About us

Rainforest Trust takes your privacy seriously and we ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to ensure you remain informed and in control of your information, and to protect your privacy rights. This Privacy Policy sets out how we will use and store your data.

Rainforest Trust is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization in the United States, incorporated in 1988. Our Federal EIN # is 13-3500609. Our website contains our Annual Reports, audited financials, and 990s that you are free to download at your convenience.

Our office is located at 6801 Kennedy Road, Warrenton, VA 20187, USA.

Our mailing address is P.O. Box 841, Warrenton, VA 20188, USA.

You can contact us by phone at 1-800-456-4930 or by email:  Info@RainforestTrust.org.

Data Privacy

Scope

Rainforest Trust respects your privacy, and understands that many people care about how their information is used and shared. This Privacy Policy applies to the Rainforest Trust website, www.RainforestTrust.org, to all associated subdomains, online services, social media platforms and mobile applications (jointly “Sites”). By visiting any of the Sites, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you disagree with any of the terms herein, please immediately discontinue use of the Sites.

Rainforest Trust will never sell or rent your information, and we only share it where necessary, and if its privacy and security are guaranteed. How Rainforest Trust uses this information is described in this policy.

For the purposes of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Rainforest Trust headquartered in the USA, along with our registered partner charity Rainforest Trust UK, are joint controllers.

Personal Information

Rainforest Trust only collects Personal Information when you actively submit such information, for example by visiting Rainforest Trust Sites, signing up for the Rainforest Trust newsletter, or by making a donation. Depending on the service you choose, the Personal Information collected may include your name, email address, address, phone number, payment details, organizational affiliation, photos or videos from events in which you may participate and similar information.

Rainforest Trust service providers use Personal Information:

• Our Constituent Relationship Management Tool and Email Marketing Tool, Virtuous, is used to store Personal Information voluntarily provided when visitors donate or sign-up for email on our Sites, in addition to the pathway through which the visitor accessed the sign-up or donation form to help us improve your journey as a supporter of our programs.
• Our third party financial transaction processors (FundraiseUp, PayPal, Stripe) capture personal and financial information you provide when you make a donation.
• Our third party printing and mailing house is given Personal Information such as name and address in order to produce Rainforest Trust’s paper materials.

Non-Personal Information

For each visitor to this website, our web servers may automatically recognize and collect information that does not identify you personally (“Non-Personal Information”), such as cookies, in-bound domain names, your computer’s IP address, the type of browser in use and pages viewed. This data tells us which pages our users visit and what information they volunteer, such as survey information and/or site registrations which we use to improve our communication with our greater community.

• We use Google Analytics, which installs cookies on users’ browsers, to understand the performance of our Sites and content contained within including, but not limited to: number of visits and average time spent either to a single page or the entire site, number of pages viewed per session, or the sequence of pages visited. We may also customize site structure or navigation as well as certain web content based on these data as well as your browser type, bandwidth or other settings to optimize your site experience. Google Analytics also collects information about the devices that are used to access our site, including computer type (Windows or Macintosh), screen resolution, operating system and version, device manufacturer and model, language, and Internet browser type and version. Google uses these data to reports web trends.
• We use Google Adwords to display text ads at the top of Google keyword searches. Anonymized information on specific keywords typed is provided.
• We use YouTube to host video content on conservation.org. Analytics for this platform include aggregated and anonymized data on length and location of views, basic demographic details, and engagement rates.

Use of Information: PERSONAL INFORMATION

Any Personal Information collected through our Sites is used for the purpose for which it was provided, for example:

• to periodically alert you about our news and events,
• to ask for your financial support of our programs,
• to respond to your inquiries,
• to contact you about contests or sweepstakes you entered through our Sites and to invite you to participate in new contests and sweepstakes,
• to customize your web experience or content you receive via email,
• to encourage social sharing functionality.
• For internal data analysis, for example to identify trends, determine effectiveness of past and current campaigns, enhance current online tools, and plan future digital strategies.

We also use personal data for administrative purposes (i.e. to carry out our charity and conservation work). This includes:

• receiving and processing donations (via debit/credit card through our online forms, EFT, check, etc.)
• Maintaining databases of supporters; and
• Helping us respect your choices and preferences (if you ask not to receive marketing material, we’ll keep a record of this).

We do not share your Personal Information with any third parties without your consent, except under the following circumstances:

• to Rainforest Trust service providers for the purposes set forth above;
• to Rainforest Trust partners, approved vendors, and their service providers;
• in response to a subpoena or when we are required to do so by law, for example, in response to a court order or other legal obligation;
• in response to a law enforcement agency’s request;
• to protect the security or confidentiality of our records;
• in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be causing injury to or interference with our rights;
• or in the event Rainforest Trust goes through a reorganization (e.g., a merger into another organization), in which case you will be notified via a prominent notice on the website of any such transfer of your Personal Information.

Use of Information: NON-PERSONAL

We may use Non-Personal Information for any purpose, unless restricted by applicable law. In some instances, we may combine Non-Personal Information with Personal Information. If we do, we will treat the combined information as Personal Information as long as it is combined.

Storage of Information

Your personal information and non-personal information is stored on a secure database managed and controlled by Rainforest Trust jointly with Rainforest Trust UK. Data may be transferred to and from, or held in, non-EEA countries, for example the USA. Virtuous, our Constituent Relationship Management Tool, uses US-based service providers for Customer Data storage. Service providers use either Privacy Shield or have executed Standard Contractual Clauses (as approved by the European Commission). When processed in the United States, the personal data of EU citizens processed by Virtuous has an adequate level of protection within the meaning of Article 46 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation).

