The Community Foundation respects and supports the desire of individuals to protect their privacy. Article 1, Section 1, of the California state constitution identifies privacy as a inalienable right.
- General
- This policy shall apply equally to the Community Foundation and to its activity committees.
- The home address, home phone number, or E-mail address of any individual shall not be shared, exchanged, sold, or otherwise disseminated by the Community Foundation with any other organization — non-profit or for-profit — except as provided in elsewhere in this policy.
- The Community Foundation may maintain a mailing list of residents of Oak Park and rent or share that list providing each addressee on that list is “Oak Park Resident” or some similar designation that fails to disclose the actual names of residents.
- Donors
- The name or other personal information about any individual donor or the amount donated by that donor shall not be shared, exchanged, sold, or otherwise disseminated with any other organization, non-profit or for-profit. This protection may be waived in writing only by the donor.
- The address or phone number of any business donor or the amount donated by that donor shall not be shared, exchanged, sold, or otherwise disseminated with any other organization, non-profit or for-profit. The name of a business donor and an individual who is a point-of-contact within that business may be disclosed in the form of publicity expressing a “thank you”. This protection may be waived in writing only by the donor’s point-of-contact.
- Identifying and contact information of any non-profit donor and the amount donated by that donor may be disseminated unless the Community Foundation is specifically requested in writing by the donor to keep all or part of that information confidential.
- This policy shall not restrict the dissemination of donor information among activity committees or between the Community Foundation and an activity committee providing all such information is identified as confidential to be kept internal to the Foundation and its committees.
- Grants
- Grant applications — approved, disapproved, or still in review — shall be disclosed only to members of the Grants Committee and to the Board of Trustees. The contents of a grant application shall be protected as confidential and are not part of the public records of the Community Foundation.
- The Community Foundation may request confirmation from an organization submitting a grant application that the organization plans to use the grant to aid an individual in need or that the organization previously extended such aid. However, no information specifically identifying any individual shall be requested without prior explicit approval of two Foundation officers, not including the Foundation person requesting the information. Once necessary confirmation of the grant applicant’s assertions is obtained, any written or electronic information identifying an individual shall be discarded in a secure manner.
- When a government agency requests a grant to aid an individual in need, assertions by that agency of the individual’s existence and need shall be sufficient. The Community Foundation shall not request specific identifying information about the individual.
- The name, address, and office phone number of an organization receiving a grant from the Community Foundation; the amount and purpose of the grant; and the name of a contact person within the grant recipient may be publicly disclosed after a grant has been approved by the Board of Trustees. However, the contact person’s personal information is protected as provided in §1.b.
- Information about specific students receiving scholarship grants shall not be publicly disclosed beyond what the students’ schools disclose.
- Donor-Defined Funds
- When a donor-defined fund is created, implied consent is given that the Community Foundation may disseminate the name of the fund. Naming a special fund for an individual shall be done only with the understanding that the funds and their names may be publicized by the Foundation.
- When a donor-defined fund is created to honor a family, business, or organization, the principal donor must first provide the Community Foundation with written authorization to disseminate the honoree’s name, attributes, and accomplishments and the name of the honoree.
- For donor-defined funds created before this policy was first adopted by the Board of Trustees, the lack of objection to past disclosures relative to those funds implies the consent that this policy now requires to be in writing.
- The principal donor for a donor-defined fund shall be provided with the names, addresses, and phone numbers of donors upon request except for those donors explicitly requesting that information be withheld.
- Volunteers
- Membership records of activity committees of the Community Foundation shall be kept confidential except as is necessary for the proper governance of those committees.
- Each activity committee shall inform its members of the contents of this policy. The President of the Community Foundation shall inform new members of administrative committees of the contents of this policy.
- Miscellaneous
- Neither the Community Foundation nor its activity committees shall collect information identifying specific individuals who browse their Web sites. The use and purpose of Web cookies shall be fully disclosed in those Web sites.
- When the Community Foundation presents an award to honor an individual, the honoree’s name, attributes, and accomplishments may be disseminated.
- An activity committee may compile and publish a directory of its members or of the population served by that committee, providing those who would be listed be given the opportunity to have their listing excluded from the directory.
- Except as mandated by law, the Community Foundation and its activity committees shall not maintain a record of the Social Security or taxpayer identification number or the driver license number of any person. When a government agency or other organization receiving support from volunteers under the Foundation (including under an activity committee) requires such identifying numbers from those volunteers, it shall be the responsibility of that outside organization to request and obtain those numbers directly from the volunteers.
- Except as mandated by law, the Community Foundation and its activity committees shall not inquire into the citizenship or status of any volunteer or any vendor of services or merchandise. When a government agency or other organization receiving support from volunteers under the Foundation (including under an activity committee) requires such information from those volunteers, it shall be the responsibility of that outside organization to request and obtain that information directly from the volunteers.
- The Community Foundation does not issue grants directly to individuals. Except as mandated by law, neither the Foundation nor its activity committees shall obtain records of the Social Security or taxpayer identification number or the driver license number of any person benefiting from a grant to another organization nor inquire into the citizenship or status of any such person.
- Exceptions
- Other sections of this policy notwithstanding, personal contact information may be disseminated publicly for the four officers of the Community Foundation and for the presiding officer of each activity and administrative committee. Each committee may decide to disseminate contact information for its other officers.
- For the proper governance of the Community Foundation, the names and contact information of all trustees and the names and contact information of all officers of each activity committee (not only the presiding officers) shall be disseminated to the Board of Trustees.
- When there is an insurance claim filed by the Community Foundation or by someone against the Foundation, personal information about cognizant individuals may be provided to the insurance company, its agents, and its attorneys.
- When the Community Foundation is involved in a lawsuit — actual or threatened — personal information about cognizant individuals may be provided to the Foundation’s attorney.
- Where the law allows public dissemination of personal information about individuals, no exception to this policy is intended. The only exception created to this policy by law is where that law mandates (not merely permits) disclosure of personal information.
Approved 30 April 2002
Revised 19 November 2003, 14 November 2006
