Privacy Policy – Fundraising and Marketing

At Midlands Air Ambulance Charity, we are committed to treating the personal information that you give to us responsibly and to protecting your privacy. This policy explains how we use the information you share with us and the measures we take to protect it.

We may update this policy from time to time so please check this webpage occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes.

Who we are

Midlands Air Ambulance Charity (MAAC) is a registered charity operating a lifesaving air ambulance service across the Midlands.

In this policy, references to ‘MAAC’ or to ‘we’, ‘our’ or ‘us’ are to Midlands Air Ambulance Charity, a registered charity (charity no: 1143118) and a registered company limited by guarantee (company no. 07683841). Midlands Air Ambulance Charity’s registered office is Midlands Air Ambulance Charity, Airbase Avenue, Neachley, Shifnal TF11 8UR. These references also include our charitable trading company Midlands Air Ambulance Trading Ltd (company no. 08256466), a wholly owned subsidiary of Midlands Air Ambulance Charity which trades only to raise funds for its parent company MAAC.

Your acceptance of this policy and our right to change it

By using the MAAC websites, social media pages, entering competitions or by providing your information, you consent to our collection and use of the information you provide in the ways set out in this policy. If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use our websites, social media pages or services.

We may update this policy from time to time. Any changes we make to the policy will appear here. This policy was last updated on 24^th June 2022.

How we collect information

We collect information in several ways. Information you give to us:

You may give us information electronically, e.g. online via our website, social media pages or within an email, or when completing an online donation form, signing up to the lottery and/or regular giving scheme, purchasing an item from our online shop, registering for one of our events, purchasing tickets for our raffle, completing our keeping in touch form and/or Take Off subscription, or filling in a free will enquiry form and/or when requesting a free will brochure.
You may give us information when completing a paper-based form to; order an item for purchase (e.g. merchandise, Christmas cards, gift vouchers etc), register for an event, signing up for gift aid, sponsoring an individual, purchase raffle tickets, or sign up for regular giving and/or lottery, or to self-exclude from our lottery.
You may give us information in person or over the phone when; ordering an item for purchase, registering for an event, signing up for gift aid, purchasing raffle tickets, signing up for regular giving and/or lottery, making a donation, expressing an interest in fundraising for us, sharing an experience of our work for communications and marketing purposes, and making a donation.

Information we received from other sources:

We may receive information from third party websites we use to raise funds for our work such as JustGiving, Paypal, Much Loved, Beyond, and Ticket Factory. We might also obtain your personal data through your use of social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn, depending on your settings or the privacy policies of these social media and messaging services. To change your settings on these services, please refer to their privacy notices, which will tell you how to do this.
We work closely with suppliers and partners (including, for example, sub-contractors in technical, print, payment and delivery services and professional fundraising agencies who may sent out letters of appeal or who may make fundraising asks on our behalf) and may receive information about you from them.
We sometimes use publicly available sources (e.g. the Royal Mail’s National Change of Address database, the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) or Fundraising Preference Service (FPS), and the Legacy Notification Service) to ensure your information is up to date, to ensure we are not sending you unsolicited marketing material, and when administering legacies.

What information we collect

MAAC is what is known as the ‘controller’ of personal information you provide to us. We will usually collect basic personal data about you such as:

Name
Postal address
Telephone number
Email address
Bank details (if you are supporting us financially)

Sometimes we will collect other information about you such as:

Date of birth/age
Gender
Medical conditions
Emergency contact details

We will only collect this ‘sensitive personal data’ if there is a clear reason for doing so. For example, participation in a strenuous event where we need this information to ensure we are complying with the law and to give support in case of emergency, or to ensure we do not make financial asks of children and those under the age of 18.

How we use the information we collect

We collect your personal information in connection with specific activities, such as donations, product purchases, registration requests etc. The information is either needed to fulfil your request or to enable us to provide you with a more personalised service.

