Privacy Policy

The Birmingham City Mission (BCM) treats the privacy of its supporters and others very seriously and takes appropriate measures to safeguard their personal data. This notice explains how we collect, use, protect and share personal data. Personal data means any information that may be used to identify an individual, including, but not limited to, a first and last name, a home or other physical address and an email address or other contact information.

BIRMINGHAM CITY MISSION

BCM is a Christian Charity and a Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee.

It first began in 1966 and its aim is to "preach the gospel and to help the needy". Birmingham City Mission is the data controller and processor for the purposes of personal information shared with BCM. The company is registered at The Clock Tower, 2 Langdon Street, Birmingham B9 4BP and its Company number is: 3112321. Its registered Charity number is: 1051023.

OPT-OUT

It is possible to join our postal mailing list, our email list, or both lists. You may opt out of receiving these communications at any time by emailing us at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by writing to us at: Birmingham City Mission, The Clock Tower, 2 Langdon Street, Birmingham B9 4BP.

OVERVIEW

We collect personal information from:

  • supporters and those who have contact with us;
  • our volunteers;
  • donors when they make a donation.

We use personal information to:

  • keep in touch with our supporters;
  • carry out reasonable administration of our mailings, donations and volunteering;
  • manage enquiries;
  • improve communication with our supporters;
  • We also collect data relating to use of our website.

HOW WE OBTAIN PERSONAL INFORMATION

INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE DATA SUBJECT

Those who have joined our mailing list have indicated support for our aims and are categorised as our "supporters". They have given us their details and asked to be kept informed, either in completing our sign-up sheet, requesting to be included in our mailing via our website or by doing the same by email.

The information provided to us will include some of all of the following:

  • name and title;
  • address including postcode;
  • email address;
  • country they live in (if outside the UK);
  • telephone numbers.

We also collect the following information:

  • amount and frequency (if giving regularly) of donation, and partial bank details of donor (but not sufficient to effect a transaction);
  • information about our relationship with supporters and those who contact us.

Some of our supporters volunteer to conduct activities for us. Our volunteers provide us with their name, title, contact details, occupation and references.

Some submit a form to the enquiry website Now-ask.com. If the request is for some written material or anything sent through the post then the address details given are used for this. After this the information is kept for three months and then discarded. This is also true for other information such as full name and email address. Where, in the view of the data handler, the enquiry can be best answered by someone else, that enquiry, along with the minimum of required information for a response, is passed on to them. Only those we trust are included in this and they in turn destroy the details once the communication is completed.

INFORMATION WE GET FROM OTHER SOURCES

We sometimes use legal and publically available sources to obtain information. For example:

  • a telephone number for someone on our mailing list if we have cause to contact them and do not already have a number to ensure that existing supporter contact details are up to date.

HOW WE USE PERSONAL INFORMATION

We use personal information to:

  • administer mailings to our supporters, to keep them informed;
  • manage enquiries from supporters and those who contact us and keep a record of contact and correspondence;
  • manage our volunteers and provide or administer activities for them;
  • administer donations, thank donors, and maintain our accounts and records;
  • improve our communications and opportunities;
  • We endeavour to keep personal information up to date. This includes monitoring returned mail to let us know if a person no longer lives at the address we hold for them. We also use public sources to check we do not send communications to the wrong place or person.

If a person applies to work for us, their personal information will only be processed for the purposes of recruitment and processing their application. Unsuccessful applicant information will be kept for six months after completion of the recruitment process.

OUR RESPONSIBILITIES

We only send electronic mailings about our work and aims to those who have given their consent to us to do so. People can change their minds and withdraw consent at any time. Every email has a link to enable recipients to unsubscribe if they wish to stop receiving emails.

In all other cases, the law allows us to hold and process the personal information of supporters and others if it is in our legitimate interests to do so. We rely on our legitimate interests to maintain our mailing list, administer our donations, keep appropriate records, and to send occasional postal mail to those who have provided us with their address and who have indicated a wish to be kept informed. Relying on our legitimate interests means that we carry out an exercise to check that we will not cause harm to the data subject by processing their personal information, that the processing is not overly intrusive, and that we will only do so in a way which is described in this notice.

TELEPHONE CALLS

Where we use publically available sources to obtain telephone numbers for supporters who have not provided us with this information, we do not contact anyone who subscribes to the Telephone Preference Scheme (TPS). However, if a person has consented to us telephoning them, we will contact them even if they subscribe to the TPS.

SECURITY

We keep personal information secure with appropriate security measures in place to attempt to protect against the loss, misuse, and alteration of personal information.

We use secure server software to encrypt financial and personal information we collect online. However, the transmission of data across the internet is not completely secure. We cannot guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration of data will not occur whilst being transferred.

SHARING INFORMATION

We will not share the personal information we hold with other organisations or third parties unless required to do so by law, and we will never sell personal information for any reason whatsoever.

Donations made through our website are processed by BTMydonate.

HOW LONG WE KEEP DATA

Our relationship with our supporters and donors is generally long term, so we keep their personal information for as long as we need it to maintain that relationship or keeping the information is necessary. We take into account our need to meet any legal and regulatory obligations. These reasons vary from one piece of information to another. For example, we keep information relating to donations for seven years.

When we no longer need the information, we will dispose of it securely, using specialist companies to do this work for us if necessary.

Now Ask...

This site has been set up by Christians in Birmingham who have a concern to help those seeking answers about the Christian faith. The site aims to provide a summary of the Christian faith and links to some other, chosen sites that have further useful information. These other sites focus on special aspects of the faith or are designed for those from a certain age or background. There is also a form you can submit to ask a question and receive a personal response, or simply to ask for some literature to be sent to you.

Privacy Notice

We are linked to the Birmingham City Mission that has a strict policy on safeguarding personal data and privacy. For more details, click here:

PRIVACY POLICY

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