Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to the information Ronald McDonald House Charities, Inc. (“RMHC”) collects, including through Its website, applications, or other online service (“Site”) and offline, including information collected from donors. This Privacy Policy describes our information collection practices, such as the types of information we collect regarding visitors to the Site (including donors) and how we may use or share that information. By using this Site, you consent to this Privacy Policy.

OVERVIEW

Please review our full Privacy Policy below before using the Site. This initial summary of our Privacy Policy highlights some important points regarding our and third parties’ collection, use, and sharing of your information when you visit the Site

  • RMHC may collect Personal Information (as defined below), such as your first and last names, home addresses, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers; payment information when you make a transaction such as donating to RMHC; demographic information, photographs, gender, and other information about you. We and our service providers may automatically collect certain information while you use the Site, including your Device Identifier (as defined below), browser/operating system, referring URL or advertisement, and all of the areas our Site you visit. There are a variety of technologies that collect this information including cookies, local storage and web beacons. In addition, we may receive information about you from third parties. 

  • We may use the information we collect for a variety of purposes including to: enable you to use our Site; process your donation; personalize your experience and offers; and provide you with information, opportunities, or services from us and our third-party partners. 

  • We may also share your information with third parties, including our service providers and Local RMHC Chapters. We do not share Personal Information with unaffiliated third parties for those third parties’ marketing purposes. We note instances where service providers collect personal information from you directly or indirectly and note pertinent service provider privacy policies below.

  • We work with advertisers and analytics service providers to target our advertisements elsewhere online, and to provide us information on the effectiveness of our advertisements and Site traffic. We may share non-Personal Information (including hashed or otherwise de-identified personal information) with service providers for these same purposes. Some of the companies participate in a self-regulatory program that allows you to opt-out of having information about you used for targeted advertising. Learn more about third party donor relationships on our Site.

TYPES OF INFORMATION COLLECTED

Information You Provide

RMHC may gather personal information, which is information that is linked to a specific, identifiable individual (such as, but not limited to, first and last names, home addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and/or donation account usernames and passwords) (“Personal Information”). If the Site offers an account or personal profile, we may require that you supply us with Personal Information to set up such an account. We may also collect payment information if you make a transaction, such as a donation. And, we may collect other information about you, such as demographic information (e.g., your age or gender), and information about your preferences and interests. If we combine demographic or other non-Personal Information with Personal Information, we will treat the combined information as Personal Information under this Privacy Policy. Third parties may also collect information. Please visit the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for each third party to determine their Personal Information collection and sharing practices.

Information We Collect Automatically As You Access and Use the Site

We and our third-party service providers (including any third-party content, advertising, and analytics providers) may use a variety of technologies that automatically or passively collect certain information about your use of the Site whenever you visit or interact with the Site (“Usage Information”). Usage Information may include the browser and operating system you are using, the URL or advertisement that referred you to our Site, the search terms you entered into a search engine that led you to our Site, all of the areas within our Site that you visit, and the time of day you visit the Site, among other information. Usage Information also includes the IP address, mobile device identifier, or other unique identifier (“Device Identifier”) for any computer, mobile phone, or other device used to access the Site. A Device Identifier is a number that is automatically assigned to your device and our servers identify your device by its Device Identifier.

We may use Usage Information for a variety of purposes, including enhancing or otherwise improving the Site and our services, and to target content or offers to users. Additionally, we may provide Usage Information to third party vendors to complete transactions.

Cookies and Web Beacons

 “Cookies” and web beacons are pieces of information (data files) transferred to an individual’s browser on their device when the device is used to visit a site. These technologies are able to store a unique identifier for a device to allow a certain Internet site to recognize the device whenever the device is used to visit the site, and may be used for many purposes, including remembering information that will make your use of the site more convenient. Like most Internet sites, the RMHC Site uses these technologies for a variety of purposes. For example, we use these technologies to serve targeted advertising elsewhere online, to track the total number of visitors to our site on an anonymous, aggregate basis, and to remember you when you return to the Site and remember your preferences. We may associate Personal Information with a data file. You can find more information about cookies and how they work at AllAboutCookies.org.

A Flash cookie is a data file placed on a device via the Adobe Flash plug-in that may be built into or downloaded by you onto your device. Flash cookies may be used for various purposes, including, without limitation, enabling a Flash feature and remembering your preferences. For more information about Flash and the privacy choices Adobe offers, visit the Adobe's Flash Player Settings Manager page. If you choose to disable cookies or to adjust your Flash privacy settings on your device, some features of the Site may not function properly.

