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Last updated: 3rd July 2025

SOS Children’s Villages UK
Privacy Notice

1. Introduction

We are committed to protecting your personal information and your right to privacy and will only use the information that we collect about you lawfully.

This Privacy Notice is intended to give you an understanding of how and why we use the information you give us.

This Privacy Notice applies to all information collected through our website (www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/), and any related services, sales, marketing, or events.

2. Our contact details

We are SOS Children’s Villages UK, part of the largest global children’s charity committed to protecting children, providing support to children and young people across more than 130 countries.

For the purposes of UK Data Protection Law, we are registered with the ICO under registration
number: ZB848102.Name: SOS Children’s Villages UK

Address: Ravenscroft House, 59-61 Regent Street, Cambridge, CB2 1AB

Phone Number: 01223 365 589

Email: DPO@sosuk.org

Date of Privacy Notice: Last updated 3rd July 2025

3. The type of personal information we collect

We currently collect and process the following information:

  • Personal identifiers, contacts, and characteristics (e.g., name, address, email, telephone number, age or corporate affiliation).
  • Details of your visit to our website, including your IP address
  • Information you input on our website or provide in physical form during events.
  • Records of your correspondence with us, should you have reached out.
  • Financial information such as your bank or card details.
  • Information indicating any relationship to another supporter.

 

In certain cases, we may collect sensitive personal data (special category data), such as health conditions or disabilities, where this data allows us to make appropriate adjustments to our services and/or communications according to your requirements, or when related to event attendance.  We process this data on the basis of your explicit consent.

Your information might be received from third parties, such as fundraising platforms, operating under their own data protection and privacy policies. We advise reviewing their privacy policies to comprehend fully how they handle and may share your data.

4. How we collect the personal information and why we have it

SOS Children’s Villages UK is committed to protecting your privacy. Most of the data we collect is provided to us directly by you, however we collect personal data through various channels to enhance our services and support our charitable activities. Below is an overview of the circumstances under which we may collect your data:

  • Website Visits: We use cookies to improve the performance of our website and enhance your user experience across our digital channels. This includes cookies set by SOS Children’s Villages UK, such as Google Analytics, and those set by third parties. For more information on how we use cookies, please refer to our cookie policy.
  • Donations and Support: We collect data when you make financial or non-financial donations, respond to our appeals, or engage with our mailings. This also extends to those who leave a legacy or gift in their will to SOS Children’s Villages UK.
  • Engagement Activities: Your data is collected if you volunteer, act as an ambassador, fundraise on our behalf, share experiences with us, or attend our events.
  • Professional Services: We gather personal information through job applications, volunteering positions, services provided directly or via an agency, or consultancy services.
  • Communications: Personal data is collected when you initiate contact through enquiries, correspondence (including social media), or express interest in further engagement. This includes collecting email marketing preferences via our marketing automation service provider.
  • Technical Data: Information about the devices and networks you use to access our services, including IP addresses, device types, operating systems, and browser types, is collected to improve website compatibility and security.
  • Support and Feedback: Data provided through support channels or user feedback forms is collected to improve our services and address any issues.
  • Partnership and Research: Personal data from individuals representing partner organisations or participating in research conducted by SOS Children’s Villages UK is collected to support these collaborations.
  • Compliance and Health & Safety: For compliance with legal obligations, including due diligence and anti-money laundering checks, as well as health-related information for event safety and accessibility needs, we may collect necessary personal data.


Lawful Basis

In accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases for processing this information include:

  • Consent, which you can withdraw at any time by contacting us on the details shown above.
  • Contractual or legal obligations, such as HMRC Gift Aid obligations.
  • Legitimate interest, which can include pursuing the objectives of SOS Children’s Villages UK to ensure that no child grows up alone through fundraising activities such as direct marketing campaigns, emergency appeals and special events. However, legitimate interests can also include your interests, such as when you have requested information from us, and those of third parties such as our programme participants.


We will process your data for one or more of the following reasons:

  • Managing donations, including Gift Aid processing.
  • Maintaining our relationship with you and updating you on the impact of your support.
  • Providing you with the services, activities or information you have indicated you are happy to receive or which you have asked for.
  • Compliance with applicable laws and regulations, as well as requests from statutory agencies.
  • Internal administrative purposes and to keep a record of your relationship with us via our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
  • Internal research to enhance our effectiveness.
  • Marketing communications, event invitations and supporter updates.
  • Information about volunteering opportunities.
  • Managing your communication preferences via our Marketing Automation and CRM systems.
  • Conducting appropriate due diligence on the individuals and organisations we collaborate with.
  • Enhancing our website and digital channels (through the use of cookies; see Appendix 1 for more information)
  • Financial transactions and record keeping (for donations and purchases) including through our CRM and Accounting systems.
  • Feedback and surveys (to improve our services and engagement)
  • Tailored advertising and re-marketing (using anonymised data for relevant advertisements)
  • Safety and event management (including health and accessibility requirements for events)


Additionally, we periodically verify and enhance the accuracy of your data against publicly available external data sources (such as Royal Mail), improving the quality and precision of the information we currently hold about you.

