BLC Foundation Privacy POlicy

Introduction

The Bethlehem Lutheran Church Foundation (BLC Foundation is committed to respecting the privacy of its donors, grant recipients and interested parties (Constituents). We have developed this policy to ensure our Constituents that their information will not be shared with any third party.

The BLC Foundation provides this Privacy Policy to make Constituents aware of and to inform Constituents of the way their information is used.

INFORMATION COLLECTED

These are the types of information that we may collect and maintain.

  • donor contact information: name, organization/church, mailing address, phone number, email address

  • donor payment information: bank name, routing number, and account number; credit card provider, account number and expiration date; billing address

  • grant recipient contact information: name, organization, church affiliation (if applicable), mailing address, phone number, email address

  • interested party’s information: name, organization/church, mailing address, phone number, email address

  • information about how a donor, grant recipient or interested party came to be a Constituent of the BLC Foundation

  • information the constituent has shared with us such as questions or comments or suggestions

  • a constituent’s request to receive information from us, such as newsletters, fundraising appeals, prayer concerns, updates from Bethlehem Lutheran Church Twin Cities via the BLC Foundation, and additional items of interest

Contact Us

If there are comments or questions about this privacy policy,

Call us: 612.208.6447

Email us: office@blcfoundationmn.org

Mail a note to: 

BLC Foundation
ATTN: Business Manager
4100 Lyndale Avenue South
Minneapolis MN 55409

HOW INFORMATION IS USED

The BLC Foundation sues a Constituents information to understand the needs of the Constituent and provide them with appropriate Constituent services. Specifically,

  • we use the information to complete a contribution transaction and communicate with a donor

  • bank accounts and credit card numbers are used only for approved donation or payment processing and are not retained for other purposes

  • we use donor comments to provide a specific donor with information requested or to provide better services to all donors

  • we use the information to complete a grant distribution and communicate with the grant applicant

  • we use grant recipient comments to provide a specific grant recipient with information requested or to provide better service to all grant applicants/recipients

  • we use information from an interested party to answer questions or provide specific information requested or to provide better service to all interested parties

  • we use the information to provide periodic updates via postal mail and/or email

  • we take seriously each recommendation as to how we might improve communication

Use of Constituent information will be limited to the internal purposes of the BLC Foundation and only to further the ministry activities and purposes of the BLC Foundation and Bethlehem Lutheran Church Twin Cities. In keeping with the close ties between the BLC Foundation and Bethlehem Lutheran Church Twin Cities it is probable that the foundation and the church will collaborate and coordinate stewardship efforts. This means that information known at the BLC Foundation may also be known at Bethlehem Lutheran Church Twin Cities and vice versa.

The BLC Foundation utilizes the expertise of a third-party payment service when receiving online contributions through our website. You may read their Privacy Policy here: https://stripe.com/privacy

Donors who utilize other online sites that eventually forward a donor’s contribution or designation to BLC Foundation (free or for a fee), should consider the privacy policies of those sites/organizations.

If a donor has designated a contribution through an employee matching program, a donor-advised fund, Thrivent Choice Dollars, or any other payment agent, the donor should consider the privacy policy of those organizations.

The BLC Foundation is not responsible for information a donor shares with such third-party service providers as a way to make a contribution to the BLC Foundation.

We respect your privacy

The BLC Foundation will not share, sell, rent or lease personal information to other organizations or direct mail services. A donor may be listed in an annual report or other organizational document, unless a donor requests to remain anonymous.

It is never possible for an outreach organization that receives a grant from the BLC Foundation to obtain the BLC Foundation Constituent list. We do not allow such sharing.

Discontinue Contact

It is our desire not to send unwanted mail to Constituents; therefore, Constituents may contact the BLC Foundation either by telephone, by email or by post mail with a request to be removed from the mailing list. It is our practice to listen to these requests carefully, as some people are specific about “newsletter” and then we will continue to send them a special appeal letter or an invitation to a special event. Others simply mention “remove me from you list” and then we stop all communications to that Constituent.

This policy does not prohibit contact by the BLC Foundation that is requested by a person or a person’s representative even if that person or their representative has previously requested to be placed on the “do not contact” list. Contact by the BLC Foundation that is requested by a person whose name appears on the “do not contact” list shall be limited to providing a direct response to the person’s request or to provide acknowledgement of a financial contribution as required/requested, and shall not cause the person’s name to be removed from the “do not contact” list unless they indicated otherwise.

The procedure to discontinue contact is to mark the record in the database as “do not mail” and/or “do not email” to ensure that no further contact is made with the person. The BLC Foundation will also take steps to ensure that the person’s name is removed or marked as inactive from any external databases or records under the control of the BLC Foundation.

A record of all requests for discontinuation will be maintained in the database to the extent that it is necessary or legal or for liability purposes.