1. Who we are
Ihsan Relief C.I.C. (“we”, “us”, “our”) is registered in England and Wales as a Community Interest Company (Company Registration Number: 14098048). We are committed to protecting your privacy and managing your personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).
Our website address is: http://ihsanrelief.org.
2. What Personal Data We Collect
Depending on how you interact with our website and organisation, we may collect, use, store, and transfer different kinds of personal data:
- Identity Data: First name, last name, title, or username.
- Contact Data: Email address, telephone number, billing address, and postal address.
- Financial & Donation Data: Transaction date, amount, payment frequency, donation campaign/project, and Gift Aid tax status.
- Payment Security Note: Card payments and financial details are processed directly by our secure payment platform provider, Zeffy, and its PCI-DSS compliant payment gateway partners (such as Stripe). Ihsan Relief C.I.C. does not hold or store your full credit/debit card numbers.
- Technical & Usage Data: IP address, browser type and version, time zone setting, location data, browser plugin types, operating system, and pages visited on our website.
- Marketing & Communication Data: Your preferences in receiving news, updates, or fundraising communications from us.
- Special Category Data (if applicable): In specific instances related to direct beneficiary support or safeguarding, sensitive information (e.g., health data) may be processed, strictly with explicit consent or under relevant statutory exemptions.
3. How We Collect Your Personal Data
We use different methods to collect data from and about you:
- Direct Interactions: You provide Identity, Contact, and Financial Data when filling out forms on our website, making an online donation, signing up for newsletters, applying to volunteer, or contacting us by email or phone.
- Third-Party Integrations (Online Donations via Zeffy): When you make a donation through our website, your information is collected directly via Zeffy (operated by 9355-0861 Québec Inc., Canada) and transmitted securely to Ihsan Relief C.I.C.
- Automated Technologies: As you navigate ihsanrelief.org, we may automatically collect Technical and Usage Data using cookies and web server logs. Please refer to our Cookies Policy for full details.
- Publicly Available Sources & Regulators: Information from public registers (such as HMRC or the Companies House register) for Gift Aid and administrative validation.
4. Legal Basis for Processing Your Data
Under UK GDPR, we only process your personal data when we have a valid legal basis:
- Performance of a Contract: Processing your donation, issuing donation receipts, or fulfilling volunteer agreements.
- Legal Obligation: Compliance with statutory obligations, including maintaining financial/accounting records and claiming Gift Aid from HMRC under UK tax law.
- Legitimate Interests: Managing our supporter relationship with you, conducting fundraising analysis, preventing fraud, and ensuring network security.
- Consent: Sending direct email marketing communications, news updates, or processing special category data. You may withdraw consent at any time.
5. Third-Party Processors & International Data Transfers (Zeffy)
To process online donations efficiently with zero platform fees, we partner with Zeffy (operated by 9355-0861 Québec Inc., Quebec, Canada).
When you make a donation:
- Data Recipients: Your transaction data is processed by Zeffy and its underlying payment service providers (e.g., Stripe) to authorize and complete the payment.
- Transfers to Canada: Zeffy is headquartered in Canada. Transfers from the UK to Canada are permitted under the UK GDPR Adequacy Regulations, as Canada’s commercial privacy law (PIPEDA) is recognized by the UK Government as providing an adequate level of data protection.
- Transfers to the United States / Other Countries: Where Zeffy uses cloud server hosting or technical sub-processors in the US or other jurisdictions outside the UK/EEA, appropriate safeguards are enforced—including Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum (IDTA).
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to third parties for marketing purposes.
6. How Long We Retain Your Data
We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected:
- Gift Aid & Statutory Financial Records: Retained for a minimum of 6 years following the end of the relevant UK financial tax year to satisfy HMRC and statutory accounting requirements.
- General Supporter & Inquiry Data: Kept until the inquiry is resolved or until you request erasure or opt out of communications.
- Marketing Subscriptions: Retained until you unsubscribe or withdraw your consent.
7. Website Comments, Media & External Links
- Comments: When visitors leave comments on our site, we collect the data shown in the comments form, along with the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to aid spam detection. An anonymized hash from your email address may be provided to the Gravatar service.
- Media: If you upload images to the website, avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS).
- External Links: Our website may contain links to third-party sites or widgets. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of external sites.
8. Your Rights Under UK GDPR
Under UK data protection laws, you have the following rights regarding your personal information:
- Right to Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you (Subject Access Request).
- Right to Rectification: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
- Right to Erasure (“Right to be Forgotten”): Request deletion of your personal data, subject to statutory retention obligations (e.g., HMRC tax records).
- Right to Restrict Processing: Ask us to suspend processing of your personal data in certain scenarios.
- Right to Object: Object to data processing based on legitimate interests or direct marketing.
- Right to Data Portability: Request the transfer of your personal data to you or a third party in a structured format.
- Right to Withdraw Consent: Where processing is based on consent, withdraw it at any time without affecting prior lawful processing.
9. How We Protect Your Data
We are committed to ensuring the security of your personal data. We have implemented appropriate technical and organisational security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. These measures include:
- Encryption: Using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) technology to encrypt data transmitted through our website.
- Access Controls: Limiting access to personal data to employees, volunteers, agents, contractors, and other third parties who have a legitimate business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
- Data Minimisation: Collecting only the personal data that is necessary for the stated purpose.
- Regular Security Reviews: Conducting regular assessments and updates to our security practices.
- Data Breach Procedures: We have procedures in place to identify, assess, investigate, and report any personal data breach as early as possible to affected individuals and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) where legally required. Our procedures have been explained to all employees.
10. What Third Parties We Receive Data From
Currently, we primarily receive data directly from you or through automated collection via our website. If we receive data from other third parties (e.g., fundraising platforms, referrers), we ensure they comply with data protection laws and have a lawful basis for sharing your data with us.
11. Contact Us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise any of your legal rights, please contact our Data Protection Lead:
Postal Address: Ihsan Relief C.I.C., 60 Bankes Road, Birmingham, England, B10 9PR
Email: Info@ihsanrelief.org
Telephone: +44 7422 509603
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. We will notify you of any significant changes by posting the updated policy on our website. Please check back regularly to review any updates.
This policy was last updated: August 2026