Thank you for your support for the work of Avail. We value your partnership.

We seek to serve you through ensuring your personal data is protected and this privacy policy outlines in detail our commitment to you. It can be summarised in two ways:

Your privacy matters to us – we never share your information with other organisations for their marketing purposes.

You are in control of how your information is used – you can change your preferences, or opt out from communications, at any time.

About us

Avail is a registered charity in England and Wales (No: 1017386). Our registered office is: 62 Holborn Approach, Leeds, LS6 2PD.

In this policy, ‘us’, ‘we’ and ‘our’ refer to trustees of Avail.

Your rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and The Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) you have a number of rights with regard to your personal data. You have the right to request from us access to and rectification or erasure of your personal data, the right to restrict processing, object to processing. Please note we will retain and use your personal information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations.

The law requires us to notify you that Avail holds information or personal data about you for the purposes of our work. This specifically includes your name and address and/or email address for sending our newsletters (prayer prompts) to you.

Information we collect about you

Personal information is data that may be used to identify you. We collect this in the following ways:

When you share information with us directly: for example, when you send us an email, make a donation, visit our website, subscribe to a mailing list, take part in an event, or where we have a face-to-face relationship with you.

When you share information with us indirectly: for example, when you use a third party to make a donation to us or to update your contact details; or when you use social media or messaging services to communicate with us with privacy settings set to reveal this information.

The information we hold may include some or all of the following: Your name and preferred title; Your contact details: postal address, email address, phone number; your date of birth; your denomination or church, details of resources we have sent you.

If you make a donation, we may collect: details of the gift; your bank details, including any debit or credit card details; Gift Aid Declaration details.

If you visit our website it may also be possible to identify you from the website usage information we collect: the internet address of your computer; details of pages visited and files downloaded; cookies stored on your computer.

If you apply to join us as a mission worker, we may collect additional information included in our application forms such as health details, family details, next of kin contact, country of service, type of work, names and details of church referees and general financial information to assist us in providing advice if necessary and pass on donations to you. We also hold information you declare to us which help your prayer needs known, or articles you may have written.

We do not collect sensitive personal information unless there is a clear reason for doing so.

The minimum information we need when you connect with (for example to receive prayer letters) us is your name and email address.

Your privacy

The information we gather is used for:

Keeping supporters of the mission updated with prayer news, and relevant information about our mission partners. We periodically send prayer updates, articles and news you have indicated you are interested in, using the email address which you have provided.

We may also use your information to contact you about what you would like to receive. We may contact you by email, phone or mail.

We may use the information to customise the website according to Avail’s interests. This includes updating website information on partner mission workers, subject to their consent.

Processing your donation or gift aid.

Links to other websites

Our website contains links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Our principles

We protect your privacy by using security technology appropriately to process your data.

We respect your privacy and your data protection rights according to relevant legislation and only send news and information that you have requested.

We endeavour to make our guidance clear and explicit when you can make your choices and you can change your preferences at any point.

We will only collect and use individual user details only where we have your consent or other legitimate legal bases for doing so.

We only use personal information for the purposes for which it was originally provided.

We delete data securely when we no longer have need to keep it.

Under no circumstances will we sell, receive payment for licensing or disclose your personal information.

Data retention

We keep your personal information only for as long as required for the relevant purpose and in accordance with legal requirements. For example, we will retain details of donations to meet tax and accounting requirements, but we will only hold Avail Misson worker’s or family’s sensitive medical information for as long as it assists us in keeping them safe. Where your information is no longer required, we ensure it is deleted or disposed of in a secure manner.

The legal basis for using your information

When we have your permission (‘Consent’) if you ask us to do something for you, or if we have asked and you have given your permission, we will use your information for that purpose. For example, if you request information from us we will use your contact details to send it to you. You can withdraw your consent at any time.

When our use is reasonable (‘Legitimate interest’) we may use your information to serve you or to meet our charitable objectives, if necessary. We will do this only after considering your interests. For example, we may: Thank you if you make a donation, and let you know how your gift has made a difference. Contact you about news, or resources which you may be interested in, based on your previous engagement with us. Check with you whether the information we hold about you is correct. You can amend your preferences at any time.

When we are required to do this by law (‘Legal obligation’) if required to do so, we would use your information to meet a statutory requirement or other legal obligation.

In an emergency to protect someone’s life (‘Vital interest’). In a critical situation we may need to disclose your information in order to protect someone’s life. For example, in the event of an Avail mission partner or their family overseas requiring emergency medical care, we may share information with the emergency services and next of kin if it is necessary in order to safeguard life.

The full detail of your rights can be found on the ICO’s website at http://ico.org.uk