limitation your company/organization, professional and personal references, our service providers, social media networks, public forums and other third parties.  

We may receive some of the Personal Information described above from a variety of third-party sources in the course of our nonprofit activities. These sources may include, without limitation:

  • Your company or organization, such as when you are listed as a contact for donations, sponsorships, partnerships, matching gift programs, or volunteer coordination.
  • Professional or personal references, including individuals who recommend you for volunteer roles, program participation, or collaborative opportunities.
  • Our service providers, such as fundraising platforms, event registration systems, Payment Processors, analytics services, or technology vendors that assist in operating our programs, website, or outreach activities.
  • Social media networks, including information from your publicly available profile or from content you voluntarily share or interact with on our pages.
  • Public forums or publicly accessible sources, such as online directories, news articles, or publicly shared posts related to our programs or events.
  • Other third parties, such as donors, volunteers, community partners, sponsors, or organizations that collaborate with us and provide information relevant to our mission related work.

We use information obtained from these sources only for purposes consistent with this Privacy Notice and our nonprofit mission, including program administration, donor and volunteer engagement, compliance obligations, and organizational operations.

2. HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?

In Short: We only process your Personal Information when we believe it is necessary and we have a valid legal reason (i.e., legal basis) to do so under applicable law, like with your consent, to comply with laws, to provide you with services to enter into or fulfill our contractual obligations, to protect your rights, or to fulfill our legitimate business interests.

We process your Personal Information for a variety of reasons, depending on how you interact with us.  This includes without limitation:

  • To process donations and sponsorships and fulfill our obligations under any agreement with you. We may process your personal information to receive and manage donations, sponsorships, and related contributions, and to carry out any responsibilities arising from an agreement between you and our organization. To learn more about how we collect, use, and protect donor information, please refer to our Donor Privacy Policy.
  • To respond to and process applications to be a volunteer, employee or other service provider. You may apply to become a volunteer, employee or other service provider to our organization through out website. We will collect information about your application for these positions and will contact you accordingly regarding such interests.
  • To request feedback. We may process your information when necessary to request feedback and to contact you about your use of our website.
  • To respond to your messages and inquiries or to send you communications about our program and charitable work. We may process your information to respond to your messages and requests, provide updates about our programs, initiatives, and charitable activities, send confirmations and acknowledgments (such as donation receipts), and deliver newsletters or other mission related updates if you have subscribed to them. You may opt out of receiving our newsletter communications at any time.
  • To fundraise in accordance with our internal policies and procedures. We may use your Personal Information to carry out our fundraising efforts in accordance with our internal policies and procedures. This includes organizing and managing events you have registered for or that we believe may be of interest to you, as well as providing information about event content, speakers, sponsors, other participants, and activities related to our events, programs, and charitable initiatives. We may also use your information to help plan, evaluate, and improve our fundraising strategies, program development, and future organizational objectives.
  • To deliver targeted advertising to you. We may process your information to develop and display personalized content and advertising tailored to your interests, location, and more, including without limitation sending you emails about charitable causes and initiatives that we are working on that we think you may be interested in hearing about.
  • To identify usage trends and to improve our website. We may process information about how you use our website to better understand how they are being used so we can improve them and to ensure that content is presented most effectively for you and our users.
  • To evaluate and improve our outreach and engagement efforts. We may process your information to help assess the effectiveness of our communications, fundraising messages, and other mission related outreach, so that we can provide updates and opportunities that are most relevant and meaningful to our supporters, volunteers, and community partners.
  • To save or protect an individual's vital interest or life. We may process your information when necessary to save or protect an individual’s vital interest, such as to prevent harm or life threatening situations.
  • To transfer your information in connection with organizational transitions. We may process or disclose your information as part of a merger, consolidation, restructuring, transfer of assets, or other organizational change involving our nonprofit. This may include sharing information with another nonprofit organization, charitable entity, fiscal sponsor, or successor organization in the event that some or all of our programs, operations, or assets are transferred.
  • To comply with applicable law. We may process or disclose your information as necessary to comply with applicable laws, regulations, court orders, subpoenas, legal investigations, reporting obligations, or other lawful requests from government authorities. This may include disclosures required for tax reporting, grant compliance, charitable solicitations registrations, audit requirements, or other legal or regulatory obligations relevant to nonprofit organizations.
  • To administer our website, program strategies, charitable activities and internal operations. We may process your Personal Information to support the effective functioning of our website, programs, and charitable initiatives, as well as for internal operational purposes. These activities may include, without limitation, troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical reporting, and survey administration, all of which help us maintain, improve, and evaluate our organizational performance and mission related work.