We may use information held about you in the following ways:

For administration purposes (for example, we may contact you to receipt your donation, to keep your contact details up to date, to issue materials for your fundraising activity, to process an order you have placed, to notify you of details relating to your lottery and/or regular giving subscription etc).
To take a payment from you (for example, if you have registered for an event, if you have made a donation, if you have signed up for lottery and/regular giving, if you have made a purchase etc).
To hold records that we are legally required to keep (for example, regarding Gift Aid, your lottery subscription, or your payment history to us).
To code and record financial transactions against your supporter record so that we can log your financial support.
To claim Gift Aid from HMRC if you are signed up to the scheme with MAAC. If you have registered for our Retail Gift Aid scheme, we are legally required to contact you if we make a claim.
To keep a record of your preferences on how you want to engage with us. As part of this, we will keep a log of any supporter who has notified MAAC that they do not want contact from us.
To provide you with information about our work and activities, including how your support is helping our lifesaving service.
To raise funds (for example, we may send you information about how you can support MAAC, including direct asks for financial support).
To ask you to upgrade your support for MAAC (for example, by changing payment method and/or donation amount).
To analyse the personal information we collect to create a profile of your interests and preferences so we can better understand our supporters, make appropriate requests to our supporters who may be able and willing to give more than they already do, and to identify others who might be interested in giving gifts to charities.
To promote our work through case studies and imagery. Some of the people who have benefited from the work of MAAC choose to share their experiences to help further our work. We will only share this information if we have obtained the fully informed consent of the individual involved, or their parent or guardian if they are under the age of 18. This information may be made public by us at events, in materials promoting our campaigning and fundraising work, or in documents such as our annual report.
To contact your next of kin in case of emergency if you are participating in an event for MAAC. We may also hold details of pre-existing medical conditions you provide us with for health and safety reasons.

Using information for marketing purposes

Communicating with our supporters is vital to MAAC because it means, together, we can save more lives in the six counties we serve. We like to keep our supporters updated with our news, appeals, and ways they can support our work.

We will sometimes contact you using your email address to provide you with information about our work and/or ways you can support us, but we will only email you for marketing purposes if we have your explicit consent to do so.

If you have provided your postal address, we may send you information by post about our work and/or ways you can support us unless you have told us you do not wish to receive such information in this way.

We will only contact you for marketing purposes by telephone if you have not opted out from receiving communication via this method. We screen against the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) and, if you are listed, we will not contact you by phone.

We rely on the legitimate interest legal basis for some of our processing for marketing purposes. This applies to the following:

When you are an existing supporter and we are contacting you by post and/or telephone about our news, appeals and other ways you can support our work.
When we consider we have a legitimate interest in continuing to contact you by post and/or telephone once you have provided your details to us and there is no overriding prejudice to you or your rights by MAAC’s use of the data in this way and for these purposes subject always to our carrying out appropriate checks with the relevant preference services.

Sharing your information

You can support MAAC with confidence – we keep your contact details safe and we never pass them on to anyone else to use for their own purposes.

We do not share or sell supporter details with charities or other third parties (regionally, nationally or internationally) for the purposes of marketing. However, if you are participating in an event run by another named organisation, your details may need to be shared; in these instances we will inform you before your information is shared.

We may share your information with selected third parties such as suppliers including professional fundraisers, printers and mailing houses and sub-contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into with them or you. We require such suppliers and any third party that processes data on our behalf to sign a legally binding contract the requires them to hold in the strictest confidence any and all MAAC information they deal with, and confirms their compliance with GDPR Regulations.

We will also disclose personal data when obliged to do so by law, or the disclosure is ‘necessary’ for purposes of national security, taxation and criminal investigation.

How we keep your data safe and who has access to it

All of the data MAAC collects is stored in secure locations, with access restricted to only those who need it. All our security is regularly tested and audited to make sure that your data is safe and secure.

How long do we keep your information for?

We will keep your information only for as long as we need it to provide you with the goods, services or information you have required, to administer your relationship with us, to inform our research into the preferences of our supports, or to comply with the law and/or tax and accounting rules.

Further information about data retention periods can be found in our Record Retention Schedule and Disposal Protocol. To request a copy, please use the contact details below.

How to contact us

If you would like to discuss anything in our privacy policy, find out more about your rights or obtain a copy of the information we hold about you, please contact:

Emma Gray

Chief Operating Officer and Data Protection Officer

By email: info@midlandsairambulance.com

By post:

Midlands Air Ambulance Charity

Airbase Avenue, Neachley Lane

Shifnal, TF11 8UR.