Privacy policy

Centrepoint takes your privacy seriously. Here's how we collect, share and process your personal information. 

At Centrepoint we rely on the support of individuals like you to carry out our vital work with homeless young people. This is why we want to be completely transparent about why we need the personal details we request when you communicate with us and how we use the data once we collect it.

Developing a better understanding of our supporters through their personal data allows us to fundraise more efficiently. This ultimately helps raise more money that can go towards helping homeless young people. We have made improvements to this notice so that accountability and transparency is at the core of what we do, especially around our policy on profiling and wealth screening in "How do you use my information?" section below.

We take protecting your privacy very seriously and will always take all reasonable steps within our power to make sure your information is safe.

  • Name, address, telephone number, mobile number, email addresses
  • Contact preferences (how we should contact you in the future)
  • Bank account details
  • Gift Aid status
  • Date of birth
  • Records of your correspondence and engagement with us
  • Images, photographs or video if you take part in an event with us, provided that you have given your consent
  • Survey responses
  • Employer details and National Insurance number if you are a payroll donor
  • Details of your relationship to other supporters, where appropriate
  • Details about your health, should you sign up take part in activities which may involve some risk or physical exertion

This information may be collected via:

  • Any paper forms you complete
  • Telephone conversations or face-to-face interviews
  • Digital forms completed via our website or third party websites such as JustGiving
  • Publicly available sources
  • Communication via social media

If you visit our website or social media pages we may automatically collect the following information:

  • Which pages you visit
  • The amount of time you spent on our website
  • Whether you are a new visitor
  • How you came to our website
  • The type of device and browser you use

Cookies

We may collect information by using cookies. We will ask you to give your consent to the use of cookies when you arrive on our website. Read our cookie policy here.

We will let you know before collecting your data whether it is part of a statutory or contractual requirement or obligation, and the possible consequences of not providing the information.

Depending on the specific purpose, we may process your information on the following legal bases: 

  • With your consent
  • To enter into or to perform a contract with you
  • To protect your vital interests
  • For our legitimate business interests or activities as a not-for-profit body
  • Where necessary to perform a task in the public interest
  • For compliance with our legal or social protection obligations

We may use your personal information for the following purposes:

  • To update you about Centrepoint’s work including newsletters
  • To send you information about appeals and fundraising activities – including requests for donations, information about how you can leave us a gift in your Will, how you can raise money on our behalf and attend or take part in a fundraising event
  • To administer your donation or support your fundraising, including processing Gift Aid
  • To respond to your enquiries
  • To further our charitable aims
  • As and when required by law

We make it easy for you to tell us how you want us to communicate in a way that suits you. Our communications have clear marketing preference questions and we include information on how to opt out at any time or when you receive marketing materials from us. To opt out of any forms of communication from us contact our Supporter Care team on 0800 23 23 20 or email supportercare@centrepoint.org.

If you no longer wish to receive communications from Centrepoint, you can use these methods to let us know:

  • Use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails
  • Use the STOP code and reply to stop receiving SMS messages
  • By calling our Supporter Care team on 0800 23 23 20
  • By writing to Supporter Care, Centrepoint, Central House, 25 Camperdown Street, London, E1 8DZ

Where possible, we remove out of date data by checking it against publicly available records such as deceased records. This helps us to improve the delivery rate of our mailings and minimise wasted expenditure.

We will never share or sell your personal data to a third-party organisation for its marketing, fundraising or campaigning purposes. 

Profiling

We may analyse the details you have provided to us along with further information about you that we have obtained from public and/or private sources. If we do this we will make sure it is compliant with GDPR. In some instances we may make use of additional factors such as demographic information and measures of wealth.

We do this to help us understand why people are motivated to support Centrepoint and to help us create a fuller and better picture of our supporters. This enables us to communicate with our supporters more effectively and to reach out to individuals who may wish to give additional support with a further monetary gift or to volunteer their time/services to support homeless young people.  We may on occasion use third party suppliers to undertake these activities on our behalf and provide them with your information to the extent required, but this will only be done with your consent and with GDPR compliant suppliers. 

Social media

Here is some more details on what information we collect on social media: 

Facebook

We use Facebook as a social media platform to communicate with our existing and potential supporters. We use both paid ads and unpaid organic posts on the platform. We use cookies to measure the success and effectiveness of our paid advertising by ensuring that our ads are served to the relevant people.

We also use Facebook cookies to retarget to supporters who have previously engaged with us through our website.

These cookies also help us to build custom audiences and lookalike audiences so you can receive relevant ads from us when you use Facebook. This is so we can raise awareness among users of Facebook who share similar interests to you. Your data is sent in an encrypted format that is deleted by Facebook if it does not match with a Facebook account.

Read Facebook's privacy policy.

We may also use email addresses and name details to identify "lookalike" audiences on social media channels. This helps us provide information, products and fundraising asks that we feel may be of use or interest to those audiences. This involves uploading these supporter details to third party social media organisations, including Facebook and Twitter, from which they identify "lookalike" cohorts. This upload is governed by terms and conditions restricting the processing and use of the data and can be viewed on Facebook Business and Twitter Business.

