January 0001

Privacy Policy

Scroll down

Effective as of September 2026

Children Believe (“CB”) collects and processes your personal information as set out in this Privacy Statement. At CB, we are dedicated to safeguarding your privacy. We value your trust and recognize that maintaining this trust requires us to be transparent and accountable in how we manage and process the personal information shared with us.

This Privacy Statement explains how we handle your personal information when you visit our website or otherwise interact with us. We may collect your personal information directly from you or through third parties that have the right to communicate this information to us.

“Personal information” means any information that can identify you directly or indirectly, such as your name, address, email address, phone number, or banking information.

Personal information relating to children and youth is particularly sensitive, especially the younger they are. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 14 unless we have the consent of their parents or guardians. We collect the minimum amount of personal information of children and youth necessary to achieve our purposes. 

We may update or change our privacy practices or this Privacy Statement at any time. We will notify you of any important changes by appropriate means to reach you. Please review this Privacy Statement periodically to stay up to date.

We collect, use, and disclose your personal information with your consent, except where permitted or required by law. Depending on the circumstances, your consent may be express or implied.

When you share your personal information with us having the opportunity to review this Privacy Statement, we will handle it as set out in this Privacy Statement or as specified at the time of collection of the personal information. Where required, we will obtain your express consent to collect, use, or disclose your personal information.

If you are a child or youth, you should review this Privacy Statement with your parents or guardians to make sure that you understand and consent to everything in it.  If you are under the age of 14, you should not access our website or provide us with any personal information unless your parent or guardian has consented. If we discover that we have collected personal information from a child under the age of 14 without parental consent, we will delete that personal information. 

CB will not collect, use or share your personal information for reasons not listed in this Privacy Statement or mentioned when we first collected your personal information, unless the law allows it. We will never rent or sell your personal information to third parties.

If you provide CB with personal information of another individual, you are responsible for obtaining their permission for us to collect, use, and share that information as described in this Privacy Statement.

CB collects personal information in different ways, including:

    • Direct interactions: individuals may voluntarily provide CB with personal information by
  • filling out forms
  • making a donation
  • applying to work or volunteer for CB
  • registering to attend an event or participating in an event
  • requesting information to be sent to them
  • subscribing for CB’s publications
  • responding to CB’s direct mail or telemarketing campaigns
  • communicating with CB face to face, over the telephone, by mail, by email, by text, through social media or through other means
  • sending correspondence to a sponsored child which will be screened by CB staff
  • interacting with CB’s content on its website or on third-party sites or platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram or You Tube. This may include data such as comments or feedback, “likes” or shares, profile data or the fact that someone viewed or interacted with its content.
    • Automated interactions: CB uses cookies and similar technologies, including tools that may analyze your online behavior or preferences (“profiling”). Where required, we obtain your consent before activating these technologies.
    • Third party interactions: CB may receive personal information from service providers acting on its behalf, for example someone makes a donation to CB through those platforms.  CB may receive personal information from third parties such as regulatory bodies, government agencies, social workers or health professionals in the course of providing its services.

CB collects, uses and communicates your personal information as set out in this Privacy Statement and applicable privacy laws. The types of personal information that CB may collect include:

Category

Details

Contact and identification information

Name, address, telephone number, email address, communication preferences

Financial information

Payment methods and preferences, billing and banking information (credit-card number and expiry date or chequing account transit numbers)

Donation information

Date of gift, amount of gift, the campaign to which one contributed

Campaign organizer information, donor lists, and donor data

Donor name, email address, donation amount, date of transaction, transaction identification number, name of the project and event associated with the donation

Country locations or CB programs an individual wishes to support

Specific country or program details

Demographic information

 

Age, date of birth, gender, ethnic origin, marital status, household income range, occupation

Employment history and background checks

 

Volunteers and employees, including results of police records checks

Employee records

Records related to employment

Information about sponsors

All of the above plus date of birth, annual income, visits to and correspondence with sponsored children, personal gifts to children outside the program, marital status, number of own kids, profession, hobbies, philanthropic interests

Information about children enrolled in our sponsorship program and their families

Child’s name, address, government-issued identification number, date of birth, language(s) spoken, religion, weight, height, school grade, living arrangements, hobbies and dreams, chores they do at home; parents’ names, marital status, mother’s maiden name, parents’ employment status, professions, number of people who live in the same household and their relationship, level of household poverty, medical, educational, financial, or employment information, responses to surveys or questionnaires

Images

Photographs and videos submitted to us, or taken by us

Unrequested personal information

Personal information not requested by CB such as in emails or comments on our website or through sponsored child correspondence. We will review, and where appropriate, delete or anonymize unrequested personal information that is not necessary for our activities.

Certain information we collect as part of the child sponsorship program, is considered highly sensitive, including information relating to children, health, or financial circumstances. We apply enhanced training and safeguards and obtain express consent from parents or guardians for all sponsored child participants.

 

We do not share detailed personal information of sponsored children with their sponsors, and we discourage sponsors from disclosing personal information in their correspondence, including contact information, social media profiles, or any financial information.

