Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy - Proteus Fund

Last Modified: March 18, 2021

Thank you for visiting our Website. It is our pleasure to be able to communicate with you about our work through this Website.

Proteus Fund (“Proteus”, “we”, “our”, or “us”) believes in transparent, respectful, lawful use of personal information. By visiting our Website and/or providing the information described below, you are accepting the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use the Website.

Introduction

This Privacy Policy describes the types of information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you visit the website proteusfund.org and any applicable subdomains thereof, and through any applications, functionalities, content, materials, or other online services provided by Proteus on www.proteusfund.org(collectively, the  “Website”) and our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting and disclosing that information.

Specifically, this Privacy Policy applies to information we collect:

  • On this Website.
  • In e-mail, text and other electronic messages between you and this Website.

It does not apply to information collected by:

  • us offline or through any other means, including on any other website operated by Proteus or any third party (including our affiliates and subsidiaries); or
  • any third party (including our affiliates and subsidiaries), including through any application or content that may link to or be accessible from or on the Website.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use our Website. By accessing or using this Website, you agree to this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy may change from time to time. Your continued use of this Website after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the Privacy Policy periodically for updates.

The Types of Information Proteus Collects

Personal Data

As a general matter, Proteus collects personally identifiable information – your first name, middle name, last name, or similar identifier, title, and your contact details such as your billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers – only when you voluntarily choose to provide it to us.

This happens when you:

  • sign up to receive our newsletter or other communications
  • complete one of our online forms
  • request information or assistance
  • send an e-mail through the contact information provided on the Website
  • Make donations to Proteus in furtherance of our mission or for a specific purpose

If you are applying for a grant, we may obtain and retain the following information:

  • list of key staff and board of directors
  • name(s) and email address(es) of the person(s) who should sign a grant agreement
  • demographic/diversity information of board and staff
  • financial information gathered for the purpose of processing and administering grant applications
  • narrative proposal
  • list of funders
  • IRS determination letter

Please contact us at web-grantsmanager@proteusfund.org if you would like additional details on what information is obtained and how it is handled during the grant application process.

Information Collected Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies

As you navigate through and interact with our Website, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns, including:

  • Details of your visits to our Website, including traffic data, location data, logs and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Website.
  • Information about your computer and internet connection, including your IP address, operating system and browser type.

The information we may collect automatically is statistical data and does not include personal information, but we may maintain it or associate it with personal information we collect in other ways. It helps us to improve our Website and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to:

  • Estimate our audience size and usage patterns.
  • Store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Website according to your individual interests.
  • Speed up your searches.
  • Recognize you when you return to our Website.

The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:

  • Cookies (or browser cookies). A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system may issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Website.
  • Flash Cookies. Certain features of our Website may use local stored objects (or Flash cookies) to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from and on our Website. Flash cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as are used for browser cookies.
  • Web Beacons. Pages of our Website and our e-mails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs. pixel tags and single-pixel gifs) that permit Proteus, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an e-mail and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).

Payment Processing

We may engage one or more third-party payment processors to facilitate the acceptance of online donations through the Website. If you donate to us using your credit or debit card, or by making a direct ACH transfer, your card and/or bank information, including login credentials, are not stored, or held by Proteus. It is collected by our third-party payment processor specializing in the secure processing of credit and debit card transactions.  Credit and debit card payment processing services for donations made through the Website are currently provided by Stripe, Inc. (“Stripe”) and are subject to the Stripe Connected Account Agreement, which includes the Stripe Terms of Service (collectively, the “Stripe Services Agreement”) available at https://stripe.com/us/legal. By making donations via this Website, you agree to be bound by the Stripe Services Agreement, as the same may be modified by Stripe from time to time. As a condition of Proteus enabling credit and debit card payment processing services through Stripe, you agree to provide us with accurate and complete information about you, and you authorize us to share any such information with Stripe. We are not responsible for the performance of any third-party credit or debit card processing or third-party payment services.

How Proteus Uses the Information that We Collect

Proteus uses the information described in this Privacy Policy primarily to communicate with you when requested. We do not sell, rent, or lease our contact data or lists to third parties, and except as otherwise provided in this Privacy Policy, we will not provide your personal information to any third-party individual, government agency, or company at any time unless required to do so by law, court order or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request.

