How we handle your data

Organizations we work with are trusting us with information about their supporters. This page says what we ask for, what we do with it, and what we will never do with it. If anything here doesn't work for you, tell us and we'll adjust it before you send anything.

What we ask you to send

The smallest file that answers the question in front of us. For a first feasibility match that is normally names and whatever contact information you already have (email, postal address, phone) and nothing else.

We would rather start with a sample of a hundred records than a full database. If the match rate is poor we will tell you, and you will have spent nothing but the time it took to pull the file.

What we'd rather you left out

Please don't include Social Security numbers, dates of birth, payment or bank details, or any record relating to a child under 13. We don't need them, and each one raises the cost of a mistake for both of us. If your export includes them by default, tell us and we'll work out how to strip them before the file moves.

And never a record of someone your organization serves: a client, patient, participant or survivor. We work on supporter and donor records only.

What we use it for

Only the purpose we agreed in writing with you, and nothing else. For a feasibility match that means determining how many of your people we can locate as adults today, and what we can learn about them.

We will not use your file to build or improve anything we sell or supply to another organization.

Who else sees it

To run a match we send records to a contracted data vendor. That is the step that makes the match possible, and it means your file leaves our systems.

We will name that vendor to you in writing before anything is sent, and we will not use one you object to. If you would rather it never left our hands at all, we can run the match on hashed identifiers instead, so that neither we nor the vendor ever see a readable name.

Beyond that vendor, nobody. Not another partner, not a funder, not a researcher.

How long we keep it

We delete your file, and any copy held by the vendor, within 90 days of giving you the result, sooner if you ask. If the work continues into a second stage we'll agree a new period with you in writing rather than letting the first one lapse quietly. As a backstop, files uploaded through our upload page are also deleted automatically 180 days after upload unless we have agreed otherwise in writing.

What we never do

• We never contact your supporters without your agreement, and never in our own name.
• We never give one partner's records to another partner.
• We never sell data, to anyone, for any purpose.
• We never use your data for political work of any kind.

What does travel between the organizations we work with is what we learn: which messages work, which channels reach people, what a realistic match rate looks like. Never anyone's records.

How to send it

Don't email the file as an attachment. Use our upload page. We'll register the named people at your organization first, and they sign in with a one-time code sent to their email. If you would rather send it through whatever secure transfer your own organization already uses, we'll work with that.

We'll confirm receipt, tell you when the match is done, and tell you when the file has been deleted.

Questions?

Jeff Pressman · Co-Founder · jeff@personsofimpact.org · (917) 599-6272

Persons of Impact is a nonprofit organization. We don't charge the organizations we work with, and we're not selling anything.