Privacy policy

This Privacy Policy sets out how and why we obtain, use and protect personal information.

• We will only send you marketing information electronically (by email or text/SMS) if you specifically agree to us doing so.
• We may send marketing information by post or ring you for marketing purposes, unless you have previously opted out or said that you don’t want to be contacted. Prior to carrying out postal mailings we may check against the National Change of Address Update database to verify that we have your latest address, where you have given consent to Royal Mail to pass on your new address to existing contacts.

We collect personal data e.g. your name, postal and email address, and telephone number when you give them to us for various purposes, such as making a donation, signing up for an event, or applying for a job. We also use the information you provide us with to match against other sources of data, including publicly available information (as detailed under the What is profiling and why do we do it? section of the full privacy policy, below) to help us tailor the way we communicate with you, share opportunities to support us or to find connections to our work. This information may also be used to predict the level at which you might be able to support the charity in future. We may also use these sources to find new potential supporters and invite them to be involved in supporting our cause. You can opt out at any time as we only want to communicate with you in the ways you prefer and appreciate some supporters may wish us to stop processing their information in this way. 

• We gather information about traffic to and on our website to improve the site. This information does not identify you personally and is used in aggregate form only. We may use and disclose such non-personal, aggregated data as we choose.
• We may provide links to other websites whose privacy practices are outside our control. You should check the privacy practices of any third-party website before disclosing any personal information.
• If you ask us to stop sending marketing information, we will update our records to stop further mailings as quickly as we can, but you may still receive further mailings for up to 28 days which were already in progress prior to your asking us to stop.
• If you wish to opt out of specific emails, for example our enewsletter, you need to email supportercare@sueryder.org or telephone 0808 164 4572. If you wish to opt out of all email communications then you can use the unsubscribe button on any email as this will automatically unsubscribe you from all emails.
• You can change your marketing preferences at any time by emailing supportercare@sueryder.org or telephoning 0808 164 4572.

Sue Ryder is a charity registered in England and Wales (charity number 1052076) and in Scotland (SC039578). We’re also a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (company number 943228).

Our registered office is at Kings House, King Street, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 2ED.

We have a wholly owned subsidiary, Sue Ryder Lottery Limited, which was set up to run the Sue Ryder lottery and raffles to raise money for Sue Ryder (company no. 9479300).

Our VAT number is 927 5079 02. Sue Ryder and Sue Ryder Lottery Limited are covered by this privacy policy.

Our trading subsidiary, Sue Ryder Direct Limited (our online shop – company number 889743), has a separate privacy policy at shop.sueryder.org/privacy.

At Sue Ryder, we can’t make life’s most difficult moments easy, but we can carry some of the load. For more than 70 years, we have been a source of strength and support for anyone living with a life-limiting illness or grief.

Dying and grief are universal experiences, but too many people face them alone. We are a safe and reassuring hand you can reach for. From providing care and support for someone at the end of their life to helping someone manage their grief, we know there is no one size fits all when it comes to how we cope and the help we need. We campaign for everyone who is approaching the end of their life or grieving to have access to the right support, at the right time. And we seek to break down the barriers to talking about dying and grief - so we can all be better prepared and better equipped to be there for each other.

We can make a positive difference during even the darkest of times. Whether in the last months, weeks or days of life, or living with grief, we help people live the best life they possibly can. We are there when it matters.

Our supporters are incredibly important to us. Without them, we simply wouldn’t be able to help the people who need us or carry on providing and developing the services that so many depend on. Our supporters help us in all kinds of valuable ways – whether it’s giving up their time, donating money, goods or services, campaigning, or spreading the word about what we do. However, you decide to help, we’ll always respect your rights and your choices.

We are responsible for protecting your personal information as a ‘data controller’ under applicable data protection legislation. If you have any queries about this policy or how we use your personal information, please contact our Supporter Care team on 0808 164 4572, email supportercare@sueryder.org or write to the Data Protection Officer at the address below.

