Privacy Policy

Effective date: 3/2026

Boys & Girls Clubs of the Chattahoochee Valley, Inc. (“BGCCV,” “we,” “us” or “our”) recognizes the importance of protecting the privacy of our members, donors, parents, caregivers, friends, volunteers, vendors, event attendees and other individuals. We know you care how your personal information is treated and your privacy is our priority. We aim to be as transparent as possible about the ways we use the personal information you provide us, so we’ve created this Privacy Policy (the “Policy”), which focuses on how we collect and use personal information about you.

PLEASE REVIEW THIS PRIVACY POLICY CAREFULLY. By interacting with us or providing information to us, you accept the terms of this Privacy Policy and consent to our collection, use, disclosure and retention of your information as described in this Policy.  

Section 1: Information We May Collect

We collect two basic types of information – personal information and anonymous data – and we may use personal information and anonymous data to create a third type of information, aggregate data (personal information, anonymous data, and aggregate data may hereinafter be referred to as “Information”). For example, we collect Information, which may include, but not be limited to:

• Membership information you provide when you join the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Chattahoochee Valley, either as a youth member or adult volunteer, including your first name and last name, physical address, email address, phone number, birth date, gender, and in some cases, social security number, drivers license number, employer information, health and medical information, allergy and food sensitivity information, insurance information, educational information and schools attended, and your school district identification number (for certain school districts)

• Registration information you provide when you create an account or sign up to participate in one of our events or activities, including your first name and last name, physical address, email address, username and password

• Transaction information you provide when you request information, purchase a product, service or membership from us, or make a monetary donation to us, whether on our websites or through our applications, including your postal address, email address, telephone number and payment information

• Achievement information about awards, job certification credentials, and training you have received in connection with your participation in our programs

• Public Information you provide in public forums on our websites and applications

• Information sent by you either one-to-one or within a limited group by phone, email, post or similar functionality, where we are permitted by law to collect this information

• Information you provide to us when you use our websites and applications, our applications on third-party sites or platforms such as social networking sites or donation platforms

• Location information when you visit our websites or use our applications, including location information either provided by a mobile device interacting with one of our websites or applications (including through beacon technologies), or associated with your IP address, where we are permitted by law to process this information

• Computer hardware and software information may automatically be collected by us when you visit our websites or use our applications, including your IP address, browser type, type of operating system, device type, unique device identifier, how much time you spend on our sites or using our applications, and when you open emails we send

Section 2: How We Collect Information

We collect your personal information when you provide it to us in the course of requesting or ordering products, services or information from us, registering with us (e.g., for a program, an event, or an activity), entering a contest or promotion, making a donation, subscribing to our services, participating in public forums on our websites and applications, responding to surveys, or otherwise interacting with us through our websites and applications. 

Like so many other businesses and organizations, we collect anonymous data through technology, such as cookies, and Web beacons, that we use to operate our websites and applications.

What are cookies? A cookie is a small file containing a string of characters that is sent to your computer when you visit a website or use an online service. When you visit the website or use the service again, the cookie allows that website or online service to recognize your browser or device. Cookies may store unique identifiers, user preferences and other information.  

Duration of Cookies. We may use “session cookies” or “persistent cookies.” Session cookies are temporary and expire once you close your browser or once your session ends. Persistent cookies remain on your device for much longer or until you or your browser erase them. Persistent cookies have varying durations that are dependent on their expiration date.  

What types of cookies do we use? BGCCV uses:  

• Necessary Cookies. These cookies are necessary for you to browse our websites and use its features, such as accessing secure areas. Without these cookies, certain aspects of our websites (the “Site”) may not be available to you. 

• Preferences Cookies. These cookies collect information about how you have used the Site in the past and allow the Site to remember the choices you have made. These cookies allow us to improve how the Site works for you and tailor the Site to your preferences.  

• Analytics Cookies. These cookies collect information about how you use the Site, such as which pages you most often visit on the Site, the time you spend on the Site, which links you click on, and any issues encountered. These cookies help us understand how visitors interact with the Site. All information collected is aggregated and do not identify you. 

• Marketing Cookies. These cookies track your online activity to help deliver advertisements that are relevant to you and your interests and measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaigns. They also limit how many times you see a certain advertisement. 