To administer our website, program strategies and charitable activities and for our internal operations. We may process your personal information to administer our website, program strategies and charitable activities and for internal operations, including without limitation, for troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes.

3. WHAT LEGAL BASIS DO WE RELY ON TO PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?

In Short: We only process your personal information when we believe it is necessary and we have a valid legal reason (i.e., legal basis) to do so under applicable law, like with your consent, to comply with laws, to provide you with services to enter into or fulfill our contractual obligations, to protect your rights, or to fulfill our legitimate business interests.

If you are located in the EEA or UK, this section applies to you.

The General Data Protection Regulation and United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation require us to explain the valid legal bases we rely on in order to process your Personal Information. The legal basis or bases that we collect and process your Personal Information for will depend on your relationship with us and/or your interaction with our website.  Examples of legal bases on which we rely to collect and process your Personal Information include without limitation:

  • Consent. We may process your information if you have given us permission (i.e., consent) to use your Personal Information for a specific purpose. We will seek additional consent before using your Personal Information for a new purpose that is inconsistent with the purpose for which it was collected. Your consent is voluntary and may be withdrawn at any time.
  • ‍Performance of a Contract. We may process your Personal Information when we believe it is necessary to fulfill our contractual obligations to you (e.g., processing a paid event registration that you requested).
  • Legitimate Interests. We may process your information when we believe it is reasonably necessary to achieve our legitimate interests and those interests do not outweigh your interests and fundamental rights and freedoms.
  • Legal Obligations. We may process your information where we believe it is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations, such as to cooperate with a law enforcement body or regulatory agency, exercise or defend our legal rights, or disclose your information as evidence in litigation in which we are involved.
  • ‍Vital Interests. We may process your information where we believe it is necessary to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of a third party, such as situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person.

If you are located in Canada, this section applies to you.

We may process your information if you have given us specific permission (i.e., express consent) to use your Personal Information for a specific purpose, or in situations where your permission can be inferred (i.e., implied consent). You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us via the information set forth in the section entitled “HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?”

In some exceptional cases, we may be legally permitted under applicable law to process your information without your consent, including, for example:

  • If collection is clearly in your best interest and consent cannot be obtained in a timely way
  • For investigations and fraud detection and prevention
  • For certain business transactions, provided that the applicable legal requirements and safeguards are met.
  • If information is contained in a witness statement and the collection is necessary to assess, process, or settle an insurance claim
  • For identifying injured, ill, or deceased persons and communicating with next of kin
  • If we have reasonable grounds to believe an individual has been, is, or may be victim of financial abuse
  • If it is reasonable to expect collection and use with consent would compromise the availability or the accuracy of the information and the collection is reasonable for purposes related to investigating a breach of an agreement or a contravention of the laws of Canada or a province
  • If disclosure is required to comply with a subpoena, warrant, court order, or rules of the court relating to the production of records
  • If it was produced by an individual in the course of their employment, business, or profession and the collection is consistent with the purposes for which the information was produced
  • If the collection is solely for journalistic, artistic, or literary purposes
  • If the information is publicly available and is specified by the regulations

4. WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH?

In Short: We may occasionally disclose, share and exchange Personal Information to various third parties including our vendors, consultants, service providers, affiliates, collaborators, professional advisors and other third parties as described in this section. 