This policy (and any other documents referred to in it) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect about you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us.

Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. By visiting sueryder.org you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy.

Our nominated person for data protection is the Data Protection Officer, who can be contacted at Kings House, King Street, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 2ED or by email data.protection@sueryder.org

• to promote the aims of Sue Ryder
• to provide you with services or information you have requested
• where appropriate, to contact you about our work and campaigns
• for future fundraising and promotional purposes, including research and surveys
• for administration purposes, including to create an account for you if you register with us; to thank you for donations received and ask you about gift aid; to notify you about changes to our services or policies; as part of our efforts to keep our website safe and secure; and to ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer
• for segmentation of our database, for example, by analysing information such as postcodes of supporters, the frequency of donations or when we last contacted them. This enables us to tailor our communications with you.

We will only use your personal information for electronic marketing purposes if we have your consent.

We may send marketing information by post or telephone you for marketing purposes, unless you have previously opted out or said that you don’t want to be contacted.

You can change your marketing preferences at any time by emailing supportercare@sueryder.org or telephoning 0808 164 4572.

We collect personal data as defined by data protection legislation (personal information), for example your name, postal and email address and telephone number, when you give it to us for various purposes. These are:

We collect your name, address, email address, telephone number, bank details, date of birth, ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation etc. We use this data to process your application and to add successful candidates to payroll. If successful, we also use it to contact you about the recruitment process and future opportunities; if unsuccessful, we keep your CV for 18 months in our talent pool.

Diversity information is also collected for monitoring fairness. We share this data with Webrecruit, who will access candidate records if there is a system error/problem, and Docusign, who will send out electronic copies of contracts. Our lawful basis for processing is consent in respect of special categories of personal data and legitimate Interests in respect of other personal data.

We collect your address, phone number, mobile number and referees to process your paper or online application. We do not share this data with any third parties. Our lawful basis for processing your information is consent. We collect your name, email address and mobile number to send marketing communications, when you provide us with these details for this purpose. We do not share this data with any third parties.

Our lawful basis for processing is consent in respect of special categories of personal data and legitimate interests in respect of other personal data.

Read more about this in our privacy policy for volunteers.

Email and text

We collect your name, email address and mobile number to send you marketing communications, when you provide us with these details for this purpose.  We share this information with MailChimp and Dotdigital, which are automated email platforms, to send you emails and keep these details in Raiser’s Edge, which is an externally hosted database. Our lawful basis for processing your information is consent. 

Post and telephone

We collect your name, postal address and telephone number to send you marketing communications either by post or by telephone. We share this information with mailing houses and keep these details in Raiser’s Edge (an externally hosted database). Our lawful basis for processing this information is legitimate interests.

And agree to be contacted by us by filling out your details, we will collect your name/email address/phone number as appropriate through Facebook so we can contact you about the product(s), campaigns, ways to support us as described when you filled out the form. Our lawful basis for processing your information is consent.

• Signing up to attend or take part in an event

We collect your title, name, gender, date of birth, address, email address, telephone number and mobile number (optional) to confirm your place and send you events stewardship information. Booking and payment is done via Eventbrite (online events platform). Our lawful basis for processing your information is contractual necessity.

• Signing up to Gift Aid

Online or over the phone
We collect your name and address to claim Gift Aid. We share this data with HMRC and our mailing house who send out postal notifications. Our lawful basis for processing your information is legitimate interests.

Offline – in shops or via fundraising forms
We collect your name, email address, postal address, telephone number and signature to claim Gift Aid. We share this data with HMRC and our mailing house who send out postal notifications. We also have the forms scanned so that we hold them digitally and this is done by a third party. Our lawful basis for processing your information is legitimate interests.

• Giving us a donation or becoming a regular giver

Donation online – one off
We collect your name, address, email address and phone number to process your donation and thank you. At the point of payment, the entrant is taken to Stripe where they enter name, address, phone number, email address and credit card details. Our lawful basis for processing your information is legitimate interests.

