Privacy Notice

How and when we collect personal information

We collect personal information in the following ways: 

• When directly given to us by a person: this could be if a question is asked about our activities, registration for an event, donating, asking a question about sponsoring a child or children’s rights, applying for a job or volunteering opportunity, giving feedback or making a complaint, participating in a programme or research project or the monitoring of one. Communication may be in person, by telephone, via the website, by post, SMS, email or direct messages on social media channels. 
• Indirectly: interaction with us on social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or LinkedIn includes some personal information such as IP address. The amount of information we receive will depend on the privacy preferences set on each platform. 
• Through partners or third parties working on our behalf: this could be speaking to one of our fundraisers on the street or doorstep, one of the other third party fundraisers that we work with (for example JustGiving or Virgin Money Giving), or the partners who deliver programmes on our behalf or in partnership with us, such as a Plan International Country Office or another charity or non-governmental agency.
   

Collection of Data through ‘Cookies’

Cookies are necessary for the working of any webpage. They are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to a computer or mobile device to make a website work efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of a website. Cookies are sent back to the originating webpage on each subsequent visit or to another webpage that recognises that cookie. 

When you look at our website, a Cookies Notice is provided and gives you options about the cookies used. When you have consented we use cookies to: 

• Track traffic flow and browsing patterns in connection with our website 
• Understand the total number of visitors to our website on an ongoing basis and the types of internet browsers (e.g. Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari or Opera) and operating systems (e.g. Windows or Mac OS) used by our visitors 
• Monitor the overall performance of the website and continually improve it 
• Help to identify and resolve errors that visitors encounter on the website 
• Customise and enhance your online experience 
• Enable Plan International UK and third parties to advertise both on and off the website. 

For more detail on our cookie policy and a description of the cookies we use please see our cookie policy.

The type of information we collect and why we use it 

When you engage with us we collect information about you . This may include name, address, email address, telephone number, date of birth, job title, bank or credit/debit card details (if you are donating), and details of education and career (when you apply to volunteer or work with us) and details of parents/guardians for programme participants and others under the age of 18. 

Special Category Information

Special category information is more sensitive personal information and includes information relating to racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs and political opinions, trade union membership, genetic or biometric data, health or a person's sex life or sexual orientation. 

Special category information is treated that with additional care and confidentiality. We only collect special category information if absolutely necessary.

Personal information of employees and volunteers

We collect data through the hiring process and once candidates have been onboarded as staff or volunteers at Plan International UK. View our Employee and Volunteer Privacy Policy.

How we use your information

We mainly use personal information for: 

• Donation processing or transactional purposes: to process donations or other payments, to claim Gift Aid on donations and verify any financial transactions.  
• Responding to a request: to provide the services or information requested, for example in response to a query or complaint. 
• Administration: to update supporters with important administrative messages about donations, a campaign or services, record what our volunteers have done and for other essential internal record keeping. 
• Developing, monitoring and evaluating our services: we may use personal information to improve current and future delivery of our services. For example we may create profiles to test advertising campaigns on social media or to evaluate the effectiveness of our programmes. 
• Processing an application to work with us: we need to process information if we are sent an application form or CV or details in order to evaluate suitability and respond or to administer the working arrangement. 
• Employment: we need to ensure that we meet our obligations as an employer and manage people effectively in the organisation. 
• Working with children and young people: we collect essential information to enable us to deliver programmes to and safeguard the children and young people we work.  
• Fundraising, direct marketing or campaigning: we will only send marketing information by email, SMS, or telephone if you have consented to this. If you withdraw your consent and opt in to receive marketing information is received subsequently, then the most recent preference will supersede an earlier one. 
• Market research and surveys: we use surveys or market research to help improve our website, fundraising, services and strategic development. Participation is voluntary and no individuals will be identified as a result of this research, unless we have consent to publish feedback. 
• Legal, regulatory and tax compliance: we may process your information to fulfil obligations we are subject to. 

Lawful Basis for processing

Data protection legislation identifies a number of lawful basis on which personal data may be processed. We need to identify the purpose for processing the data and the most appropriate lawful basis for doing so. 

Most of our processing of personal data is carried out on the basis of consent. Consent must be informed, freely given, specific and unambiguous. The information provided in this Privacy Notice is the information needed for informed consent to be given.

Personal information of those under 18  

For a person under the age of 18, they must get their parent’s/guardian’s permission before they provide any personal information to us and in some circumstances we will ask your parents/guardians to provide consent to us in addition to your permission. 

View our Children and Young People Privacy Notice.  

Consent can be withdrawn. If you want to stop or change our use of your personal data for marketing and fundraising activities, you can do so at any time by contacting our supporter engagement team. 

Telephone: 0300 777 9779 
Email: [email protected]

Legitimate interests

We rely on this lawful basis when it is necessary for a legitimate business interest of the organisation or a third party to use personal data, as long as its use does not unduly impact the rights of the individual concerned.  

Before processing on this basis, we carry out a Legitimate Interest Test to ensure it respects your privacy rights. You have the right to object to this type of processing at any time by contacting us at the address provided above.  

