Female genital cutting (FGC) is a harmful practice involving the full or partial removal, or injury to a girl’s external genitals. Also known as female genital mutilation or FGM, 200 million women and girls in 31 countries are currently living with the consequences of the practice globally.
At least 4.1 million girls around the world are currently at risk of being cut every year. The good news is that change is happening.
Be part of the change! To stay up-to-date with our latest news, stories of change and information about the global movement to end the cut (as well as the reason we say FGC rather than FGM), sign up our mailing list.
Orchid Project Privacy Policy
Orchid Project is committed to treating any personal information we obtain about you with care and respect. This Privacy Policy sets out how and why we obtain, use and protect personal information.
Why we hold and process supporters’ personal data
We hold and process supporters’ personal data for a number of reasons:
When and why we will get in touch with you
Orchid Project will only contact you for marketing where we have your consent to do so. This might, for example, keep you up to date on our work, or let you know of ways in which you can support that work.
We will make it easy for you to tell us if you would like to receive marketing communications from us and hear more about our work, and we will not send you marketing material if you tell us that you do not wish to receive it. You can unsubscribe from our email updates at any time, by using the ‘unsubscribe’ link on our newsletters or by getting in touch with us directly.
We may also contact you with information in the following instances:
We will provide you with opportunities to tell us whether you’d like to continue receiving communications from Orchid Project.
How and when we collect information about you:
Orchid Project may collect your personal data in the following circumstances:
When you give it to us DIRECTLY
You may give us your personal data directly when you make a donation, sign up for our newsletter, or get in contact with us directly via email, post, or phone.
When you give it to us INDIRECTLY
You may give us your information indirectly when you contribute to Orchid Project via fundraising sites like Just Giving or Virgin Money Giving. These independent third parties will pass your data to Orchid Project where you have indicated that you wish to support Orchid Project and have given your consent or it is a necessary part of completing a contract with you.
When you access Orchid Project’s social media
We might also obtain your personal data through your use of social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn, depending on your settings or the privacy policies of these social media and messaging services. To change your settings on these services, please refer to their privacy notices, which will tell you how to do this.
https://www.facebook.com/policy.php
https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/#privacy-policy
https://help.instagram.com/155833707900388
https://twitter.com/en/privacy
https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy
When the information is publicly available
We might also obtain personal data about individuals who may be interested in giving major gifts to charities or organisations like Orchid Project. In this scenario, Orchid Project may seek to find out more about these individuals, their interests and motivations for giving through publicly available information. This information may include newspaper or other media coverage, open postings on social media sites such as LinkedIn, and data from Companies House. Orchid Project will not retain publicly available data relating to major donors without their consent, which will be sought at the earliest practical opportunity.
What kind of information might we collect about you?
We only collect personal data relevant to the type of transactions you have with Orchid Project.
For example, when you contact Orchid Project to make a donation or sign up to our newsletters, or you telephone, email, text or write to Orchid Project, or engage with Orchid Project via social media channels, we may receive and retain personal information about you relevant to the type of transaction: this might include your name, email address, postal address, telephone or mobile number, or, in the case of donations, your bank account details and whether or not you are a taxpayer so that we can claim Gift Aid.
How will Orchid Project use your personal data?
Orchid Project will use your personal information for the following purposes:
For administrative reasons, including:
For marketing and fundraising reasons including:
For market research, including:
Will Orchid Project share your personal information?
We will only use your information within Orchid Project for the purposes for which it was obtained. Orchid Project will not, under any circumstances, share or sell your personal data with any third party for their own marketing purposes, and you will not receive marketing from any other companies, charities or other organisations as a result of giving your details to us.
Legal requirements
We will also comply with legal requests where disclosure is required or permitted by law (for example to government bodies for tax purposes or law enforcement agencies for the prevention and detection of crime, subject to such bodies providing us with a relevant request in writing).
How long will Orchid Project keep your personal information for?
We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity. For example, we will keep a record of donations subject to Gift Aid for at least seven years to comply with HMRC rules.
If you request that we stop sending you marketing materials we will keep a record of your contact details and appropriate information to enable us to comply with your request not to be contacted by us.
How to control what we send you or update the information we hold on you?
The accuracy of your information is really important to us. We want to ensure that we are able to communicate with you in ways that you are happy with.
If you wish to change how we communicate with you, or update the information we hold, then please contact us:
Subject Access Requests
Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to have any inaccuracies corrected. Orchid Project will provide this information to you free of charge (except in the event of manifestly unfounded or excessive requests), and will respond to you within 30 days of your request.
How Orchid Project keeps your data safe
We ensure that there are appropriate technical controls in place to protect your personal details. For example our online forms are always encrypted and our network is protected and routinely monitored.
We undertake regular reviews of who has access to information that we hold to ensure that your information is only accessible by appropriately trained staff.
How to make complaints about this policy or raise your concerns
If you would like more information, or have any questions about this policy, please contact us using the contact information provided above.
To make a formal complaint about Orchid Project’s approach to data protection or raise privacy concerns directly with our data protection team, please contact:
The Data Protection Officer
Orchid Project
The Foundry, 17-19 Oval Way
London
SE11 5RR
You also have the right to make a complaint direct to the UK’s data protection authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO can be contacted at: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/
Concerns can also be logged via the ICO website.
Stay up-to-date with stories of change, news and research about ending female genital cutting by signing up to our newsletter.
If you have any questions, please get in touch.
4.3 million girls around the world are currently at risk of being cut every year.
Your donation will help us accelerate an end to female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) around the world.