Donation offline – one off or direct debit (regular giving)
We collect your name, address, email address, phone number and bank details to process donations, confirm your direct debit details and to thank you. At the point of donation, the donor is taken to either Stripe or Worldpay where they enter their name, address, telephone number, email address and credit card details. We also share your information with Access who process direct debit payments. Our lawful basis for processing your information is legitimate interests. 

• Supporting one of our campaigns to improve care

We collect your name, email address and mobile number to send you campaign updates, when you provide us with these details for this purpose.  We share this information with MailChimp and Dotdigital which are automated email platforms, to send you emails and keep these details in Raiser’s Edge, which is an externally hosted database. Our lawful basis for processing your information is consent.

When you support Sue Ryder in any of the ways listed above, we also collect your marketing preferences.

• When you sign up to our Online Community

We collect your email address, IP address and first name and last name (if you provide it) when you register an account on the community. You cannot post to the community without registering. Our lawful basis for processing this information is contractual necessity 

Automated notifications about new posts or replies and a monthly community e-newsletter are sent to those who consent.   

The online community is moderated to make sure that users comply with our terms and conditions of use, and to also pick up on any safeguarding issues where it is felt that the individual may be at the risk of harming themselves or someone else. It is moderated by our Sue Ryder team during working hours and by an external moderation agency out of hours, who will then be able to see the posts made by users on the community as well as personal details (eg user name, email address).

Where there are safeguarding concerns then we or the external moderation agency may contact third party services eg the police, and our lawful basis for doing this is to protect the vital interests of yourself or any other individuals.    

Strawberry Social store information in a cloud based system to be able to share information with the Sue Ryder online community moderators. Our lawful basis is contractual necessity. 

Other than as set out above, we do not share your data with any third parties.

We collect your name; phone number; email address; description of help required (free text field).

This information is supplied to the counsellors ahead of the service user’s appointment and is used by counsellors to help assess suitability for the service. As part of the assessment process we will collect information on the support you currently receive from your GP, psychologist, psychiatrist, social services or health visitor, and any other information that may be required. Your counsellor will only contact you by telephone number in case of a technical problem with video chat.

Email reminders before appointments are also sent to those who consent. For other information we collect and when we might share your data, see our Health & Social Care privacy policy.

Our lawful basis for processing this information is consent in respect of special categories of personal data and contractual necessity in respect of other personal data.

If you wish to access any of the self-help tools available through Grief Guide we will need to collect your name and email address in order to create an account on the platform. Our lawful basis for doing this is contractual necessity. If you use the journal to record entries, or the virtual memory box to stores pictures, links or texts these will be stored in the server, but they will not be accessible to Sue Ryder.

We will need to collect your name, mobile number, gender, date of birth, context of grief, and any other information you provide related to the deceased and your relationship to them, or the person you are supporting through their grief, to enable the text-based service to provide tailored support messages to you. Our lawful basis for doing this is contractual necessity on the mandatory information, and consent on the non-mandatory information. 

When you sign up to the Sue Ryder Grief Coach text service as a supporter of a bereaved person, then we will need to collect your name, mobile number, gender and relationship to the person you are supporting, and the deceased person, and any other information that will enable a more tailored text-based service to be provided. Our lawful basis is contractual necessity for the mandatory information and consent for any additional information.

We will also use the mobile number to send you surveys about the service to enable us to improve the service. Our lawful basis for doing this is legitimate interest.

We share the information provided above with where relevant to the third party technology platforms to enable the service to be provided, and with the following data processors to enable this service to be provided to you: Grief Coach (platform provider), Mailgun Technologies (communication service), Twilio, Slack Technologies.    

Read our health and social care privacy notice.

CCTV

When you visit one of our shops or care centres, your image may be recorded on CCTV (closed circuit television). In order to protect our customers, tenants, premises, assets, employees and volunteers from crime, we operate CCTV systems in our shops and car parks, which record images for security. We do this on the basis of our legitimate interest and to enable us to protect the individuals we interact with.