We may use your personal information for the following purposes:

Purpose

To manage, oversee and administer its operations

To deliver its programs and services

To administer its child-sponsorship program

To pursue government relations and advocacy initiatives

To deliver public education

To conduct and facilitate fundraising appeals

To administer gifts in accordance with donor wishes

To process donations

To manage its relationship with donors

To conduct marketing and outreach, in accordance with your preferences and applicable laws

To undertake data analysis and  reporting

To comply with funder requirements and legal regulatory requirements

To maintain and manage relationships and provide customer service

To identify and authenticate users in its information system and network

To provide, administer and protect its website, information system, and network

For privacy and quality management audits and training

To protect its rights, property or safety or that of its employees, volunteers, or any other person

For other purposes to which individuals consent or other purposes permitted or required by law

We only collect the personal information necessary for the purposes described above. 

All the personal information you provide to CB is kept confidential unless shared with your consent or as permitted or required by law.

CB may share your personal information to third parties and outside service providers as set out in the table below:

Category

Purpose

Service Providers

 

IT services. To maintain our operations.

Consultants, accountants and legal advisors. To seek professional advice and support on various business matters, ensure compliance with laws and regulations, and help with financial planning and analysis.

Other third party services: For various business purposes, including fundraising and marketing, event services, or customer service.

Partners

To implement CB programs in countries where we work, including our child-sponsorship program, through local partners who process personal information on our behalf.

Affiliates

To support sponsorship programs through affiliates in the ChildFund Alliance.

Other Registered Charities

To engage in specified fundraising activities, subject to agreements requiring appropriate privacy practices.

Government, Regulatory Authorities, Law Enforcement, and Similar Entities

To comply with legal or regulatory obligations, detect and prevent criminal activities, or assert or defend legal rights and interests, and to address emergency situations.

Transferees

To transfer, sell, or dispose of all or substantially all of CB’s assets or operations..

Agents

To share information with anyone CB reasonably believes is an individual’s agent.

 

When we share your personal information with service providers or partners, we make sure they agree to protect your personal information in a way that is consistent with this Privacy Statement. They can only use your personal information for the authorized reasons.

We generally hold your personal information in Canada, including on Microsoft servers located across Canada and physical archives in Ontario. It may also be stored or processed outside of Canada, including in our countries of program operations. As a result, your personal information may be accessible to law enforcement and national security authorities in those jurisdictions. This means your personal information may be transferred outside of your province of residence and outside Canada.

If you have any questions regarding our policies and practices relating to our storage and processing of personal information in other jurisdictions, please contact us at any time at privacy.officer@childrenbelieve.ca.

Under applicable laws, you have specific privacy rights. In particular, you may withdraw your consent and you may access and correct your personal information that we have collected. More information on these rights is outlined below.

Withdraw your consent.

Accessing and correcting your personal information.

You may request to withdraw your consent to the use, disclosure and retention of your personal information.

How this request is handled depends on the situation and the purpose for which it is made. Depending on the case:

  • you can withdraw your consent, but we will no longer be able to provide a service that depends on it
  • you cannot withdraw your consent because the processing of your personal information is necessary or compulsory (for example, we need to retain certain financial information for tax purposes).

In all cases, we may be required to retain certain personal information to comply with our legal obligations.

You may request access to and copies of the personal information we hold about you.

  •  If any personal information concerning you is inaccurate, incomplete or ambiguous, or if its collection, communication or storage is not authorized by law, you may request that it be rectified.

 

To exercise your rights, contact us at the addressed identified in the How to contact us? section below. All requests must be in writing, and CB may need to verify your identity. We may fully or partially deny requests when allowed by law. CB will respond within the legal timeframe. If we deny your request (in whole or in part), we will explain the reasons and provide information on how to challenge our decision, following legal requirements.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, or, where applicable, your provincial privacy regulator.

CB is committed to maintaining the security of all personal information it holds. In addition, we are committed to taking appropriate precautions to protect your information against loss, fraud or unwanted use.

We restrict access to your personal information. Only those employees who need to process your personal information to perform their duties have access to it, and their access is limited to the information needed to perform their duties.

We implement robust security measures. We have put in place several types of measures to protect your personal information against loss, theft and unauthorized access, use or disclosure. These include:

  • physical measures, such as locked premises
  • technological measures, such as firewalls, encryption, and multi-factor authentication
  • organizational measures, such as ensuring that the employees will have access to personal information only on a need-to-know basis, for the performance of their duties.

That said, mail, emails, voice communications, and data transmissions over the Internet are all susceptible to possible loss, misrouting, interception, and misuse of the information being communicated or transmitted. CB cannot guarantee the security of your personal information when is it transmitted over means of communications that are susceptible to any of the foregoing.

Retention periods depend on the type of information, its intended purpose, and legal requirements (for example, tax and audit obligations). Once it is no longer necessary, personal information is securely destroyed, deleted or anonymized in line with laws and regulations. For further details on our retention practices, please get in touch.

To exercise your rights or if you have any questions, comments or complaints about this Privacy Statement or our privacy practices, you may contact our Privacy Officer at the following email or mail address:

Privacy Officer: privacy.officer@childrenbelieve.ca

c/o Children Believe

90 Allstate Parkway, Suite 101

Markham, ON L3R 6H3