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1. Introduction

The Alannah & Madeline Foundation (ABN 96 514 115 810) (‘the Foundation / we / us / our’) is strongly committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information.

We are subject to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) including the Australian Privacy Principles. The purpose of this policy is to set out the type of information that we may collect about you and the purposes for which we will hold, use and / or disclose your personal information. This Privacy Policy applies to the Foundation’s general activities (including fundraising activities) and services, and all of the Foundation’s targeted service delivery activities and programs for example:

  • Children Ahead
  • Trauma Consultancy Service (TraCS)
  • eSmart
  • Dolly’s Dream
  • Media Literacy Lab.

2. What is personal information?

‘Personal information’ is any information or opinion about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, regardless of whether the information or opinion is true or not or whether it is recorded in a material form or not.

‘Sensitive information’ is a subset of personal information that is given a higher level of protection because of its sensitive nature. It includes health information, as well as personal information that is about an individual’s:

  • racial or ethnic origin
  • political opinions
  • membership of a political association, a professional or trade association, or trade union
  • religious beliefs or affiliations
  • philosophical beliefs
  • sexual orientation or practices, or
  • criminal record.

3. What personal information do we collect?

The types of personal information we collect about you depends on the dealings you have with us.

In the course of communicating with, or providing services or information to you, or receiving services from you, we may collect and store personal information such as:

  • identifying information, for example, your name, email address, phone number, address, the name of the organisation you work for, your interests and preferences
  • information, including sensitive information, about you and/or your child or children’s social, educational and financial circumstances, health and wellbeing and/or requirements for assistance and support
  • information about your, or your child or children’s, current and previous engagements with the Foundation including involvement in any of its targeted service delivery activities and programs.

If you donate to the Foundation, we may also collect your credit card information or bank account details, and donation history.

If you are applying to work or volunteer with the Foundation, we may require additional information such as your work history, qualifications, criminal record check, relevant medical information, personal alternative contact details, references, and / or Working With Children check.

Without this personal information, we may be unable to process your donation (including providing a receipt), verify or respond to your enquiry, provide you with the requested information or service, or offer you employment / volunteer opportunities (as applicable).

Where lawful and practical, you may communicate with the Foundation anonymously or using a pseudonym. For example, if you contact us with a general question will not require that you provide us with your name. However, for many of our functions and activities we need your name, contact and information to be able to communicate with you. If you do not wish to provide your information, this may impact how we can assist, respond or otherwise communicate with you.

4. Ways we collect your personal information

The Foundation may collect personal information from or about you in different ways including:

  • through third parties with whom we interact in order to provide services
  • from publicly available sources including social media.

We will seek your consent before collecting any personal information about you, or your child or children, from a third party unless it is unreasonable or impracticable for us to do so, or it is not required by law.

Third parties from whom we may collect personal information include:

  • your family members or other significant persons
  • your legal advisor or any other authorised representative
  • third parties who conduct, or assist the Foundation to conduct, fundraising or marketing activities for the Foundation or for purposes related to the Foundation’s activities, functions, or specific programs.

If you are applying to work or volunteer with the Foundation, we may also collect personal information about you from third parties and public available sources including:

  • recruiters
  • government departments to verify your entitlement to work
  • police agencies to obtain your criminal history record
  • academic institutions
  • your referees.

When you visit any of the Foundation websites, we may also use ‘cookies’ or other online browsing tracking technologies such as Facebook tracking pixels or Google Tag Manager Analytics. These services help us track your website usage and remember your preferences.

Whilst we do not use browsing information to identify you personally, we may record certain information about your use of our website, such as which pages you visit, the time and date of your visit, search engine referrals and the internet protocol address assigned to your computer.

5. What do we do with your personal information?

Your personal information is held and used to:

  • provide you with information or services which you have requested or which the Foundation considers to be appropriate to support the needs of you or your child or children
  • process donations that you may make to the Foundation, or assist you in your fundraising activities for the Foundation
  • contact you to respond to an enquiry, or provide you with information or services you have requested
  • process any application you make for employment or volunteering opportunities
  • manage, monitor and conduct the Foundation and its activities including the specific programs
  • obtain feedback
  • comply with our legal obligations, resolve any disputes and enforce our agreements and rights with third parties.