Why do we use them? Cookies help us improve the Site by providing us with information about which parts of the Site are most popular, what actions are taken by users and what content is viewed, enabling us to analyze technical and navigational information about the Site, and helping us to detect and prevent fraud. We also use cookies and other data collection tools (such as web beacons, pixels and embedded scripts) to help improve your experience with the Site. For example, we use Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager to help analyze how users use the Site. These tools use cookies to collect standard Internet log information and visitor behavior information in an anonymous form. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the Site (including IP address) is transmitted to our data collection tool service providers. This information is then used by us to evaluate visitors’ use of the Site and to compile statistical reports on website activity for BGCCV. If you would like to opt-out from the use of your information by Google Analytics, you may use Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on designed for this purpose. 

How do I control cookies? Web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to manage and delete cookies, visit www.allaboutcookies.org. Some web browsers provide settings that allow a user to reject cookies or to alert a user when a cookie is placed on the user’s computer, tablet or mobile device. Most mobile devices also offer settings to reject mobile device identifiers. Although users are not required to accept cookies or mobile device identifiers, blocking or rejecting them may prevent access to some features available through our websites.  

Web Beacons and Pixels 

A pixel is an HTML code snippet embedded in a website or email that collects information about user behaviors and interactions with the website or email. 

We may utilize pixels both on certain aspects of our websites and in HTML-formatted email messages to you. Pixels may be used for the purpose of, among other things, measuring the success of our marketing campaigns, compiling statistics about Site usage and tracking the activities of users of our websites and email recipients. For instance, we may use pixels on our websites to enable us to create targeted advertisements and measure the effectiveness of our advertisements. For additional information on interest-based advertising, please see the Interest-Based Advertising section below. 

Interest Based Advertising 

We may collect information about your online activities on our websites to provide you with advertising about products and services tailored to your individual interests. You may see certain ads on other websites because we work with advertising partners (including advertising networks) to engage in remarketing and retargeting activities. Our advertising partners allow us to target our messaging to users through demographic, interest-based and contextual means. These partners may track your online activities over time and across websites, including our Site, by collecting information through automated means, including through the use of third-party cookies and web beacons. The information our advertising partners may collect includes data about your visits to websites that participate in the relevant advertising networks, such as the pages or advertisements you view and the actions you take on the websites. This data collection takes place both on our Site and on third-party websites that participate in the ad networks.  

Provided that a digital advertising services BGCCV participates in uses industry-developed programs designed to provide consumers choices about whether to receive targeted advertising, you may opt out of ad network interest-based advertising generally through the Network Advertising Initiative website or by visiting http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ (web-based advertising) or http://www.aboutads.info/appchoices (for mobile advertising). To learn more, please visit the websites operated by the Network Advertising Initiative and Digital Advertising Alliance at www.networkadvertising.org/choices. If we use such digital advertising service providers in our marketing efforts, opting-out using those tools does not mean that you will stop receiving ads from us. It means that you still stop receiving ads from us that have been targeted to you based on your visits and browsing activity across websites over time.

Section 3: How We Use Information

Consistent with applicable law and choices and controls that may be available to you, we may use Information collected from you, or from devices associated with you, to:

• Provide you with the products, services, and/or information you have requested, purchased, or won (e.g., in a contest or promotion)

• Communicate with you about your membership (or your expressed interest in membership), your account, or transactions with us and to send you information about features on our websites and applications or changes to our policies

• Manage, accommodate and administer your needs (e.g., medical treatment, physical limitations) and choices (e.g., programming) as a participant in our events

• Deliver relevant offers and promotions for our programs, events, products and services or those of a third party, based on your activity on our websites or applications

• Personalize content and experiences for you that reflect your choices and preferences

• Provide useful features to simplify your experience when you return to our sites and applications

• Deliver advertisements that are relevant to you and your interests and measure the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns

• Operate, understand, optimize, develop or improve our products, services, events, programs, communications, and operations

• Comply with applicable laws or respond to a subpoena, regulation, binding order of a data protection agency, legal process, governmental request or other legal or regulatory process; 

• Detect, investigate and prevent activities that may violate our policies or be illegal

• Support external auditing, compliance and corporate governance functions

• Send you information related to your charitable contributions

• Enforce our rights, protect our property or protect the rights, property or safety of others; 

Section 4: Sharing Your Information with Others

At Your Direction. We will disclose your Information with third parties when you instruct us to do so.

With Trusted Third-Party Service Providers Performing Services on Our Behalf. We may share your personal Information with our trusted service providers to perform the functions for which we engage them. For example, we may use third parties to deliver packages, manage event registration, process payments, provide medical assistance, provide educational and workforce development credentials, provide website functionality, provide analytics on our Site, provide marketing and advertising services for us and to send emails and newsletters on our behalf.

