Privacy and Transparency Policy

This website is owned and operated by Community Foundation of the Lowcountry, Inc. Our intention is to inform and educate visitors about our work as a grantmaker, community resource and philanthropic partner to individuals, families, organizations and businesses/corporations. Community Foundation of the Lowcountry, Inc. is committed to honoring the privacy of all with whom we work, including visitors to the site and subscribers to our electronic newsletters.

Personal Information
Your right to privacy is very important to us. We recognize that providing Community Foundation of the Lowcountry with your personal information is an act of trust. When you visit Community Foundation of the Lowcountry online, you remain anonymous, as we do not require registration to view our site or access general information.

How and Why We Gather Personal Data
We may occasionally ask for your feedback via surveys or other communications to better understand your interests and needs. We will also request information through online forms used to register for a Community Foundation event.

If you make a donation, we will request personally identifiable information about you, such as your name, address, phone number, email address and debit/credit card information. We seek such information primarily to facilitate donations and to communicate with you about them. In addition, we may use such information to improve our marketing and promotional efforts, analyze website usage, improve our content and product offerings, and customize our website’s content, layout and services.

We will not sell or rent your personal information. However, in some instances your information may be shared. These include:

  1. If your donation supports a specific organization or project, we may provide that organization your name, contact information and gift amount so they can acknowledge your gift. We encourage you to familiarize yourself with their privacy practices and policies. If you would prefer to remain anonymous in such cases, please let us know.
  2. When you make a gift to Community Foundation of the Lowcountry or one of our funds, your name is added to our mailing list so we can keep you up-to-date on our programs and initiatives. You can opt out of such communications at any time—contact us directly or “unsubscribe” from these communications as desired.
  3. Your gift may be listed in Community Foundation publications. If so, your name will appear as it is listed on your gift receipt. If you would prefer your donation be listed differently – or if you would prefer your gift to be anonymous – please contact us to let us know.

If you are a Community Foundation fund advisor and you use our online system, you are required to provide personal information and a password to authenticate your identity. That information is only used on this site and is not distributed or sold to any other party or site.

For all donors and other users, our website is encrypted with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), High-grade Encryption (2048bit RSA with SHA256) to provide security and privacy when you access fund information, initiate online fund transactions or send secure messages.

We do, however, cooperate with governments and private parties to enforce laws. Should there ever be an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringement or other activity connected to this website that is illegal or may expose us or you to liability, we will disclose any information about you to government officials and private parties in accordance with state and federal laws.

Public Information
Under IRS Code, the following Community Foundation documents are public information:

  • IRS Forms 990 and affiliated schedules for the past three years
  • Exemption letter from the IRS

Lists of our donors, other than those which may be published in an annual report, are not available to the general public. We do not reveal the name of anonymous donors to the recipients of grants.

Third Party Sites and Analytics Services
Throughout our website(s), we offer links to third party sites. Since we do not control those websites, we encourage you to review their privacy policies as well.

We may use outside service providers to facilitate our website and overall operation, and to perform functions on our behalf, such as sending postal mail and email, analyzing data, processing credit card payments and providing customer service. These third parties may have access to your personal information as needed to perform their functions, but they may not use it for any other purpose.

Community Foundation of the Lowcountry collects information through cookies and other similar technologies. You can choose to accept or decline cookies; most browsers automatically accept cookies unless you modify settings to decline them. However, declining to accept cookies may prevent you from taking full advantage of the site. Further, Community Foundation of the Lowcountry does not recognize automated browser signals regarding tracking mechanisms, which may include “do not track” instructions.

Our site uses the Google Analytics web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses cookies and similar technologies to track and report website traffic. The information generated, including your shortened IP address, is transmitted to Google. This information is used to evaluate users’ use of the domain, compile statistical reports on domain activity, and provide other services related to the site and internet use. Google may also collect information about users’ use of other websites.

The information generated from Google Analytics is used only to improve the site. Google Analytics collects only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit the site, rather than your name or other personal information. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to the site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use (as amended for government websites) and the Google privacy policy, which are available here. You can prevent Google Analytics from recognizing you on return visits to this site by disabling cookies on your browser. You may also opt out of Google Analytics.

Information recorded by analytics includes information such as how you arrived at our site (including the URL you came from, if you arrived from another site), your network name, your browser type, which type of internet browsing device you are using, the country, state, and city where your server is located, and the pages that were viewed during your visit to our site.

Although we currently use the forgoing analytics service provider, Community Foundation of the Lowcountry reserves its right, within its sole discretion, to change analytics services providers, or to add additional analytics services providers, without notice to you.

Communications
As indicated above, if at any time you wish to stop receiving Community Foundation of the Lowcountry’s electronic newsletters or other communications, or to be removed from our email list, you may unsubscribe from that list as explained in each message. Community Foundation of the Lowcountry will not give your email addresses to other organizations; however, we may occasionally send you mailings regarding events, products or services by reputable third parties if we think they may be of interest to you. In such circumstances, we do not provide the organization with your information, but send the mailing ourselves.

Social Networking Sites
Community Foundation of the Lowcountry operates and maintains social networking pages and venues on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. The Community Foundation may from time to time import comments and posts from these third-party platforms to this site. If you post to any of the Community Foundation’s social networking pages on third-party platforms, you are providing information to the public and do so at your own risk. Further, the Community Foundation may use these postings on its website without further notice or compensation to you. Please visit the privacy policies of any third party platforms before posting to Community Foundation of the Lowcountry’s pages there.

Accountability, Transparency and Legal Compliance
Community Foundation of the Lowcountry exists to serve the public good. We have a legal and ethical obligation to conduct our activities in a way that ensures our accountability and is transparent, or clearly evident, to the public. Communication to constituents and the public about the mission, activities and decision-making is open, honest and ongoing. Information that is easily accessible promotes external visibility, public understanding and trust.

Community Foundation of the Lowcountry:

  • has adopted a code of ethics and makes it publicly available.
  • has a formal Policy Statement Concerning Ethics, Including Conflicts of Interest/Loyalty and Confidentiality
  • has a Whistleblower Policy and system in place that allows individuals to report misconduct confidentially and without negative consequence for doing so.
  • prepares and makes available to the public annually a report that includes information about the mission, programs, basic financial data, board and staff members.

Questions and Comments
We welcome comments and questions on this policy. To share feedback or to request information from the Community Foundation, please send an email to Jean Heyduck, VP for Marketing and Communications, or write to:

Jean Heyduck, VP for Marketing and Communications
Community Foundation of the Lowcountry, Inc.
4 Northridge Drive, Suite A
Hilton Head Island, SC 29926