Vendors, Consultants, and Other Third Party Service Providers. We may share your data with third party vendors, service providers, contractors, or agents who perform services for us or on our behalf and require access to such information to do that work. The third parties we may share Personal Information with are as follows:

  • Payment Processors. We engage Payment Processors to process donations or other payments you make to us. You may be redirected on a Payment Processors’ website or application to make your donation or other payment. If so, the data collection and use practices of the Payment Processors’ website or application will govern your transactions on the Payment Processors’ website or application We encourage you to read their privacy notice, statement, or policy and their terms of use.
  • Donor Screening and Research Services. We may use donor research and screening service providers like Donor Search, to assist with fundraising efforts, prospect research, wealth screening, and compliance related screening. In connection with these services, we may share certain Personal Information with such vendors, or such vendors may provide us with information obtained from public, proprietary, or other lawful sources. Such vendors processes information in accordance with its own privacy policies and applicable laws.
  • Email Marketing and Communications Platforms. We may use third party vendors to manage and send email communications, newsletters, and other outreach. In connection with these services, we may share information such as your name, email address, and communication preferences with such vendors. We currently use Mailchimp, which processes Personal Information on our behalf in accordance with its privacy practices and applicable data protection requirements.
  • Social Media Sharing and Interest-Based Advertising. We may engage third parties to place our interest-based advertisements across the Internet for the purpose of engaging and informing you about our organization, activities we fund, and the issues we care about. These third parties may use tracking technologies to collect information about your visits and interactions with our website, tools, advertisements and other communications. Some advertisements may be personalized, meaning that they are intended to be relevant to you based on information collected about your visits to our sites and tools and elsewhere over time. For example, we may utilize Facebook advertising features.
  • Web and Mobile Analytics. We may partner with third parties to assist us in the overall performance and analytics of our website. For example, we use Google Analytics and Google Ads remarketing service as provided by Google Inc. Google uses cookies and tracking pixels to among other things, help us to analyze how users use the websites gather reports on our website’s activity, and provide other services relating to our website’s activity. It also allows us to track IP address, geo-location, operating system, type of device (mobile or desktop), type of browser or mail program used, user behavior on a website, social network, time the website was visited, website traffic, and sales conversions. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. You can learn more about how Google Analytics processes information here: Google Analytics Terms of Use and Google Privacy Policy.

Affiliates. We may share your information with our employees, agents, and affiliated entities who have a legitimate need to access it in order to support our nonprofit operations. This may include activities such as program administration, organizational management and oversight, internal audit, legal and regulatory compliance, security, insurance, financial management, and other similar operational purposes. Any such sharing is limited to what is necessary and permitted by applicable law.

Collaborators.  We may share your information with trusted third‑party partners or collaborating organizations that work with us to support, fund, or help carry out our programs, initiatives, or events. Such sharing is limited to what is necessary to fulfill our charitable purposes and is conducted in accordance with applicable law and this Privacy Notice.

Professional Advisers.  We may disclose your Personal Information with our professional advisers, legal counsel, accountants, insurance brokers, and agents to administer our relationship with you or to facilitate our internal business operations.

Social Networks.  We may obtain your information from a social media platform if you interact with us on our social media accounts, platforms and networks and may share any posts or content that you have tagged us on or relate to our website, organization, charitable activities, projects and events.

Third Parties in Connection with Organizational Transactions. We may share information if we are involved in a merger, consolidation, restructuring, transfer of assets, or other organizational change involving our nonprofit.  Such third parties may include prospective or successor nonprofit organizations, charitable partners, fiduciaries, advisors, or other entities involved in evaluating or completing the transaction. In these circumstances, we may disclose information without advance notice to you, as permitted by applicable law.  We may not provide you with notice before disclosure in such cases. 

Third Parties for Security and Compelling Disclosure Purposes. We may disclose your Personal Information in response to lawful requests by public authorities and to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. With respect to our volunteers, we share your information to third parties such as medical health providers in the event a medical emergency occurs while you are volunteering in the field and such disclosure is necessary to protect your health or safety.  We may share your Personal Information in connection with legal requirements, such as in response to an authorized subpoena or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, to protect your safety or the safety of others, or to investigate fraud. Such disclosures may be conducted without notice to you. 