As a fundraising organisation, we undertake in-house research and from time to time engage specialist agencies to gather information about you from publicly available sources, for example, Companies House, the Electoral Register, company websites, ‘rich lists’, social networks such as LinkedIn, political and property registers, and news archives. Additionally, we may use agencies such as Experian to further enhance and verify the information we hold about you for marketing purposes.

We may also carry out wealth screening to fast-track the research using our trusted third-party partners. You will always have the right to opt out of this by contacting us on the details shown above. We may also carry out research using publicly available information to identify individuals who may have an affinity to our cause but with whom we are not already in touch. This may include people connected to our current major supporters, trustees, or other lead volunteers. We also use publicly available sources to carry out due diligence on donors in line with our Ethical Partnerships Policy and to meet money laundering regulations.

This research helps us to understand more about you as an individual so we can focus conversations we have with you about fundraising and volunteering in the most effective way and ensure that we provide you with an experience as a donor or potential donor which is appropriate for you.

5. How we store your personal information

We prioritise the secure storage of your information. SOS Children’s Villages UK maintains robust safeguards for data storage.

Normally, information about you will be stored by SOS Children’s Villages UK within the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area (EEA). In situations requiring data storage outside the EEA, we undertake reasonable efforts to ensure that the recipient of such data implements GDPR-compliant measures to safeguard your information.

All online payment transactions are encrypted for added security.

6. How long do we keep your data?

We will process and retain your data only for a reasonable and necessary period consistent with our Data Retention Policy.

The duration of retention adheres to legal and regulatory guidelines. Should you withdraw your consent for us to retain your personal data, please note that we will notify you if we are unable to comply due to overriding legal obligations.

7. Your data protection rights

Under data protection laws in the UK and EU, you have certain rights over the personal information that we hold about you. If you would like to exercise your rights, please get in contact with any of the details listed above. Here is a summary of the rights we think apply:

Your right to be informed – You have the right to be informed as to how we use your data and under what lawful basis we carry out any processing. This Privacy Notice sets this information out, however if you would like further information, please get in touch.

Your right of access – You have a right to request access to a copy of your personal information that we hold about you, along with the information on what personal information we use, why we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it for and whenever it has been used for automated decision making. You can make a request for access free of charge and proof of identity is required. 

Your right to rectification – You can ask us to change or complete any inaccurate or incomplete personal information held about you. The accuracy of your information is important to us and we are working on ways to make this easier for you to review and correct the information that we hold about you. If any of your information is out of date or if you are unsure of this, please get in touch through any of the contact details listed in this notice. 

Your right to erasure – You can ask us to delete your personal information where it is no longer necessary for us to use it, or where we have no lawful basis for keeping it. Sometimes where we have a legal obligation, we cannot erase your personal data.

Your right to withdraw consent – Where you have provided consent to our use of your data, you also have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. This means that we will stop processing your data.

Your right to restriction of processing – You can ask us to restrict the personal information we use about you where you have asked for it to be erased or where you have objected to our use of it, or we are not lawfully allowed to use it.

Your right to object to processing – You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground or for direct marketing.

Your right to data portability – You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information that we hold about you to you or to a third party.

Automated decision making - Automated decision-making takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human intervention. You have the right to question the outcome of automated decisions that may create legal effects or create a similar significant impact on you.

Please contact us on the details shown above if you wish to make a request.

8. How to complain

If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at dpo@sosuk.org or by writing to us at Ravenscroft House, 59-61 Regent Street, Cambridge, CB2 1AB. Our Complaint’s Policy can be found here.

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have responded or how we have used your data.

The ICO’s address:

Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane,

Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113

ICO website: www.ico.org.uk

9. Changes to this Privacy Notice

We may update our Privacy Notice from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by a “Last Updated” date, and the updated version will be effective as soon as it is accessible.

If we make substantial changes to this Privacy Notice, we will seek to notify you by email or, if you have not provided your email address, by post. You are responsible for keeping your email address up to date. Any changes to this Privacy Notice will be effective immediately and your continued use of our website after such time shall constitute your acceptance of the amended Notice.