Examples of processing on this basis include: 

• Contacting you via post about the various ways you can help Plan International UK 
• Sending information or updates about sponsorship or donations 
• Using personal information for data analysis or profiling 
• To create lookalike audiences for advertising purposes. This involves sharing your email address with advertising platforms like Meta or Google to find people who share similar characteristics with our existing supporters. This helps us reach people who are more likely to be interested in supporting Plan International UK’s work.  
• Using personal data you have provided to identify individuals who may have the interest and capacity to support our work through donations or other forms of engagement. This process, known as prospecting, may involve reviewing publicly available information (such as social media profiles, company records, or news articles) to assess potential supporters’ interests and ability to give support.  
• Conducting analysis and market research to better understand how we can improve our services, products or information  
• Conducting research to better understand who our supporters are and improve the way we communicate 
• To improve our services for example, dealing with complaints and claims. 
• Keeping a record of your relationship with us  
• To steward supporters who have included a gift to Plan International UK and keep up to with their legacy income. 

Contract

We process the data of the people who work for us on the basis of contract.  

Legal obligation 

We are under legal obligations to share personal data with governmental bodies such as the Audit Office, HMRC and the police, (where they have reasonable grounds to suspect a crime has been committed), and with third parties carrying out audits for us.  

Sharing personal information

We use your personal information for the purposes for which it was obtained and to improve our services, as described above. This may include sharing within the global federations that operates under Plan International Inc. We will not sell or share personal information with any third party for their purposes and no one will receive marketing that is not ours from any other companies, charities or other organisations as a result of giving your details to us. 

Third parties may use AI tools in carrying out these services, particularly for propensity modelling.   

We share personal data for the following purposes: 

• Third party suppliers: with data hosting providers or service providers who help us to deliver our services, projects, or fundraising activities and appeals. These providers act under our instruction and are subject to pre-contract scrutiny and contractual obligations. 
• Facebook Marketing  
• We participate in Facebook’s ‘Custom Audience’ program which enables us to display adverts to existing supporters when they visit Facebook. We may provide personal information i.e. email address, mobile number and address to Facebook, so they can determine whether the person is a registered account holder with them. Our adverts may then appear when that person accesses Facebook. The data is sent in an encrypted format that is deleted by Facebook if it does not match with a Facebook account.  

For more information please see Facebook Business and Facebook’s Data Policy. 

• We may  share your personal information with the emergency services if we think there is a risk of serious harm or abuse to a person. 
• We share programme participant’s data with the partners who we deliver programmes with and with third party organisations who we may contract to monito the effectiveness of our programmes.

Keeping your details up to date

We use publicly available sources to ensure that the information we hold is accurate and up to date. For example, where a redirection service is used, we use the Post Office’s National Change of Address database to keep in touch. We may use other services to cross-check the accuracy of the contact details we hold. 

You can notify us of a change of address or other details by contacting us at the address given below.

Keeping your information safe

We implement appropriate physical, technical and employee measures to help us protect the personal information we have, both on and off-line, from improper access, use, alteration, destruction or loss. 

Any debit or credit card details received on our website are passed securely to our payment processing partner, in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Security Standards.

International transfers of information

If a transfer of personal data outside England, to a country that does not have an Adequacy decision in place, is necessary eg for administering child sponsorship, monitoring and evaluating our programmes work, travel administration or due to safeguarding and security purposes, we take steps to put in place suitable safeguards to protect personal information. This is done by conducting International Transfer Risk Assessments and taking appropriate measures such as entering into EU Standard Contract Clauses and UK Data Transfer Addendums or International Data Transfer Agreements. 

How long we hold your information for 

We only keep your information if it is reasonable and necessary for the relevant activity and in line with our Data Retention Policy.

Data Subject Rights

There is a right to request the following 

• Access to Personal Data Access - to know that we are processing your personal data and, in most circumstances, to have a copy of the personal data  that we hold 
• Data Correction - that we correct inaccurate data or complete incomplete data  
• Data Erasure - known as the right to be forgotten 
• Data Restriction - to restrict the way we process your personal data, in certain circumstances 
• Data Processing Objection - to object to us processing data for (i) direct marketing purposes (ii) scientific or historical research or statistical purposes and (iii) purposes of profiling related to direct marketing or based on our legitimate interests or on the performance of a task in the public interest 
• Data Portability Right - to receive a copy of certain personal data or to have it transferred to another organisation. 
• Notification of changes to this Privacy Notice 

We may not be able to comply with a request, in circumstances provided for by data protection legislation. For example, if there is a request to delete all data held but we have a legal obligation to retain some of that data. Where we are not able to comply with a request, we will notify you of the reasons why not.  

Please visit this page to keep up to date with the changes to our Privacy Notice. This version was last updated on 30/04/2026. 

Concerned about our use of personal data?

Please talk to us directly so we can help resolve any problem or query. Our Supporter Engagement Team will be happy to help resolve any issues, queries or concerns: 

Telephone: 0300 777 9779
Email: [email protected]

Supporter Engagement Team
Plan International UK
Discovery House
Level 2
28-42 Banner Street
London
EC1Y 8QE

The fundraising preference service (FPS) service is run by the Fundraising Regulator and allows a person to stop email, telephone, addressed post, and/or text messages from a selected charity or charities by using the online service or by calling 0300 303 3517. Once a request is made through the FPS, we will ensure that your new preferences take effect within 28 days.

Alternatively, contact our Data Protection Officer at:

The Data Protection Officer
Plan International UK
​​​​​​​Discovery House
Level 2
28-42 Banner Street
London
​​​​​​​EC1Y 8QE

Email: [email protected]

Any concerns can also be addressed to Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) using their help line 0303 123 1113 or visit their website.
 

You may also be interested in:

• Employee and Volunteer Privacy Notice
• Candidate Privacy Notice