Third Parties that You Direct Us to Share With. We may share your Personal Information at your request or direction, such as when you donate to our organization on behalf of another person and direct us to notify such person of whom you donated on behalf of. We may also share your Personal Information with those that you have consented or directed us to share your information with.

5. PRIVACY POLICIES OF THIRD PARTIES AND EXTERNAL LINKS.

In Short: Our website contain links to several third party websites, software, or applications not owned or controlled by us, and this Privacy Notice does not apply to such websites, software, or applications or the use of any data by such websites, software, or applications.

In order to provide certain services and materials, our website may allow you to “click” over to other websites, software or applications. This Privacy Notice does not apply to any third party websites, software or applications.   Should you decide to navigate to any websites, software, or application or webpages external to our website, you do so entirely at your own risk. We are not responsible for the actions, privacy, security, or content of such third party websites, software, and applications. If you are asked to provide information on one of these websites, software, and applications, we encourage you to carefully review their privacy policy before sharing your information with them.

6. DO WE USE COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES?

In Short: We may use cookies and other tracking technologies to collect and store your information.

We may use cookies and similar tracking technologies (like web beacons and pixels) to access or store information.

Like many organizations, we and our third party partners also collect information through cookies and similar technologies, including without limitation:

  • Necessary cookies. These refer to cookies and other tracking technologies that help make our website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. These cookies are required for the operation of our website, including enabling you to make donations through our website, or cookies that enable us to comply with the law (for example, to keep your information safe). We would not be able to operate our websites without using “strictly necessary” cookies.
  • Preferences cookies. These refer to cookies and other tracking technologies that enable our website to remember information that changes the way our website behaves or looks, like your preferred language or the region that you are in. By recognizing when you return to our website, these cookies help us personalize your content and website experience by remembering your preferences and activities (for example, if you started but did not complete a donation).
  • Statistics cookies. These refer to cookies and other tracking technologies that help us to understand how visitors interact with our website by collecting and reporting information anonymously. These cookies help us recognize and count the number of users visiting our website and understand how users move around and interact with the site. They do not collect information that personally identifies a visitor. We use this information solely to analyze the performance of our website, identify areas for improvement, and enhance the overall user experience
  • Marketing cookies. These refer to cookies and other tracking technologies that are used to track visitors across websites. The intention is to display ads that are relevant and engaging for the individual user and thereby more valuable for publishers and third party advertisers. These cookies may also include social media cookies set by various social media services that we have integrated into our website to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. Such cookies can track your browser activity across other websites and build a profile of your interests, which may influence the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies, you may not be able to use or view certain social media sharing features.
  • Unclassified cookies. Unclassified cookies are cookies that we are in the process of classifying, together with the providers of the individual cookies. These cookies may be used for various purposes, including functionality, analytics, or performance, but have not yet been assigned to a specific category. We will update this classification as soon as additional information becomes available.

We may embed pixels and web beacons on our website, in videos, emails, or advertisements. These technologies transmit information about your interactions to a server controlled by us or by our third party service providers or partners. Pixels may take different forms, including image pixels (small graphic images) and JavaScript pixels (which contain JavaScript code). When you access a website, video, email, or advertisement that contains a pixel, the pixel may allow us or a third party to place or read cookies on your browser. Pixels are often used together with cookies to track activity associated with a particular browser or device. We may use pixels provided by third parties to help monitor your interactions with our communications, enhance functionality, and improve your experience while using our website.

By setting your email account to display emails as text only, you may be able to prevent the use of some pixels and web beacons, however, please be aware that our emails won’t look as pretty and some functionality may be disabled. Alternatively, you can remove yourself completely from our mailing list by going to the bottom of any email from us and clicking on the relevant ‘unsubscribe’ link in the emails.

You can manage your cookie preferences at any time through our cookie banner or by adjusting your browser settings. Please note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality and availability of some features of our website. For more information about cookies and how to manage them, please visit www.allaboutcookies.org.