In our shops, we use CCTV to prevent fraudulent activity. We will use CCTV recording where it is required as evidence for internal investigations; for the prevention and detection of crime and for other requirements, if permitted by local law. We do this on the basis of our legitimate interest. Our aim is to protect the individuals we interact with from the effects of criminal activities, particularly fraud.

If we discover any criminal activity or alleged criminal activity through our use of CCTV, we will process this data for the purposes of preventing or detecting unlawful acts.

We hold CCTV images for up to 31 days (unless there is a specific evidential or operational reason for retaining these for a longer period from the date of recording). Signage will be displayed where this takes place.

When you visit or contact one of our bookshops

We collect your details if you wish to be contacted when a specific book comes into one of our shops. We will process this information on the basis of contract to enable us to provide you with this service.

Incident reporting

If you visit one of our premises or attend an event and are involved in an accident or incident, details of the incident or accident will be recorded in our reporting system, along with your name, address and contact details.

This information may need to be shared with our insurers, the police or courts to enable the incident to be investigated or to deal with any claims. Our lawful basis for processing this information is legitimate interests.

When you sign in on an iPad at the reception of one of our hospices, we collect your name, email address (currently only at hospices, not neurological care centres, and is optional), who you are visiting and your car registration number to keep a record of who is visiting. We will send marketing communications by email if you have given your consent and left your email address.

For hospice visitors, data is held in Envoy (iPad reception sign-in app) and is then (where you have consented to receiving emails) uploaded onto Raiser’s Edge (externally hosted database) and shared with Mailchimp (an external email platform). Our lawful basis for processing your information is consent in respect of special categories of personal data or sending you marketing emails and legitimate interests in respect of other processing of your personal data, including for the purposes of day-to-day facilities management at the hospice, for example in the event of an evacuation.

For visitors to our neurological care centres, data is held in Envoy (the iPad reception sign-in app). We will only process your information for the purposes of day-to-day facilities management at the neurological care centre, for example in the event of an evacuation.

When you sign up to What Matters to Me: a Human Rights Approach to End of Life Care – our human rights training programme – we collect your name and email address to book your place on the training course and provide you with relevant course information.

Booking is done via Eventbrite (online events platform). Our lawful basis for processing this information is contractual necessity.

We also collect your marketing preferences.

When you sign up to play our Sue Ryder Lottery, we collect your name, address, date of birth and telephone, email and payment details. We use this to enter you to play the Lottery, process direct debit or card payments, issue prizes and process invoices from third-party face to face suppliers. 

We share this data with Sterling Management Centre Ltd who run the Lottery draw and who also facilitate debit card payments through Barclay Card. When signing up via a third party fundraising agency (either face-to-face or by telephone) your data will be shared with them to help facilitate refunds owed to Sue Ryder.  Those donors paying by Direct Debit will have their details shared with Secure Collections who process direct debit payments on our behalf. Our lawful basis for processing this information is necessity to perform a contract – to run the draw.

We also collect your marketing preferences.

Read the Sue Ryder Direct Ltd privacy policy.

We also collect your marketing preferences.

We will collect your email address so the label can be sent to you, and our third-party provider 'Sorted' will retain this in their secure data warehouse for 13 months for client reporting purposes after which it is automatically anonymised. Our lawful basis for obtaining this information is contractual, so we can provide a free postage label and record the service usage.

We collect your name, postal address, email address and phone number to provide details of the purchase to the warranty provider so the customer can have six months’ warranty. We only share this data with the domestic warranty provider. Our lawful basis for processing this information is contractual necessity.

This is detailed under the What is profiling and why do we do it? section of the full privacy policy below.

We may also collect technical information relating to your use of our website, including your browser type or the Internet Protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the internet. We also gather general information about the use of our website, such as which pages users visit most often and which services, events or facilities are of most interest. We may also track which pages users visit when they click on links in emails.

