Fundraising and Alumni
Privacy Notice

Our Privacy Notice describes how the External and Corporate Relationships department processes your personal data with specific reference to university alumni and development. We will refer to this as ‘ECR’ throughout this statement.

We process your data to help us develop and maintain engaging services and activities which enrich your experience with the University.

About ECR and this Privacy Notice

Sir David Baxter’s generous donation in 1888 laid the foundations for the Dundee Technical Institute. We have since developed into a dynamic, industry focussed University, with a strong educational offering, known for our creativity and innovation. We have a mission “to offer transformational opportunities” for our students and we work towards this goal in partnership with our alumni, staff, donors and the wider community.

ECR exists to support our alumni, friends and supporters, keeping you informed as to what is happening at the University and beyond: engaging you with relevant activities which may be of interest to you. This includes sharing University, alumni and supporter news and activities, events, reunions, fundraising projects, networking, career and volunteering opportunities.

This Notice sets out how the University’s External and Corporate Relationships alumni and development teams (“ECR”) uses your personal data to help create a mutually beneficial relationship with you, whilst always processing data fairly and securely. 

We do value your privacy and we recognise the need to treat your data appropriately in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA98) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA18).

Personal data refers to personal information that we hold about you from which either on its own, or in combination with other information, you can be identified.  A list of the data we process is set out below.

Processing means doing anything with your personal data, such as collecting, recording or holding the data as well as disclosing, destroying or using the personal data in any way.

Abertay University is your data controller.

We keep this Privacy Notice under regular review and it may be amended from time to time. Changes to the Privacy Notice will be published on our website.

This privacy notice:

• Introduces the University’s responsibilities and obligations as a data controller – the organisation responsible for protecting and determining how your personal data will be used to support alumni and development activities at Abertay University.
• Explains the legal basis, which Abertay University will draw upon, when using your personal data responsibly.
• Provides an overview as to how your personal data will be used.
• Informs you as to who has access to your personal data and the limited conditions under which your personal data may be made available to a third party.
• Explains your privacy rights and how you can opt out or object to us processing your data at any time.
• Explains how the University will protect your personal data, keeping this safe and secure.

We collect data from current and potential supporters, who are alumni and non alumni. 

We process the following data about you:

1. Biographic details including name, title, date of birth, age and gender.
2. Contact details including home address, business, email, telephone.
3. Education information and your other connections with the University and other institutions including student clubs, societies, affiliations.
4. Employment/career details.
5. Career biographies or alumni profiles.
6. Information publicly shared on social media, eg. LinkedIn, Twitter
7. Your interests.
8. Family and partner/spousal details.
9. Relationships with other alumni or associated individuals and organisations.
10. Volunteering activity.
11. Philanthropic affiliations.
12. Donation history to the University including bank account details (for processing direct debits).
13. Records of communications with ADO and the wider University.
14. Event attendance on or off-campus.
15. Motivation for giving.
16. Identification numbers.
17. Internal classifications of your relationship with the university as a supporter.

We collect information about you if you make a donation or fundraise in aid of Abertay University.

We will include:

1. Donation records, including bank account details, stored securely on the university’s database.
2. Your contact details and details of any JustGiving pages created by you in support of the university.
3. Whether you are a UK taxpayer and Gift Aid details, for HMRC, where you are given us permission to claim Gift Aid.
4. Gift agreements with the university.
5. Information about planned giving to the university.

Some of the information we process, such as disability details for access to an event, is sensitive personal information that we will not process unless we have your explicit consent, or we are legally required to do so.

We also process sensitive data that you have shared with us e.g. where giving in memory of a loved one and providing health details.

Why we are processing it

Processing your data helps us to develop and maintain engaging services and activities to enrich your experience with the University.  The bases upon which we process your data are public task, legitimate interest, performance of a contract, legal requirement and consent. It enables us to:

1) Communicate and engage with you:

1. Maintaining a record of your relationship with the university.
2. Creating direct marketing communications tailored to your preference - delivered through email and telephone (if your consent has been provided), direct mail and social media.
3. Providing you with a more personalised user experience when using our website, application or any other services we might provide by analysing, segmenting and profiling our database and allowing us to target you with information we think you might be most interested in including products and services.
4. Helping to advance our philanthropic programme through fundraising projects and/or meeting with alumni and supporters for fundraising purposes.
5. Tracking details of our communications with you, to help inform our future interactions and make them relevant.
6. Storing and maintaining your communication preferences, and consents (when required).
7. Sourcing contact details, if we lose contact with you.
8. Ensuring your contact details are up to date.