Use the options in your Internet browser if you do not wish to receive a cookie or if you wish to set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie. If you disable all cookies or adjust your Flash privacy settings on your device, you may not be able to take advantage of all the features of the RMHC website.

Web Beacons. Small graphic images or other web programming code called web beacons (also known as “pixel tags,” “1x1 GIFs,” or “clear GIFs”) may be included in our web pages and email messages. Web beacons may be invisible to you, but any electronic image or other web programming code inserted into a web page or email can act as a web beacon. Web beacons or similar technologies may be used for a number of purposes, including, without limitation, to count visitors to the Site, to monitor how users navigate the Site, to count how many emails that were sent were actually opened or to count how many particular links were actually viewed.

In addition, we may use a variety of other technologies that collect similar information for security and fraud detection and prevention purposes.

Information Third Parties Provide About You

We may receive information about you from third parties and we may supplement the information we collect with outside records to provide you with information, activities or services you have requested, to tailor content, to offer you opportunities to become involved in activities that we believe may interest you, and for other purposes. We may combine the information we receive from those other sources with information we collect through the Site. In those cases, we will apply this Privacy Policy to the combined information.

INFORMATION USE

We may use the information we collect, including Personal Information and Usage Information:

  • to enable you to use our Site, and to provide related services and care, including responding to your questions, complaints or comments;

  • to provide you with information, opportunities, or services that you have requested or that we otherwise believe will interest you, including opportunities to donate and other special opportunities from us and our third-party partners;

  • to personalize your experience by tailoring content, recommendations, and opportunities we display to you, both on the Site and elsewhere online;

  • for internal business purposes such as to improve our Site and services;

  • to administer and process contests, sweepstakes, promotions, and surveys;

  • to process information you provide via our Site, including verifying that your email address is active and valid;

  • to contact you with administrative communications and, in our discretion, changes to our Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, or any of our other policies;

  • to comply with regulatory and legal obligations; and

  • for purposes as disclosed at the time you provide your information, with your consent, and as further described in this Privacy Policy.

The use cases above constitute (i) a legitimate interest of RMHC to process or use your Personal Information; (ii) may be necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you; or (iii) require your consent as further described in this privacy policy. If you do not agree with this approach or if you would like more information on choices you have with respect to the information we process about you, please see the section titled YOUR CHOICES below.

INFORMATION SECURITY AND PAYMENT PROCESSING

RMHC.org has implemented technical and organizational security measures designed to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, or unauthorized access, alteration and/or destruction. Some of these safeguards include internal policies related to information governance, password complexity, handling, and maintenance protocols, remote access controls, backup and retention requirements, restricting access to personal information to those on a need to know basis, and we use a PCI DSS compliant third party to process, store, and transmit any credit or debit card data in compliance with PCI standards. We also utilize a password-protected database to store any donor personal information. Access to this database is restricted to personnel with a legitimate business need to access or modify the information contained therein. If you have any questions about our security controls or need further assistance, please contact [email protected]. Please note, however, no method of transmission over the internet, and no means of electronic or physical storage, is absolutely secure. As such, we cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted to, through, or on our Site or via the Internet.

RMHC uses third party vendors, such as Stripe and Blackbaud, for payment processing and payment transactions. RMHC uses The Giving Block as our third party vendor for facilitating cryptocurrency donations. Our third party processors use payment-related information as necessary and appropriate to fulfill requests to process payment transactions, to facilitate billing, and to otherwise deliver payment services.

  • Stripe is certified to PCI Service Provider Level 1, the most stringent level of certification in the payments industry.  Stripe uses a best-in-class security environment to process payment details, encrypt your credit/debit card information, and authorize payment. For additional information on Stripe, please visit: https://stripe.com/terms and https://stripe.com/privacy.

  • Blackbaud represents compliance with PCI DSS requirements, and fully adheres to PCI standards regarding secure payment processing and storage of data, strong access control and other requirements. For additional information on Blackbaud please visit Blackbaud's PCI Compliance page.

  • The Giving Block cryptocurrency donation platform works in conjunction with Stripe to facilitate cryptocurrency donations. For additional information on The Giving Block data practices please visit: https://thegivingblock.com/about/privacy-policy/ and https://thegivingblock.com/about/terms-of-service/

Because we use these vendors to process credit card and cryptocurrency payments made through the Site and to store associated payment and personal data, RMHC does not collect, store or access any credit card information submitted online; however, we may receive non-PCI data associated with your payment card information (e.g., your name and billing address).