We may use this information to personalise the way our website is presented when users visit, to make improvements to our website and to ensure we provide the best service for users.

Wherever possible, we use aggregated or anonymous information which does not identify individual visitors to our website. We will never request personal information about your health or the health of your family members or friends, unless we inform you how that information will be used and receive your express consent to use it.

Some of the ways we collect information is outlined in section 6 (What information do we collect?) In addition, we may collect information that is available in the public domain, e.g. newspaper or online media items; publicly available posts on LinkedIn or social media; and Companies House listings, as described in more detail in the profiling section below. We record your requests for information and any feedback we receive from you.

We collect information for the purpose set out in section 6 (What information do we collect?), which also includes the lawful basis for which the information is processed. These include:

• Where processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party. If you fail to provide this information, we may be unable to perform the contract.
• Where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
• Where processing is necessary for the purpose of the legitimate interest pursued by us or a third party, except where your rights as a data subject override our legitimate interest. The legitimate interests we rely on are:

1. to fulfil the charitable purposes of Sue Ryder. If we are unable to fundraise then we will not be able to continue to provide services from our hospices, care services, online community and other community services.
2. to fulfil the charitable purposes of Sue Ryder we need to recruit staff to deliver the services and to raise funds. Minimising recruitment costs allows us to spend more money on our charitable purposes. Keeping a talent pool of CVs enables us to source staff in a cost-efficient way.
3. The health and safety of our visitors, service users and sites.

• Where processing is not necessary for the above reasons, we only process your information with your consent, or as otherwise required or permitted by law.

At Sue Ryder we undertake profiling and elements of automatic decision making to help us improve the supporter experience we can provide and the effectiveness of our fundraising. Profiling is a common technique used in direct marketing and involves analysing data to improve the targeting of communications. We use profiling, predictive analysis and screening techniques to ensure communications are relevant and timely, and that supporting Sue Ryder is an engaging and enjoyable experience.   

• Using a coding system to identify particular types of supporters, potential levels of giving, adding a categories and metrics to individual supporter records to help us tailor communications. 
• Predict future levels of giving and what marketing, products and fundraising our existing or potential new supporters may be interested in. 
• Analyse geographic, demographic and other information relating to our supporters in order to better understand your background, interests and preferences . 
• Decide appropriate requests for funds and identify supporters who may be able and willing to give more than they already do.  
• Researching and collating information on both existing and potential supporters and partners to ensure that we are engaging with the people most likely to support the charity and asks for support at an appropriate level. 
• To perform Due Diligence research as required by the Charity Commission for example when certain levels of donation are made. For information about when this might apply, please see the Charity Commission’s website.

By undertaking the above we are able to target our resources more effectively and identify which donors are most likely to support the charity. In doing this, we may use additional information from third party sources this may include publicly available data about individual supporters, for example addresses, listed directorships on Companies House, property prices on the Land Registry, open source consumer information such as ACORN (CACI), MOSAIC or sources which help estimate typical earnings in a given area.  We may also gather additional data which is freely available in the public domain (for example, newspaper articles or online sources), this may include: details of your career and personal/family background; your philanthropic interests (trusteeships and/or support to other charities); evidence of other similar gifts or involvement with other charities; your networks and potential influencers; your  wealth, estimated net worth and gift capacity; and any recent and/or relevant media coverage about you. Our lawful basis for processing our supporters’ information in this way is legitimate interests. 

All our supporters can ask that we do not process their information in this way or request us not to make automatic decisions based on their personal data.  If you have any questions about the information we hold, how we process this information or wish your data not to be used in this way you can get in touch with us by emailing supportercare@sueryder.org or by telephoning 0808 164 4572.

We do not sell, swap or rent any personal information we hold.  

We share your personal information as set out in detail above and described below, otherwise as permitted by law. Where personal information is shared with contractors or suppliers as set out below, this will only be done after they have signed a contract which protects your personal data. 