With Boys & Girls Club Affiliates. We may share your personal Information with the Boys & Girls Club of America and other Boys & Girls Club affiliates we work with for our internal business purposes.

With Schools. We may share personal Information about our members with their local school or school district to help identify academic and school attendance activities if we have obtained consent from the member’s parent or legal guardian.

With Medical Professionals. We may share the personal Information of our members and volunteers with medical professionals in an emergency when an event requiring medical attention occurs at one of our facilities or events.

With Grant Making Institutions. We may share your personal information with governmental and non-governmental institutions in order to comply with the financial grants they provide to support our programs and the services provided to the community. We will only share Information that is absolutely necessary, and we actively work to eliminate any contractual requirements asking us to share personal Information.

For Legal Purposes. We may share Information that we collect as needed to enforce our rights, protect our property or protect the rights, property or safety of others, or as needed to support external auditing, compliance and corporate governance functions. We will disclose personal Information as we deem necessary to respond to a subpoena, regulation, binding order of a data protection agency, compliance review by a governmental grant-making authority, legal process, governmental request or other legal or regulatory process. We may also share personal Information as required to pursue available remedies or limit damages we may sustain.

Section 5: Your Rights and Choices

You always have the choice to not provide your personal information to us or change your communication choices, but consequently you may not be able to receive certain goods or services or participate in certain programs or activities. Certain communications are mandatory for all registered adult volunteers and others attending or participating in certain events, as explained below. Depending on the Internet browser and device you use to interact with us, you may have the ability to control the use of certain tracking technologies through which we gather anonymous data. For further information about exercising these choices and controls, please see below.

• Mandatory Communications. As long as you are a registered adult volunteer, you may not choose whether or not to receive non-commercial notifications related to the safety and operations of our programs, such as safety messages.

• Account Management. You can update your profile and the contact information you gave us, reset your password, and manage your subscriptions and registrations by following instructions provided in communications sent to you or logging into your account at one of our websites, as applicable.

• Marketing. We will never sell or rent your personal information to other businesses for their direct marketing purposes. We may send you offers and promotions for our products, programs, and events, or those we think may be of interest to you, and you may opt-out or unsubscribe from such offers by either following the instructions provided in our communications to you or changing your preferences in your account. Please note that if you opt out of receiving promotional messages from us, this does not impact other transactional and administrative messages which you will continue to receive (such as emails relating to billing and payment information or changes to this Privacy Policy or receiving support or technical information regarding products from us). 

Section 6: Children’s Privacy

As a youth development organization, we work with children under the age of 18. Digital privacy is a component of our commitment to youth protection and safety. As such, we do not collect the personal information of children under the age of 13 unless a child’s parent or legal guardian provides it to us through the online membership registration process. In any event, consistent with the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a parent or legal guardian may review or have deleted their child’s personal information and prohibit its further collection or use. If you have a request in relation to the personal information of your child below the age of 13, please send an email to marketing@bgc-colsga.org.

In the unlikely event we discover that we have collected personal information from a child other than as described in this section, we will either delete the information immediately or promptly seek the parent or legal guardian’s consent to use the information.

Section 7: Data Security and Retention

The security, integrity and confidentiality of your Information are extremely important to us. We have implemented technical, administrative and physical security measures that are designed to protect Information from unauthorized access, disclosure, use and modification. From time to time, we review our security procedures to consider appropriate new technology and methods. Please be aware though that, despite our best efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. We will retain your personal Information for the length of time needed to fulfill the purposes outlined in this privacy policy unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.

Where applicable, you are responsible for maintaining the security of any password, user ID or other form of authentication involved in obtaining access to password protected or secure areas of our Site. In order to protect us, you and your data, we may suspend your use of the Site, without notice if any breach of security is suspected. 

Section 8: Links to External Websites and Online Services

Our Site and applications may contain links to other sites not owned or controlled by us and we are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites. We encourage you to be aware when you leave our sites or applications and to read the privacy policies of other sites that may collect your personal information.

Section 9: Changes

From time to time, we may change this Privacy Policy to accommodate new technologies, industry practices, regulatory requirements or for other purposes. We will provide notice to you if these changes are material, either by direct notice or posting an announcement on the websites where this policy is posted, and, if required by applicable law, we will obtain your consent.

Section 10: Comments and Questions

If you have a comment or question about this policy or our treatment of your information, please contact us at:

Boys & Girls Clubs of the Chattahoochee Valley

Attn: Legal Department

1700 Buena Vista Road

Columbus, Georgia 31906

Phone: 706-596-9330

Email: marketing@bgc-colsga.org