For donations made offline, RMHC may directly collect, store or have access to payment card information for processing payments, and we adhere to PCI DSS requirements for these types of offline transactions.

INFORMATION SHARING

We may share non-Personal Information, such as Usage Information and aggregated user statistics, with third parties in our discretion. RMHC does not sell or share personal information with unaffiliated third parties for their direct marketing purposes. For cryptocurrency donations, please visit The Giving Block’s Privacy Policy (https://thegivingblock.com/about/privacy-policy/) to understand their practices related to the sharing of your Personal Information with third parties for interest-based advertising purposes.

We may share the information we have collected about you (including Personal Information): (i) as disclosed at the time you provide your information, (ii) with your consent, (iii) as described elsewhere in this Privacy Policy, or (iv) in the following circumstances:

Local RMHC/RMH Chapters

Each local RMHC/RMH Chapter is an affiliated independent organization and sub-licensee of RMHC (each a “Chapter”). Some of the local Chapters operate their own websites. When visiting the Internet site or online service of a local RMHC Chapter, the information collected by and through that Internet site or online service is governed by that Chapter’s privacy policies and practices.

RMHC may share your information (including Personal Information) with Chapters for various reasons. For example, if you make a donation and designate that it should support a local Chapter, RMHC will transfer your Personal Information to the recipient Chapter in addition to maintaining your information in our donor management database. Additionally, RMHC may share your information with a Chapter if you contact RMHC with a comment or complaint about the Chapter, or to help facilitate communications or requests. Each local Chapter will treat the information RMHC shares with it according to its own privacy and security practices and policies. Chapters are independent of RMHC, so you should review the Chapter’s policies for information on how those Chapters treat your information.

Third Parties Providing Services on Our Behalf

Companies may be engaged by RMHC to perform a variety of functions, such as assisting with donation collection, providing technical services for our Internet sites, etc. Such companies may have access to Personal Information if needed to perform certain functions. However, with one limited exception for cryptocurrency donations, these companies may use such Personal Information only for the purpose of performing that function and may not use it for any other purpose. Please visit The Giving Block’s Privacy Policy (https://thegivingblock.com/about/privacy-policy/) to understand their sharing of your Personal Information with third parties for interest-based advertising purposes and how you may opt-out of this practice.

Administrative and Legal Reasons

RMHC reserves the right to use or disclose any information (including Personal Information) as needed to satisfy any law, regulation or legal request, to protect the integrity of the site, to fulfill your requests, or to cooperate in any law enforcement investigation or an investigation on a public safety matter, to protect and defend the legal rights or property of RMHC, our Site or its users, or any other party, or in an emergency, to protect the health and safety of our users or the general public.

Sweepstakes, Contests, & Promotions

We may offer sweepstakes, contests, and other promotions (any, a “Promotion”) that may require registration. By participating in a Promotion, you are agreeing to the provisions, conditions, or official rules that govern that Promotion, which may contain specific requirements of you (including, except where prohibited by law, allowing the sponsor(s) of the Promotion to use your name, voice, likeness or other identifying characteristics in advertising or marketing materials). If you choose to enter a Promotion, Personal Information may be disclosed to third parties or the public in connection with the administration of such Promotion, including, without limitation, in connection with winner selection, prize fulfillment, and as required by law or permitted by the Promotion's terms or official rules (such as on a winners list).

Social Networking Features

Functionality on the Site may permit interactions that you initiate between the Site and a third-party website or service such as Twitter or Facebook (“Social Networking Features”). Examples of Social Networking Features include enabling you to “like” or “share” content from the Site or to “like” or “share” our page on a third-party service; to automatically or selectively show your social media posts/tweets on the Site; to create a RMHC account or RMHC personal profile using existing login information from a social-network (known as a social login); and to otherwise connect the Site to a third-party website or service. If you choose to share content or to otherwise post information through the Site to a third-party site or service, or vice versa, that information may be publicly displayed. Similarly, if you post information on a third-party platform that references RMHC, for example, by using a Twitter hashtag associated with RMHC in your Tweet), your post may be published on the Site in accordance with the terms of that third party. Also, both we and the third party may have access to certain information about you and your use of the Site and the third-party site or service. In addition, we may receive information about you if other users of a third-party website give us access to their profiles and you are one of their “connections” or information about you is otherwise accessible through your “connections” web page, profile page, or similar page on a social networking or other third-party website or service. If you choose to use a social login, we may collect Personal Information including your name and email address. The information we collect in connection with Social Networking Features is subject to this Privacy Policy. The information collected and stored by the third party remains subject to the third party’s privacy practices, including whether the third party continues to share information with us, the types of information shared, and your choices with regard to what is visible to others on that third-party website or service.