More specifically, we may use the information to respond to specific inquiries and requests; add you to our mailing lists; manage, supervise, or send our outreach, newsletter, and other communications; generate and manage active contracts; process any registration or similar information you provide; improve our services, sites, facilities, events, and other programmatic operations; or communicate with you about a donation or processing a transaction.

If you sign up to receive our newsletter or any of our other mailings, we may contact you with information that we think will be of interest to you. We will always provide an unsubscribe option with any promotional e-mails from our organization. If at any time you wish to stop receiving these communications, please follow the unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of the email or send us an email at website‑info@proteusfund.org and ask to be removed from our email list.

How Proteus Protects User Information

Proteus maintains data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures to help protect against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction of your personal information. We are committed to keeping your personal information safe and secure. We mandate login security controls on equipment and systems, mandatory password expiry, digital storage encryption, routine scheduled patching and updates, and ongoing cybersecurity user training and awareness for our staff.

We review our retention periods for personal information on a periodic basis. The periods of retention depend on the type of data collected, the purpose for which the data is given, and requirements of applicable law.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our Website. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Website.

Sharing Personal Information

Third Party Providers

Proteus uses third party service providers to help us operate the Website and administer activities on our behalf, such as collecting donations online, providing analytics, maintenance or site improvement, and operational support. These third-party vendors may have access to Website visitor information but are required to protect the confidentiality of the information and to use it only for the limited purpose for which it was provided.

If you believe personal data you provided to us is being misused by a third party, please contact us at website‑info@proteusfund.org.

Compliance with Law

Proteus will share personally identifiable information about those who use our Website or communicate with us when required to do so by law, or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with state and federal laws or to respond to a court order, subpoena, search warrant, or governmental or regulatory request. Proteus may share your personally identifiable information with a successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, or dissolution, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by Proteus about our Website users is among the assets transferred.  We may also share personally identifiable information if we believe it is necessary to protect the rights, property, and safety of us or others.

User Consent / Other Services

From time to time, we may explicitly request consent to use your information in a manner not covered by this Privacy Policy. In such a circumstance, we would ask you to voluntarily “opt in” to agree to such use. In addition, communications through our Website often lead to additional partnership opportunities and engagements, including in relation to grantmaking, programmatic or other collaborative partnerships. Proteus may collect and use additional information in relation to those interactions, in each case as appropriate to the relationship between the parties.

Aggregated Data

Proteus may share generic aggregated demographic information not linked to any personally identifiable information regarding visitors to our Website with third parties, including in connection with maintaining, improving, and fixing any operational errors on the Website.

Third Party Websites

Proteus may provide links from the Website to other websites operated by parties other than us. We provide these links for your convenience only.  We do not control the content or links that appear on these third-party websites and are not responsible for the practices employed by websites linked to or from the Website. These websites and services have their own privacy policies. Browsing and interaction on any other website, including websites that have a link to or from our Website, is subject to that website’s own terms and policies.

Children’s Online Privacy

Protecting the privacy of minors is especially important. This Website is not intended to attract anyone under the age of 18 and Proteus does not knowingly collect personal data on anyone under the age of 18.  If you are under 18, do not use or provide any information on this Website or on or through any of its features, or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address or any screen name or username you may use. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 18 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 18, please contact us at website‑info@proteusfund.org.

California Privacy Rights

If you reside in California and have provided your personally identifiable information to Proteus, you may request information once per calendar year about our disclosures of certain categories of your personally identifiable information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. Such requests must be submitted to us at website‑info@proteusfund.org.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

Proteus may update this Privacy Policy at any time. When we do, we will revise the “Last Modified” date at the beginning of this Privacy Policy. We encourage you to frequently check this page for any changes to stay informed about what information we collect and how we use that information. You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review this Privacy Policy periodically and become aware of any modifications since your last visit.

Your Acceptance of These Terms

By using the Website, you signify your acceptance of this Privacy Policy, including as it is amended from time to time. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy, please do not use the Website. Your continued use of the Website following the posting of changes to this Privacy Policy will be deemed your acceptance of those changes.

Contacting Proteus

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or anything relating to the Website, please contact Us at website‑info@proteusfund.org.