Privacy Policy

1. What we collect

Information you give us. When you apply for support we ask for your name, contact details, the household detail you choose to share, and the specifics of the bill — the amount, the due date and who it is owed to. When you write to us through the contact form we collect your name, email, and whatever you put in the message. When you donate, our payment processor collects your payment details.

Information collected automatically. Our website host records standard technical information such as your browser type, approximate location and the pages you visited. We use this only to understand whether the site is working.

2. Why we collect it

• To read and assess an application for support.
• To verify a bill and pay the provider on your behalf.
• To reply to you.
• To process a donation and send a receipt.
• To report to our board on what the organization has done — in aggregate, with names removed.

We do not use your information to build a profile of you, and we do not make automated decisions about your application. A person reads every one.

3. If you have applied for support

Applications are treated with particular care. What you write is seen by the board and by nobody else. We do not publish an applicant’s name in any material, at any event, on this website or in any report. If we ever want to tell your story, we will ask you first, in writing, and you are free to say no with no effect on any support.

4. Who we share it with

We do not sell your information, and we do not share it for anyone else’s marketing. We share the minimum necessary with:

• The provider being paid — a landlord, utility or vendor needs enough detail to apply the payment to your account.
• Our payment processor — to take a donation securely. We never see or store your full card details.
• Our website and email providers — who host the form submission and the message.
• Anyone we are legally required to tell — and only to the extent required.

5. How long we keep it

We retain application information only as long as needed to review the request, provide support, meet legal and reporting requirements, and maintain required financial records. Sensitive identification documents and photographs are deleted within 90 days after the case is closed unless they must be retained for an audit, grant requirement, legal obligation, or active dispute. If you would like your information removed sooner, write to us and we will tell you what we can delete and what we are required to retain.

6. Your choices

You can ask us what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, or ask us to stop emailing you. Write to amber@thecoinjar.org and we will respond. You never have to give us a reason.

7. Cookies and analytics

This site uses only the cookies our website platform needs to function. If we add analytics later, we will say so here and keep it to aggregate visit numbers rather than individual tracking.

8. Children

This website is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13. Where an application mentions a mother’s children, we ask only for what is needed to understand the household, and it is held under the same protections as everything else.

9. Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle information, we will update this page and change the date at the top. If the change is significant and we hold your details, we will tell you directly.