Business Transfers & Transitions

In the event RMHC goes through a transition (such as a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy or sale of all or a portion of its assets, including, without limitation, during the course of any due diligence process), your Personal Information will likely be among the assets transferred. By providing your Personal Information, you agree that we may transfer such information to the acquiring entity without your further consent.

THIRD-PARTY ANALYTICS PROVIDERS, AD SERVERS, AND SIMILAR THIRD PARTIES

We work with network advertisers, ad agencies, analytics service providers, and other vendors to provide us with information regarding traffic on the Site (including pages viewed and the actions taken when visiting the Site), to serve our advertisements elsewhere online, and to provide us with information regarding the use of the Site and the effectiveness of our advertisements. We may share non-Personal Information (including hashed or otherwise de-identified personal information) with service providers for these same purposes. In addition, our service providers may collect certain information about your visits to and activity on the Site and other websites and services and may use this information to target our third-party advertising to you.

These service providers may set and access their own tracking technologies on your device and may otherwise collect or have access to information about you. Some of these parties may collect personal information over time as you visit online websites and services. Cookies, including those set by third-party network advertisers, may be used to (among other things): target advertisements, prevent you from seeing the same advertisements too many times, and conduct research regarding the usefulness of certain advertisements to you. We may share Usage Information about visitors with third-party advertising companies, analytics providers, and other vendors for similar purposes.

For example, we use Google services, such as Google Analytics, to collect data about traffic across our Site, to deliver advertisements when you visit other websites, and to share data about traffic to our website with Google and other Google Analytics program participants. For more information about how Google Analytics collects and processes data, visit How Google uses data when you use our partner's sites or apps.

To opt out of: (i) Google Analytics install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on and (ii) Google’s ad serving. In addition to Google, we may use a variety of other service providers to perform advertising services. Some of these companies are members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) or the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. You may want to visit The Network Advertising Initiative for Consumer Opt Out, which provides information regarding targeted advertising and the “opt-out” procedures of NAI members. You may also want to visit the Digital Advertising Alliance Consumer Choice Page, which provides information regarding targeted advertising and offers an “opt-out” by participating companies in the DAA Self-Regulatory Program.

Please note that these third party advertising companies may still collect information from you and opting out through these mechanisms does not opt you out of being served advertising. You will continue to be served generic ads while online or on your device.

HOW WE RESPOND TO “DO NOT TRACK” SIGNALS

Some Internet browsers may be configured to send “Do Not Track” signals to the online services that you visit. There is no consensus among industry participants as to what “Do Not Track” means in this context. Like many websites and online services, the Site does not alter its practices when it receives a “Do Not Track” signal from a visitor’s browser. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” please visit All About Do Not Track (DNT).

YOUR CHOICES

If at any time, you would like to correct or delete the Personal Information we have about you or if you would like to change your preferences for contacts from us, you can let us know by contacting us at the following addresses: Ronald McDonald House Charities, Inc., Department 014, Attn: RMHC Operations, 110 North Carpenter Street, Chicago, IL 60607 or email:  [email protected]. RMHC will make good faith efforts to implement requested changes in our active databases. Note, however, that we may keep information you update or change for RMHC’s administrative purposes. Certain Personal Information is required to use our site and related services and care. Requesting complete deletion of your Personal Information may result in a termination of your account and/or your ability to donate, receive our services and care, or engage in other transactions with RMHC. Also, it is not always possible to completely remove or delete all of your information from our databases, and residual data may remain on backup media or may be retained as necessary to comply with our legal and/or contractual obligations. 

If you would like to unsubscribe from our email list, please use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our newsletter emails or contact us through the postal address listed above. However, please note that even if you opt-out of receiving marketing communications or donor requests, we reserve the right to send you certain communications relating to your use of our Site, service announcements, notices of changes to this Privacy Policy or other Site policies, or similar administrative or transactional messages. These transactional messages may be unaffected if you choose to opt-out from marketing communications.

