Privacy Policy
Hope Alive, Inc. takes all possible measures to protect the personal information of our website guests. We store any personal data given to us as securely as possible and do not sell, rent, give, or otherwise provide that personal data (including e-mail addresses) to anyone outside our organization.
About Hope Alive:
Hope Alive, Inc. is a nonprofit Christian ministry that offers a transitional home and comprehensive support
services to homeless women and children. Hope Alive, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, donations to
which are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. A copy of our current financial statement is
available upon request by contacting Hope Alive, Inc. at PO Box 140, Sabillasville, MD 21780, 301-668-HOPE.
Documents and information submitted to the State of Maryland under the Maryland Charitable Solicitations Act
are available from the Office of the Secretary of State for the cost of copying and postage.
What personally identifiable information we collect from/about you:
We collect a variety of information from our users in different ways through our online resources. This allows
us to provide better service to you, to personalize our web site for individuals, to personally contact you if
necessary, and to ensure the effectiveness of our various electronic outreach efforts.
If you visit our web site, we may place a cookie on your computer. (See section on "cookies" for an explanation). In addition, we may collect IP addresses for purposes of system administration, to calculate aggregate statistical information, to identify general usage records, and to measure traffic patterns for all visitors to our web site. This information does not identify individual users but may be used for general statistical and auditing purposes.
If you request electronic information via our web site, or if you send us a comment or question via e-mail, we may keep your e-mail address in a database. This allows us to send you a reply or to provide further information pursuant to your request. For further information about e-mails we send see section below on "spam."
If you request printed material through our web site or by e-mail, we will require your name and mailing address. You may also be asked to provide an optional e-mail address.
If you make an online donation, we will require your name, address, phone number, billing address (if different), credit card name, credit card number, and credit card expiration date. You may also be asked to provide an e-mail address.
If you have any other contact with our organization, we may ask for and record your personal details including an e-mail address.
What we do with your personally identifiable information:
We will only store this information within our own secure internal databases. We may combine this information with
any other relevant data held in our databases to build a picture of your interests, likes and dislikes, and to enable
us to potentially provide you with personalized service. We do not sell, rent, give, or otherwise provide this
information to any outside entity, except to comply with legal requirements or with legal process. We may also
disclose this information to the appropriate authorities if we believe in good faith that your activities represent
violations of the law or may be causing injury to or interference with--intentionally or unintentionally--our rights
or property, other users or their rights or property, or anyone else. We may use this information internally within
our organization to send you information by U.S. mail or by e-mail to inform you about ourselves or to solicit
donations. In the event that you reside outside of the U.S., we may not be able to provide land-based mail services
due to cost or other considerations.
How we protect your personally identifiable information:
We make every reasonable effort to protect your personally identifiable information by storing it in secure databases
and by using secure servers to receive/transmit your sensitive data. However, this does not apply to personal
data-including sender and/or recipient e-mail addresses--contained in ordinary e-mail notes while these are en route
between your computer and our servers, during which time these notes must be considered public data.
For security reasons we will never send you e-mail notes containing any sensitive or private information, such as credit card details, and we strongly urge you not to place such information in e-mails.
We internally make our staff, contractors, and volunteers aware of this privacy policy, informing them that violation of this policy is subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination.
How you consent to our organization collecting and using this information:
You give us permission to collect and utilize as here described any of this personally identifiable information by making
use of any of our online resources, including but not limited to:
- browsing our web site
- requesting information or materials via our web site
- sending us an e-mail
- making a donation through our web site
- registering for an event or other function through our web site
- purchasing materials through our web site
What cookies are and how we utilize them:
Cookies are tiny files containing small bits of information that your web browser stores on your hard drive at our request.
Cookies enable us to remember you and your personal information from one session to another, thereby enabling us to provide
better and more individualized service to you. Cookies also enable us to remember any information you gave us so you don't
have to re-input it on each subsequent visit.
Most browsers accept cookies, but you can alter your browser settings to disable that feature. If you do, you can still access
most features available at our web site, but you might have to re-input more data between sessions.
What our spam policy is:
Spam is, by generally accepted definition, unsolicited bulk e-mail sent--usually for marketing purposes--to people who either
have no reasonable expectation of receiving it or have specifically requested it not be sent. We consider spam to be an invasion
of privacy and will never send unsolicited e-mails of this type.
Our electronic mailing policy is "opt-in," so we will not send you any e-mails without your express permission or your reasonable expectation. Therefore, all of our electronic publications are sent only to those who have either expressly subscribed to them or have "opted-in" to receive further electronic mailings from us. If, for some reason, we have your e-mail address without knowing whether your preference is to "opt-in" or "opt-out" of further mailings, we may send you an initial unsolicited e-mail asking whether you would prefer to "opt-in" to further mailings. We will always make it easy for you to "opt-out" of receiving further electronic mail from us.
How you can find out what personal information we hold about you:
If you believe that we may hold any personal information about you, you may contact us to ask about that information:
- by telephone: 301-241-4005
- by U.S. mail: Hope Alive, Inc. P.O. Box 140, Sabillasville, MD 21780
- by e-mail: info@hopealiveministries.org
For security reasons we will require verification of your identity before providing any details.
How you can request we update or delete personal information held about you:
If you believe that the personal information we hold about you is incorrect, or if you wish us to remove any information held
about you, you may ask us to update or delete that personal information (see contact info above).
For security reasons we will require verification of your identity before taking any action, and you must be aware that certain information held for legal reasons or operational necessity may not be deleted.
How you can request that we not use your personal information to contact you:
If you do not want us to use the personal information gathered about you through various means to contact you, you may
request that we restrict or entirely eliminate sending you any mail or e-mails, other than what is required for legal
reasons or operational necessity (see contact info above).
How you can request more details about this privacy policy:
If you would like more details about this privacy policy, clarification of any of the details provided here, or if you have
comments or suggestions concerning this privacy policy, please notify us using the contact information listed above.
What we do to protect the privacy of children (under 13):
Although our web site is primarily targeted at adult users, we may also choose to provide online resources for those under
the age of 13. Safeguarding the security and privacy of children is of paramount importance. Therefore, we will obtain
verifiable parental consent prior to the collection of any personally identifiable information about children and will not
knowingly give children the ability to post publicly or otherwise distribute personally identifiable contact information
without prior verifiable parental consent.
What you should know about the limitations of our Privacy Policy:
You need to be aware that any personal data voluntarily disclosed by you online, in e-mail messages, or in any other public
forum provided by our organization could potentially be accessed and "harvested" by third parties and is therefore not subject
to our Privacy Policy. In addition, external web sites linked to by our web site may not adhere to our Privacy Policy, and you
should refer to their Privacy Policy to understand the rules under which they operate.