7. DO WE USE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE?

We may use artificial intelligence (“AI”) technologies to support and improve our operations, programs, and services. This may include tools that help us analyze aggregated data, enhance donor and volunteer engagement, streamline administrative functions, and improve the effectiveness of our communications and outreach efforts. Any AI tools we use operate under strict technical and contractual safeguards designed to protect your Personal Information.

We do not use AI to make automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you. We also do not use AI to engage in intrusive, unfair, or discriminatory profiling. We may use donor research and screening services that utilize AI, such as DonorSearch, to help us better understand our supporter community, identify potential philanthropic opportunities, and meet legal or ethical fundraising obligations. These tools are used to support mission‑aligned outreach and stewardship and are not used to make automated decisions about individuals. Any Personal Information processed using AI tools is handled in accordance with this Privacy Notice and applicable law, and we limit such use to the purposes for which the information was originally collected.

When we engage third party AI service providers, we require them to implement robust security measures and prohibit them from using your Personal Information for their own purposes. We do not permit our AI vendors to use your data to train their generalized models unless you have provided explicit consent or the data has been fully anonymized and no longer identifies you.

If at any time we introduce new forms of AI processing that materially change how we use or protect your information, we will update this Privacy Notice and provide additional notice where required.

8. HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?

In Short: We keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Notice unless otherwise required by law.

We will only keep your Personal Information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Notice, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as tax, accounting, or other legal requirements).

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your Personal Information, we will either delete or anonymize such information, or, if this is not possible (for example, because your Personal Information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your Personal Information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

9. HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE?

In Short: We aim to protect your Personal Information through a system of organizational and technical security measures.

We have implemented appropriate and reasonable technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any Personal Information we process. However, despite our safeguards and efforts to secure your information, no electronic transmission over the Internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information. Although we will do our best to protect your Personal Information, transmission of Personal Information to and from our website is at your own risk. You should only access our website within a secure environment.

10. DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM MINORS?

In Short: We do not knowingly collect data directly from or market directly to children under 18 years of age.

We do not knowingly solicit data from or direct our online outreach or marketing to children under 18 years of age through our website. By using our website, you represent that you are at least 18 or that you are the parent or guardian of such a minor and consent to such minor dependent’s use of our website. We will never knowingly directly request Personal Information from anyone under the age of 18 without prior verifiable parental consent. If we become aware that a child under 18 years of age has provided us with such information without consent, we will take appropriate action to remove such information from our files. If you become aware of any data we may have collected from children under age 18, please contact us at info@irteams.org.

11. WHAT CHOICES DO YOU HAVE REGARDING YOUR INFORMATION?

In Short: You have several choices on how to manage and use your Personal Information.

In this section, we describe the rights and choices available to you, including without limitation:

  • Update Your Information. You may update your Personal Information that we have on file about you by contacting us directly.
  • Opt-Out of Email List. You may unsubscribe from our newsletters or other mission related updates at any time by using the opt out or “unsubscribe” link included at the bottom of our emails, or by contacting us directly with your request. Please note that you may still receive essential, non promotional communications from us, such as donation confirmations or other service related messages.
  • Cookies. As noted above, 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. Note that disabling cookies and/or other tracking tools may prevent us or our service providers from providing you certain features of our website.
  • Opt-Out Preference Signal. Some Internet browsers may be configured to send Do-Not-Track (“DNT”) signals or opt-out preferential signals to the online services that you visit. To find out more about DNT, please visit allaboutdnt.com.
  • Choosing Not to Share Your Personal Information. We do not require you to provide Personal Information to view our website or access much of its content. However, if you want to utilize certain features on our website, you will be required to provide us with certain Personal Information which may be necessary to provide you with such features.
  • Third Party Platforms or Social Media Networks. We encourage you to review your privacy options and settings of third party platforms that you may use in connection with our website, including without limitation social media platforms and networks and our Payment Processors’ website and applications. We recommend you understand what choices you have about sharing information from those platforms and networks with us.