Some jurisdictions (state, federal, national, and international) provide individuals with certain rights regarding their Personal Information. If you reside in the EEA or in another jurisdiction that provides you with rights regarding your Personal Information, you may exercise your rights by submitting your request in writing using the contact information in the How to Contact Us section of this policy. We will ask that you verify your identity before responding to any such requests. Your rights will depend on the location in which you reside when your Personal Information or EU Personal Data is collected or otherwise processed. The following illustrates the rights that may be afforded under the EEA (GDPR) or your jurisdiction collectively:

  • Being informed about how we obtain and process your personal information;

  • Viewing and obtaining a copy of the personal information we maintain about you;

  • Amending or revising personal information we maintain about you;

  • Having personal information we maintain about you erased or forgotten;

  • Objecting to the use of your personal information for direct marketing;

  • Restricting our use of the personal information we maintain about you;

  • Transferring the personal information we maintain about you to another entity who will provide substantially similar services;

  • Objecting to our use of personal information we maintain about you;

  • Objecting to automated decision making based on your personal information;

  • Objecting to automated profiling based on your personal information;

  • Knowing from where we obtained your personal information;

  • To receive the same services (to the extent possible) at the same price regardless of whether you exercise your individual rights under this statement;

  • Withdraw your previously provided consent (this right may only be available on a prospective basis); or

  • Filing a complaint with us or the appropriate governmental entity.

Some states require specific information regarding our practices and that your rights be provided to you in the form of a privacy notice. These notices are provided in the State Specific Privacy Notices section below.

We will respond to your request within thirty (30) days of receipt. The period of response may be extended to forty-five (45) or sixty (60) days if more time is required. In that event, we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing.

STATE SPECIFIC PRIVACY NOTICES

Notice to Colorado Residents

Under Colorado’s Consumer Privacy Act (CPA), which goes into effect July 1, 2023, Colorado residents have certain rights around our collection, use, and sharing of their Personal Information.

We do not currently sell any Personal Information we collect to any third parties. If we were to do so in the future, we will update this Privacy Policy, and provide Colorado residents with the opportunity to opt-out of the sale of their Personal Information. We also do not engage in profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similar significant effects.

We work with advertisers and analytics service providers to target our advertisements elsewhere online, and to provide us information on the effectiveness of our advertisements and Site traffic. Additional information about targeted advertising we conduct can be found in the Cookies and Web Beacons section of this Privacy Policy. As a Colorado resident you have the right to opt-out of such targeted advertising.

We collect various categories of Personal Information depending on how you choose to engage with us as described in the Types of Information Collected section of this Privacy Policy. The Information Sharing and Third-Party Analytics Providers, Ad Servers, And Similar Third Parties sections also describes how and under what circumstances Personal Information may be shared with third parties.

If you are a resident of Colorado, starting July 1, 2023, you have the right to (1) request to know what Personal Information has been collected about you, and to access that information; (2) request to correct inaccuracies in your Personal Information; (3) request deletion of your Personal Information (exceptions under the CPA and other laws may allow us to retain and use your Personal Information notwithstanding your deletion request); and (4) obtain a copy of your Personal Information.

If you have any questions or comments, or would like to exercise any of your rights, please contact us using the information in the How to Contact Us section below.

LINKS TO OTHER SITES

We may offer links to sites that are not operated by RMHC, including without limitation to the Chapters. If you visit one of these linked sites, you should review their privacy and other policies. We are not responsible for the policies and practices of others.

USERS RESIDING OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES AND CONSENT TO TRANSFER

The Site is operated in the United States. If you are located in another jurisdiction, please be aware that information you provide to us will be transferred to and processed in the United States. By using the Site or providing us with any information, you consent to this transfer, processing, and storage of your information in the United States, a jurisdiction in which the privacy laws may not be as comprehensive as those in the country where you reside or are a citizen.

CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

From time to time, RMHC may change this Privacy Policy and will notify you of material changes by posting the changed or modified Privacy Policy on our Site. We may also provide notice to you in other ways at our discretion, such as through contact information you have provided. Any changes will be effective immediately upon the posting of the revised Privacy Policy unless otherwise specified and your continued use of the Site after the effective date of the revised Privacy Policy (or such other act as specified in the revised Privacy Policy) will constitute your consent to those changes. Rest assured, however, that unless we obtain your consent, any changes will not alter how we handle previously collected information.

HOW TO CONTACT US

If you have any questions about the RMHC Privacy Policy, or wish to review your information or be removed from our database for mailings, please contact us at:

Ronald McDonald House Charities, Inc.
Department 014
Attn: RMHC Operations
110 North Carpenter Street
Chicago, IL 60607
Email: [email protected]


This Privacy Policy is effective as of July 15, 2022.