Your personal data will not be kept for longer than necessary to fulfill the specific purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy.

Security

Our Sites incorporate reasonable and appropriate safeguards using industry standard technology to heighten the security, accuracy and privacy of any Personal Information collected by Rainforest Trust.

All online donation transactions are encrypted using the Secure Socket Layers (SSL) protocol. Such transactions are processed through industry payment processors that are PCI Certified or PCI Compliant. Online transactions are not stored or processed on RT’s servers. The purpose of PCI DSS is to prevent any compromise of cardholder information. PCI DSS Compliance gives consumers the confidence they need to know that organizations accepting donations are doing so in a verified, secure, and consistent fashion.) These comprehensive standards are intended to help Rainforest Trust proactively protect your account data — a responsibility we take very seriously.

Linked Websites

Our Sites may contain links to the websites of our partners. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such websites.

Update Personal Information and Communications Preferences

You can control the type of information collected through our Sites, by changing your web browser settings to inform you of when cookies are being set before a cookie is stored, and refuse any request to set cookies (for example by not accepting cookies from Rainforest Trust.) You can also erase all Rainforest Trust cookies from your browser, or decline to provide Personal Information when prompted. To opt out of cookies installed by Google Analytics, please see https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Your choice will impact your communications preferences, for example we will not be able to respond to inquiries when you do not share your email address with us.

If you wish to update your Personal Information with us or change your communications preferences, or if you no longer wish to receive communications from us, please tell us so by email, phone, or written letter. You can also opt-out of receiving emails from us by clicking the unsubscribe link in any email. When you contact us to change your preferences, please include your exact name and contact details so that we can correctly remove you from our mailing list. Our mailing address is: Rainforest Trust, P.O. Box 841, Warrenton, VA 20188. We can be reached via email at Info@RainforestTrust.org or by telephone at (800) 456-4930.

Children’s Privacy

We recognize the importance of protecting the privacy of children on the web and will never collect or maintain information at our website from those we actually know are under 13 years old. No part of our website is directed at children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under age 13. If we discover that a person under the age of 13 has provided us with any Personal Information, we will delete that information from our systems. We do not reply to information requests from children under the age of 13, if so identified. A parent or guardian must initiate any requests for information from children under the age of 13 on their behalf. We encourage parents to supervise children when they browse the internet.

California Residents

It is our policy not to disclose any Personal Information we collect to third parties for direct marketing purposes under any circumstances. However, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 requires that all California residents be afforded the option to exercise their choice of whether Personal Information may be shared with third parties for direct marketing purposes or not, as well as to receive information specified in the statute if Personal Information is disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes. Accordingly, if you are a California resident and you wish to inform us whether you permit or refuse the sharing of your personal information with third parties for direct marketing purposes, or if you wish to request certain information if your personal information were to be disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes, please contact us as described in the section “Update Personal Information and Communications Preferences”.

Cross Border Transfers

Your Personal Information may be stored and processed in any country where we have facilities, partners, or service providers, and by using our Sites or by providing consent to us (where required by law), you agree to the transfer of information to countries outside of your country of residence, including to the United States, which may provide for different data protection rules than in your country.

Questions

If you have any questions about our privacy statement or the practices of this site, please contact us at Info@RainforestTrust.org.

Ethics

It is the policy of Rainforest Trust that its employees uphold the highest standards of ethical, professional behavior. To that end, these employees shall dedicate themselves to carrying out the mission of Rainforest Trust and shall:

1. Engage in carrying out Rainforest Trust’s mission in a professional manner;
2. Respect all Rainforest Trust supporters and prospective supporters;
3. Carry out the wishes of all Rainforest Trust supporters to the fullest extent possible;
4. Provide outstanding, accurate and prompt service to all Rainforest Trust supporters;
5. Act honestly, truthfully, transparently and with integrity in all transactions and dealings; and
6. Avoid conflicts of interest and activities that conflict with their fiduciary and ethical obligations to Rainforest Trust.

Donor Intent

Donations to Rainforest Trust are not symbolic. Thanks to the support of our board members who cover the majority of our operating expenses, Rainforest Trust is able to allocate 100% of your donation to the Conservation Action Fund or a specific project directly to conservation action.

Each project donation protects real rainforest acres and saves endangered species. We focus on tangible results. Your contribution does not support lobbying, political activities, or special interests.

Rainforest Trust respects and maintains donor intent for restriction and allocation of received gifts. If we receive a gift for a conservation project that has reached its fundraising goal, we will contact the donor and suggest similar projects, based on geographical location and species protected, or the Conservation Action Fund which supports all our urgent conservation projects.

For Roots monthly gifts, if the conservation project you have chosen to support becomes funded, your gift will be applied to the Conservation Action Fund. It is Rainforest Trust’s policy to let donors know when a project reaches its fundraising goal if their monthly or other recurring gift is allocated to that specific project, and that it will now support the Conservation Action Fund unless the donor chooses another specific project to direct their future gifts to.

Communication

Rainforest Trust likes to share updates about our conservation work and progress with our projects. If you would like an update about a specific  project, area, or species, please contact us at Info@RainforestTrust.org, or give us a call at 1-800-456-4930.

If you’d like information about our finances, you can find our annual reports and 990 forms here.

Changes to this Policy

We’ll amend this Privacy Policy from time to time to ensure it remains up-to-date and accurately reflects how and why we use your personal data. The current version of our Privacy Policy will always be posted on our website.

This policy was last updated on the website on September 30, 2022.