DO RESIDENTS OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA (EEA), UNITED KINGDOM (UK), AND CANADA HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?

In Short: In some regions, such as the EEA, UK, and Canada, you have rights that allow you greater access to and control over your Personal Information.

EEA, UK, and Canada Rights

In some regions (like the EEA, UK, and Canada), you have certain rights under applicable data protection laws. These may include the right (i) to request access and obtain a copy of your Personal Information; (ii) to request rectification or erasure; (iii) to restrict the processing of your Personal Information; and (iv) if applicable, to data portability. In certain circumstances, you may also have the right to object to the processing of your Personal Information. You can make such a request by contacting us by using the contact details provided in the section “HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?“ below.

We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

If you are located in the EEA or UK and you believe we are unlawfully processing your Personal Information, you also have the right to complain to your Member State data protection authority or UK data protection authority.

If you are located in Switzerland, you may contact the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.

If you are located in Canada, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Withdrawing your consent: If we are relying on your consent to process your Personal Information, which may be express and/or implied consent depending on the applicable law, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us by using the contact details provided in the section “HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?“ below.

However, please note that this will not affect the lawfulness of the processing before its withdrawal nor, when applicable law allows, will it affect the processing of your Personal Information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.

If you have questions or comments about your privacy rights, you may email us at info@irteams.org.

13. DO CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?

In Short: Yes, if you are a resident of California, you are granted specific rights regarding access to your Personal Information.

California Civil Code Section 1798.83, also known as the “Shine The Light” law, permits our users who are California residents to request and obtain from us, once a year and free of charge, information about categories of Personal Information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for mission related or promotional purposes and the names and addresses of all third parties with which we shared Personal Information in the immediately preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please submit your request in writing to us using the contact information provided below.

14. CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURES

Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems and mobile applications include a DNT feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. At this stage no uniform technology standard for recognizing and implementing DNT signals has been finalized. As such, we do not currently respond to DNT browser signals or any other mechanism that automatically communicates your choice not to be tracked online. If a standard for online tracking is adopted that we must follow in the future, we will inform you about that practice in a revised version of this Privacy Notice.

15. INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS?

In Short: We may limit the availability of our website to any person or geographic area at any time.  If you access our website from outside the United States, you do so at your own risk.

Our website is controlled and operated by us from the United States and is not intended to subject us to the laws or jurisdiction of any state, country, or territory other than that of the United States. Your Personal Information may be stored and processed in any country where we have facilities or in which we engage service providers, and, by using our website, you consent to the transfer of information to countries outside of your country of residence, including the United States, which may have different data protection rules than those of your country.

IF YOU ARE A USER ACCESSING OUR WEBSITE FROM ANY OTHER COUNTRY WITH LAWS OR REGULATIONS GOVERNING PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTION, USE AND DISCLOSURE THAT DIFFER FROM THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES, PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THROUGH YOUR CONTINUED USE OF OUR WEBSITE, YOU ARE TRANSMITTING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION TO THE UNITED STATES AND YOU CONSENT TO THAT TRANSMISSION.  ADDITIONALLY, YOU UNDERSTAND THAT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION MAY BE TRANSMITTED TO AND PROCESSED IN COUNTRIES (INCLUDING THE UNITED STATES) WHERE LAWS REGARDING PROCESSING PERSONAL INFORMATION MAY BE LESS STRINGENT THAN IN YOUR COUNTRY.

16. DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE?

In Short: Yes, we will update this notice as necessary to stay compliant with relevant laws.

We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated “Revised” date and the updated version will be effective as soon as it is accessible. If we make material changes to this Privacy Notice, we may notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to review this Privacy Notice frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.

17. HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?

If you have questions or comments about this notice, you may contact our Data Protection Officer (DPO) by email at info@irteams.org, by phone at (619) 284-7979, or contact us by post at:

International Relief Teams
Attn Data Protection Officer
3545 Camino del Rio S., Suite A
San Diego, CA 92108
United States