Privacy Policy

Welcome to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. (“GVFB”, “we”, “us”, our“). GVFB is committed to protecting the privacy of its clients, donors and volunteers and we make every effort to ensure that our clients, donors and volunteers understand the nature, purposes and consequences of the collection, use, and disclosure of their personal information, which we explain in this Privacy Notice.

For the purposes of this Privacy Notice, “personal information” means any information that can reasonably be used, either alone or in combination with other information, to identify you.

1. When does this Privacy Notice apply?

This Privacy Notice explains how GVFB collects, uses, and discloses your personal information when you use or access our websites, https://foodbank.bc.ca/, https://vfd.foodbank.bc.ca, https://shop.foodbank.bc.ca (the “Sites”), including when you inquire about, preview, and purchase GVFB merchandise (“Merchandise”), engage in peer-to-peer fundraising. In addition, this Privacy Notice applies to information we may collect from you when you communicate with us via email, telephone or other means, as well as if you receive GVFB services.

2. Collection and Use of Personal Information

We collect personal information such as your name, email address, street address and credit card information, which we will only use to fulfill the following purposes:

• To verify your identity;
• To identify staff, volunteer, or donor preferences;
• To deliver requested Merchandise;
• To register clients for GVFB services;
• To send out information about volunteering opportunities;
• To solicit feedback from donors;
• To let you launch your own fundraising campaign for GVFB;
• To contact our volunteers and donors for fundraising;
• To ensure a high standard of service to our clients;
• To issue invitations to events;
• To send regular mail-outs such as newsletters, annual reports and general program updates;
• To complete surveys such as the Hunger Count by submitting local food bank data to drive national food insecurity policy change and increase public awareness;
• To tell stories of real food bank users, donors and volunteers, with their written permission, for marketing and fundraising purposes;

We may also automatically certain technical information from any device that you use to visit our Site, including:

• Information about how you use the Site, including the uniform resource locators (“URLs”) of other websites that you click to and from our Site (including the date and time clicked), page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages on the Site, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page.

We may collect some of the above technical information using cookies or similar technologies. See Cookies & Other Technologies below for more detail on how we collect and use this information.

3. COOKIES & OTHER TECHNOLOGIES

We may use cookies and other similar technologies to automatically collect certain information about visitors to our Site. A “cookie” is a unique numeric code that we transfer to your computer that identifies your browser to our server when you visit various pages of the Site. We use cookies to save your interactions with our Site so that your information is maintained as you interact with the Site. We also used cookies, web beacons and other similar technologies from third-party partners such as Google for measurement services, better targeted advertisements and for marketing purposes. For more information on Google Analytics, please visit https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. Any cookie sent to your computer by GVFB in connection with your use of the Site does not give us access to your computer.

We may also use snippets of text called Urchin Tracking Modules, which we may use to understand whether users have visited our site by clicking on a link in our online campaigns.

You can set your Internet browser settings to stop accepting new cookies, to receive notice when you receive a new cookie, or to disable existing cookies. See https://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/stop-cookies-installed.html for more information on how to do so. Note that the opt-out will apply only to the browser that you are using when you decide to opt out of cookies. Without cookies though, the features described here will not function properly.

4. Links to third-party sites

Our Site may incorporate links to other sites, such as third-party social networking services. By clicking on such links, you will leave the Site. We do not control the operation of any third parties’ websites or applications, and any personal information you submit through these sites is subject to their privacy policy, and not GVFB’s. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of any such third-party website.

5. How and why does GVFB share my personal information?

In order for us to fulfill the purposes described above at Section 2 of this Privacy Notice, we need to share your information with third parties.

We share your personal information with the following types of third party service providers:

• Cloud hosting and server providers who help us design, administer and maintain the Site and secure your personal information;
• Shopify, who enables us to process and deliver purchases you make for GVFB Merchandise;
• Ad networks and other advertising companies to serve advertisements on our Site or in our email communications, and on other websites and apps;
• Blackbaud, which is our Customer Relationship Management system used to store our donors’ contact information, giving history, and any other fundraising notes;
• BetterImpact, which is our Customer Relationship Management system to store our volunteers’ contact information, volunteering history, emergency contacts, and any other volunteering notes;
• Harvey McKinnon Associates (HMA), who manages our direct mail program.

We may disclose your personal information with government, regulatory or law enforcement agencies as requested by these agencies, if we have a good faith belief that the disclosure is required or permitted by law. We may also disclose your personal information in order to enforce our legal rights; to detect, prevent or address fraud or security issues; and to enforce ours or others’ legal rights, property, or safety.

We may also transfer or assign your personal information to an organization because of, or in connection with a sale, merger, consolidation, change in control, transfer of assets, reorganization, or liquidation.

We do not rent or sell your personal information. We may trade with other non-profit and charitable organizations for acquisition campaigns. If you would like to opt out of this use of your personal information, please contact us at [email protected].

6. How does GVFB keep my personal information safe?

GVFB uses a third party software provider called Blackbaud to preserve the security of your personal information. We regularly review our collection, storage, and processing practices to prevent unauthorized access to our systems. We restrict access to your personal information to only those GVFB personnel and service providers who require that information to carry out the purposes identified above at Section 2 of this Privacy Notice, and anyone with this access is subject to strict confidentiality obligations. However, you should be aware that no system is 100% secure, and despite our best efforts, we cannot guarantee that your information will be secure, particularly while it is in transit over the Internet.

We do not retain any credit card information. Any credit card information that we collect (for example, over the phone) is housed securely by Blackbaud, after which point GVFB and its personnel only have access to the last four digits of the card, the type of card and expiry date. If you make a monthly recurring donation, your credit card information is tokenized – i.e. it is encrypted in transit between the bank and Blackbaud. We only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we have identified throughout this Privacy Policy, or as otherwise required or permitted by law.

7. Can I opt out of promotional emails?

You can opt out of any promotional emails we send by clicking the ‘unsubscribe’ link in the footer of the message or by contacting us at [email protected].

8. How can I access, correct or delete my personal information?

Staff, volunteers, clients, and donors have a right to access their personal information, subject to limited exceptions found in section 23 of Personal Information Protection Act. Some examples include: solicitor-client privilege, disclosure that would reveal personal information about another individual, health and safety concerns.

Requests to access personal information must be made in writing by emailing GVFB’s Privacy Officer at [email protected] and provide sufficient detail to identify the personal information being sought.

Upon request, we will also tell staff, volunteers, clients, customers, or members how we use their personal information and to whom it has been disclosed if applicable.

We will make the requested information available within 30 business days, or provide written notice of an extension where additional time is required to fulfill the request.

If you request, we will let you know what information GVFB has about you, what it is being used for, and with whom it has been shared. If you notice any inaccuracies or wish to update any of your personal information, we will make those changes. In addition, and unless prohibited by law, we will delete any of your personal information upon your request.

To make a written request to access, update, correct, or delete your personal information, contact us at [email protected].

9. Contact us

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, you can contact GVFB’s Privacy Officer at [email protected].