Read Facebook's commercial terms

Read Twitter's terms of service

We do not sell or share personal data to third parties for the purposes of marketing.

We may allow our suppliers to access and use your personal data to allow them to perform services on our behalf, such as payment processing and maintenance and support of our systems. In these circumstances we will not give these organisations any rights to use your personal information except to provide services to us and in accordance with our instructions.

Associated organisations: we may share anonymised data with other similar homelessness charities to further our charitable aims. You cannot be identified from this data.   

Organisations who are supportive of our aims: we may share data with other supportive organisations, including legal advisors in partner organisations, to further our charitable aims or for fundraising purposes.  We only share your information for these purposes when we have your permission to do so. You can change your mind at any time by contacting us using the details below.

Agents: we may share anonymised data with agents to improve the quality of our services, for example analytics companies to measure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns.

Police or Social Services: there are exemptions within data protection regulations that mean we are under legal obligations to share limited data.  This includes the prevention and detection of crime or to prevent benefit fraud.

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure that we (and our service providers) keep your information secure, accurate and up to date. Unfortunately the transmission of information over the internet is never 100% secure. This means you provide information through our website and our social media pages at your own risk.

Centrepoint has additional security measures in place to protect the sensitive personal data we process. Our secure Supporter Data system can only be accessed by authorised people at Centrepoint. Access to the system is monitored and all of our employees are required to undertake data protection training before they have access to personal data. This training is repeated every two years.  

We will retain your personal information for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes in this Notice unless a longer retention period is permitted by law. Different types of information are held for different periods of time in accordance with our Records Retention and Destruction Procedure. For example, we hold complaints forms for seven years after the final communication whereas unsuccessful job applications are held for six months.

We will not store your credit card details once we have processed a one-off donation.

You can request deletion of your personal information at any time by contacting our Data Protection Manager by calling 0800 23 23 20 or emailing dataprotection@centrepoint.org.

To improve our website we use cookies and similar technologies. Cookies are small pieces of information sent by us to your computer or mobile device and stored on your device to allow us to recognise when you next visit.

We will ask you whether you give your consent for the use of cookies when you enter our website.

For more information about the cookies we use, including third party cookies, please read our cookies policy.

To be informed: We must provide fair processing information typically through our privacy notice.

Access: you can ask for a copy of the information we hold about you.

Correction: we will use all reasonable endeavours to ensure the accuracy of your personal information. It is your responsibility to ensure that you submit true, accurate and complete information to us. You can have any inaccuracies in your information corrected.

Deletion: you can ask us to delete all your personal information in certain circumstances (for example, if the information is no longer necessary).

Objection/marketing: you can object to us processing your data in certain circumstances (for example, profiling). If you no longer wish to receive communications from Centrepoint, you can use these methods to let us know:

  • Use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of our emails
  • Use the STOP code and reply to stop receiving SMS messages
  • By calling our Supporter Care team on 0800 23 23 20
  • In writing to Support Care, Centrepoint, Central House, 25 Camperdown Street, London, E1 8DZ

Restriction: you can ask us to pause processing your information in certain circumstances (for example, if you are disputing its accuracy).

Portability: you can ask us to transfer your information electronically to another organisation in certain circumstances.

Automated decision making/profiling: you can ask for access to information about the reasoning behind any decisions taken by automated means. You have the right to ask us to reconsider a decision taken by automated means.

Withdrawal of consent: you can withdraw your consent at any time.

All of these rights are free to exercise. We will aim to respond within one month unless we need to extend the timeframe for certain reasons. You can make any of the above requests by contacting Centrepoint at the details below, although it will greatly assist us if you use the form provided to you by Centrepoint staff or available on our website. We will assess your request and provide a full response in writing.

Other information

Centrepoint young people

If you're a Centrepoint young person, please refer to this privacy notice

Children

Our services are aimed at young people aged 16-25, however our Helpline occasionally receives contacts from under 16 year olds. We ask the young person if an adult with parental responsibility can provide consent for us to hold/use the young person’s personal data but if this is not possible, we will make a professional judgement. If it can be justified to be in the public interest to share the personal data, we will lawfully share it to protect the child from significant harm and promote the welfare of the child.  

Transfers of your personal information

At all times, we intend to store and process your personal information within the European Economic Area. Should this ever change, we would take steps to ensure your personal information is only transferred once adequate safeguarding is in place. This includes Model Clauses, other adequacy mechanisms or derogations approved by the EU Commission or under UK law.

Third party sites

Our website may have links to other websites we do not operate. You should read the privacy notices on those websites before you submit your personal information.

Changes to this notice

From time to time, we may revise this notice. Updated versions will be posted on the website. If we make any significant changes, we will draw attention to them.

Contact us

If you have any questions about this notice, please contact:

Data Protection Manager
Centrepoint
Central House
25 Camperdown Street
London
E1 8DZ

0800 232320
dataprotection@centrepoint.org.

If you have a complaint about the way we process your information, we will aim to address these concerns. However, if you would like to, please direct your complaint directly to the Information Commissioner's Officer.