We may need to provide your information to our contractors and suppliers who provide services on our behalf, to the extent necessary to enable you to receive those services  

We may share your information with the service providers or other associated organisations as identified in this policy to use the information for their own purposes as described above. 

If you make a payment or donation to us we will need to share your information with our payment processor. By paying via our payment processor you agree to accept their terms and conditions for the use of their services, including their privacy policy. We suggest that you read their privacy policy when using their service as we are not responsible for data you share with them.  

We may also need to disclose your information if required to do so by law or as expressly permitted under applicable data protection legislation. Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites. 

We keep your information for no longer than is necessary, as set out in our Data Retention Schedule. We will retain your information for any period required by law, for example for compliance with HMRC requirements. Where we are not under a legal obligation to retain your information, we will determine what is necessary by reference to the lawful basis for processing set out above and our legitimate interests.

If you have any questions about how long we keep your information, write to: Sue Ryder, Kings House, King Street, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 2ED, for the attention of the Company Secretary.

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure that the information disclosed to us is kept secure, accurate and up to date and kept only for so long as is necessary for the purposes for which it is used.  

We use a secure service when you donate through our website, via a virtual gateway operated by Stripe. Our online payment system is Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard compliant. 

You should be aware that the use of the internet is not entirely secure and although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security or integrity of any personal information which is transferred from you or to you via the internet. Any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features such as encryption to try to prevent unauthorised access. 

You have a right to ask us to confirm whether we are processing information about you, and to request access to this information.

You may ask us, or we may ask you, to rectify information you or we think is inaccurate, and you may also ask us to remove information which is inaccurate or complete information which is incomplete. If you inform us that your personal data is inaccurate, we will inform relevant third parties with whom we have shared your data so they may update their own records.

We want to ensure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. If any of the information that you have provided us with changes, for example if you change your email address, name, payment details, or if you wish to cancel your registration, please let us know using the contact details at the end of this policy.

You have a right to obtain your personal data from us and reuse it for your own purposes, perhaps for another service, without hindering the usability of the data. This right does not apply where processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in us.

You have a right to seek the erasure of your data. You may wish to exercise this right for any reason, for example where it is no longer necessary for us to continue holding or processing your personal data you may withdraw your consent. You should note that we are entitled to and reserve the right to retain your data for statistical purposes. This right is not absolute, as we may need to continue processing this information, for example, to comply with our legal obligations, or for reasons of public interest.

You have a right to ask us to restrict our processing of your information (‘right to restriction’) if:

• you contest its accuracy, and we need to verify whether it is accurate
• the processing is unlawful, and you ask us to restrict use of it instead of erasing it
• we no longer need the information for the purpose of processing, but you need it to establish or defend legal claims
• you have objected to processing of your information being necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest, or for the purposes of our legitimate interests. The restriction would apply while we carry out a balancing act between your rights and our legitimate interests. If you exercise your right to restrict processing, we would still need to process your information for the purpose of exercising or defending legal claims, protecting the rights of another person or for public interest reasons.

If you would like to exercise any of your rights, please let us know by writing to the Company Secretary, Sue Ryder, Kings House, King Street, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 2ED.

We will act in accordance with your instructions as soon as reasonably possible and there will be no charge.

You have a right to report any of your concerns about our use of your data to the Information Commissioner’s Office. You may do so by calling their helpline at 0303 123 1113.

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them, see our Cookie Policy.

Any changes we may make to our privacy policy in the future will be posted on www.sueryder.org/privacy and, where appropriate, notified to you by email. Please check the website frequently to see any updates or changes to our privacy policy. By continuing to use our website you will be deemed to have accepted such changes.

If you would like more information, or have any questions about this privacy policy, please contact our Supporter Care team by email at supportercare@sueryder.org or by telephone on 0808 164 4572.

You can also write to us at the following address:

Data Protection Officer
Sue Ryder
Kings House
King Street
Sudbury
CO10 2ED

or email: data.protection@sueryder.org

This privacy policy was last updated on 2nd August 2023.