Volunteers privacy statement

In order for you to volunteer for us we need to record your details. These details may contain your personal data and sensitive personal data. To comply with the General Data Protection Regulation we are informing you of how we will use this data.

Information we may collect

We may collect and process the following data about you:

Contact information – your name, address, mobile, email or other contact details

Information about you – information about you to help us monitor who volunteers with us:

  • Date of birth
  • Sexual orientation and sexual identity
  • Ethnic origin
  • Religion
  • Economic status
  • Details of your experience of homelessness (if any)
  • Disability status and type
  • Offending history and pending cases

Education, training, relevant experiences, activities and interests – overview of your skills, attributes and hobbies to identify suitable volunteering activities.

References – contact details of your referees

Availability and reason for volunteering – details of when/where you would like to volunteer and why you have chosen to volunteer for Porchlight.

Feedback/impact – details of what you think of the volunteer service, the support you receive and how you think and feel during/after volunteering at Porchlight.

Use of your information

We will use the personal information you give us in the following ways, to:

Proportionately represent the diversity of applicants and the people we support,

Share information with funders and potential funders of our volunteer services (as set out below),

Notify you of any changes to our services, and

Combine your information with information we receive from other sources.

Where we keep it and for how long

We are committed to maintaining the confidentiality of your information. We will hold your personal information securely on our InForm database (Salesforce CRM). These details may contain your personal and sensitive personal data. We do not carry out any automated decision making on your data. Personal data on all applicants is held for 12 months, unsuccessful applicant data is disposed of securely after 12 months while successful applicant data will be retained in personnel files. Please refer to the Record Retention procedure for more detailed information.

All our data is stored within the EU, in the event that data is required to be sent outside of the EU this will only be done where there is secure framework in place and the data will be transferred securely.

Lawful basis

We will ensure that where we collect and process your data we will do so in accordance with the lawful bases as defined by data protection laws, it is in our legitimate interest to process your data for administrative and operational purposes during your time with Porchlight. We will ensure that our use of your data is fair and not intrusive and only used in a way or for a purpose which you would reasonably expect. To ensure the safe and effective administration of our volunteers if you do not wish to share your data with us we will be limited in what volunteering opportunities we can offer to you.

Sharing your information

Your personal data will be accessible to the administrators of the volunteer service. Your basic contact details and Porchlight volunteer history will be available to other relevant Porchlight staff to enable them to contact you directly and log your sessions.

We share anonymised data with funders to enable the service to be properly monitored and to determine the success of the service. We may also share your information with a third party where we are under a legal obligation to do so, for example to public authorities.

Access to your information

You have full rights under the UK’s data protection laws and the General Data Protection Regulation to access your data or raise any concerns you have over its accuracy and use, please refer to the Data Subject Rights procedure which can be found on our website for information on how to exercise your rights and how to contact us: https://www.porchlight.org.uk/data

Supervisory authority and data controller

Porchlight are the data controller for your information and are registered with the Information Commissioners Office and can be found on their register of data controllers: reference Z7763784. Our registered address: Porchlight, 2nd Floor Watling Chambers, 18-19 Watling St, Canterbury, CT1 2UA. T: 01227 760078, E: headoffice@porchlight.org.uk