Donor Privacy Policy
& Bill of Rights

Step Up For Students respects our donors and is committed to keeping personal and organizational information acquired during the contribution process private. Our commitment to privacy includes how we obtain, use, protect, and share information. The Step Up For Students official privacy policy, in conjunction with the Donor Bill of Rights, is detailed below. Please note that these policies are subject to change, with or without notice, by a vote of the Step Up For Students Board of Directors; we will always list the most recent update at the top of this page.

Donor Privacy Policy

Acquiring individuals and organizations to join in the support of Step Up For Students is crucial to carrying out our mission. We collect and use personal information (i.e. names, addresses, emails, phone numbers) only when an individual and/or organization willingly provides it to us. We will not sell, share or release your name to any list service, outside organization or manufacturer, and any information provided by you will be held in the strictest of confidence. We are dedicated to the security of the information that we collect regarding your donation and personal information. We train our staff on proper handling and care of sensitive and personal identifying information. We have adopted the guidance provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) CyberSecurity Framework to ensure we follow industry best practices in securing all data entrusted to us. We make sure that any and all systems that we use to access or store your data are both encrypted in transit and at rest. We make sure that all our solutions utilize additional levels of security to protect from many of the threats that exist, such as XSS (cross site scripting) attacks, SQL injection attacks, and others. We monitor our networks and systems for abnormal activity and intrusions around the clock.

We keep a detailed record of each donor's giving history on file for IRS purposes and for the Development Department to analyze, recognize giving patterns, and to project future budgets. You also grant us the right to use the information to further our mission by processing your donations, responding to inquiries, fulfilling requests, and/or in other ways as required. Only authorized staff members (including those who need the information to perform a specific task) have access to the information you voluntarily provided.

Contributing individuals and organizations are traditionally listed in publications like our annual report, but we are happy to honor requests from those who wish to remain anonymous. To review or correct your personal information or to make changes to your recorded preferences (i.e. receiving mailings, acknowledgements, anonymity), please contact Tim Bodamer, [email protected] or (904) 416-0661.

Donor Bill of Rights

In addition to the important aforementioned policies, Step Up For Students subscribes to the Donor Bill of Rights created by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP), the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), and the Giving Institute: Leading

Consultants to Non-Profits. Philanthropy is based on voluntary action for the common good. It is a tradition of giving and sharing that is primary to the quality of life. To assure that philanthropy merits the respect and trust of the general public, and that donors and prospective donors can have full confidence in the not-for-profit organizations and causes they are asked to support, we declare that all donors have these rights:

1. To be informed of the organization’s mission, of the way the organization intends to use donated resources, and of its capacity to use donations effectively for their intended purposes.
2. To be informed of the identity of those serving on the organization’s governing board, and to expect the board to exercise prudent judgment in its stewardship responsibilities.
3. To have access to the organization’s most recent financial statements.
4. To be assured their gifts will be used for the purposes for which they were given.
5. To receive appropriate acknowledgement and recognition.
6. To be assured that information about their donation is handled with respect and with confidentiality to the extent provided by law.
7. To expect that all relationships with individuals representing organizations of interest to the donor will be professional in nature.
8. To be informed whether those seeking donations are volunteers, employees of the organization or hired solicitors.
9. To have the opportunity for their names to be deleted from mailing lists that an organization may intend to share.
10. To feel free to ask questions when making a donation and to receive prompt, truthful and forthright answers.

Reprinted with permission from the Association of Fundraising Professionals; all rights reserved.