We may also use your personal information to provide you with information about the Foundation or invite you to donate. We might do this by sending your our newsletter (via post or email) or other information, or by telephoning you. If you do not wish to receive this type of contact from us, please use the ‘opt out’ or ‘unsubscribe’ option contained in the relevant communication, let us know if we telephone you, or contact our Privacy Officer.

6. Disclosure of your personal information

We may disclose your personal information to:

  • third party service providers who work with us or provide services to us
  • other organisations which partner with us to help our cause
  • your financial institution is required for direct debit or credit card transactions.

Other than as described above, we will not use or disclose personal information about you, or your child or children, to any third party unless:

  • you, or your authorised representative, provide your consent to the use or disclosure
  • it is required or authorised by law, including under the Australian Privacy Principles.

Sometimes the Foundation is involved in partnerships or funding arrangements which require that it disclose data to third parties. Usually this involves reporting information which will be de-identified.

7. Protecting the privacy of the children and families we assist

The Foundation’s purpose is safeguarding our children’s future together. The privacy of the children and families we assist is of the utmost importance. The Foundation will only collect, handle and disclose personal information in accordance with this policy and privacy laws.

Some legislation requires or authorises the Foundation to collect or disclose personal information without consent including (but not limited to):

  • Health Records Act 2001 (Vic)
  • Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic)
  • Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)
  • Family Violence Protection Act 2008 (Vic)
  • Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005 (Vic)
  • Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (Vic).

Some examples of situations where the Foundation is required or authorised by law to collect or disclose personal information without consent include:

  • if the Foundation reasonably believes a child is in need of protection from physical injury or sexual abuse, the Foundation is usually required to report that information to a child protection agency and / or police
  • if the Foundation reasonably believes it is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any individual, or to public health or safety, the Foundation may collect, use or disclose information for that purpose
  • if the Foundation receives a valid request for information by way of subpoena or by other legal mechanism, the Foundation is generally required to respond.

Names and photographs used on our website are always used with consent. Sometimes, subject names will have been changed to protect privacy.

The Foundation’s Child Safe Policy is available on our website.

8. Keeping your information safe

The Foundation takes your privacy seriously. We may hold your personal information in different ways, including in physical (hard copy) or electronic form. We take all reasonable and appropriate steps to protect your personal information from misuse, interference and loss, as well as unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. This includes the secure storage of any electronic documents within Australia and storage of paper files in secure locations such as locked filing cabinets. The Foundation will not disclose your personal information to overseas recipients unless you request that we do so, or we are required by law to do so.

We will only keep your personal information for as long as we require it for our purposes, and to comply with any record keeping legal requirements.

9. Access to, and correction of, your personal information

We endeavour to ensure that the personal information collected from you is up to date, accurate and complete.

You may request access to, or correction of, the personal information held by the Foundation about you. To do this, please contact our Privacy Officer on the details below. We will respond to your request promptly, generally within 28 days.

We may need to verify your identity before responding to your request.

We will generally provide access where a request is made, unless an exception under the relevant privacy laws applies, such as where giving access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others, or where we are required or authorised by law to deny access. If we refuse your request, we will give you written notice of our decision, including our reasons and how to complain if you are not satisfied with our decision.

10. Privacy queries and complaints

If you would like to contact the Foundation about the way we manage your personal information or make a complaint, you can contact our Privacy Officer at: [email protected]. We will make all reasonable efforts to investigate and respond to any complaint, query or privacy question within 30 days.

We may need to request more information from you before we can achieve an effective resolution.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can make a further complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on the details below.

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

Phone: 1300 363 992

Post: GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001

Online form: www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/making-a-privacy-complaint

11. Other enquiries

If you have a general enquiry or would like to contact the Foundation for a reason that is not related to the way we manage your personal information, you can contact us at: [email protected].

12. Changes to this Privacy Policy

The Foundation may, from time to time, update or change this Privacy Policy to ensure that it reflects the acts and practices of our organisation as well as any changes in the law. Any changes will take effect from the time that they are posted on our website.