2) Provide you with beneficial services by developing programmes that give you opportunities to:

1. Attend networking/career development events, reunions
2. Further your learning and development.
3. Further your study and/or research.
4. Donate to the University/stewardship of past gifts.
5. Postgraduate fees discount.
6. Participating in University surveys.

3) Inform our interactions by:

1. Creating constituent research profiles about you, which may include geographic, demographic, biographic, career information, personal connections and wealth screening related data, all sourced from reputable publically available information to help us make an appropriate approach to you.
2. Prepare staff for fundraising/engagement meetings or events.
3. Making targeted correspondence relevant to you.
4. Completing due diligence to ensure gifts are not from an untrustworthy or unethical source.
5. Managing the processing of gifts and HM Revenue & Customs guidelines.
6. Fulfilling any statutory requirements.
7. Managing our work with volunteers.
8. Adhering to statutory or other necessary obligations.

Processing for limited purposes

We will only process your data for the specific purpose, purposes that we tell you, or if specifically permitted by the Data Protection legislation. We will only process your data to the extent necessary for that specific purpose or purposes.

Decision Making and Profiling

We will sometimes use your data to create profiles that help us to understand, analyse or predict certain aspects relating to you/your behaviour. We use the outcomes to shape our interactions with you, making them beneficial and timely e.g. tailor the communications you receive to ensure you are told about events or let you know about fundraising projects or groups that may interest you.

We collect your data from a variety of sources, including those that are available publicly and information from social media:

1. Directly from you.
2. From staff, supporters and volunteers.
3. Research into publicly available sources for profiling, address updates, etc. Examples include LinkedIn and Companies House and other similar sources.
4. Data from your use of our website and/or apps.
5. From a third party whom you have interacted with on behalf of the University, for example: JustGiving. The receipt of data is subject to the third party's own Privacy Policy. ECR will treat this data as set out in this Privacy Notice.
6. Subscription sources that aggregate publically available information and news articles.

Accurate Data

We always aim to keep your data accurate and up to date. Data that is inaccurate can be amended on your request. Please notify us if your personal details change or if data we hold about you is inaccurate.

Depending on your privacy settings, we may use social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and/or other data enrichment services to validate your data and help us maintain our communication with you.

Holding Data

We create and hold your data electronically. ECR considers its relationship with alumni, supporters and other stakeholders as lifelong. If you inform us that you no longer wish to stay in touch or support us, we will maintain enough data to comply with your wishes and ensure that we do not inadvertently re-create a new record for you or communicate with you in the future. As an alumnus we need to retain some core information about your education with us, your academic award(s), and for identification purposes.

Sharing your Data

We will never sell or share your data to third parties. We will not disclose your data to third parties without your consent, except where they are acting as authorised agents for the University for the above purposes or where we are permitted or required to do so by the Act. If you have given a donation, we may share data to process your donation with your bank, under your instruction. Personal data will not be shared with service providers other than those acting on the instructions of the University. Where this is the case, a written contract will be put in place between the University and the provider to set out the purposes for which the information can be used and the security measures that must be in place. This contract will ensure that the service provider agrees never to use your data for any additional purpose not set out in the agreement with the University.

The University’s alumni and donor database, Raiser’s Edge, is hosted in The Netherlands by Blackbaud Inc, a global non-profit software provider, operating under a Safe Harbour agreement and a formal agreement with the University. The University takes its obligations to your data very seriously and will ensure that all appropriate safeguards and security provisions are in place, and Blackbaud’s compliance with its agreements and privacy notice are monitored.

• Full details of Blackbaud’s privacy statement can be found here.

Please note that by registering for an event via a service such as Eventbrite you will be supplying your personal data to the company/website and as such you are accepting and consenting to the practices in their Privacy Policies.

Abertay University is not affiliated with Eventbrite in any way and is using their services solely for the purposes of facilitating event ticketing and registration and does not accept any responsibility or liability for personal data which you have chosen to provide to such third party sites.

We may have to disclose your data if required to do so by law in order to comply with a legal obligation, for example, to complete The Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education – DLHE and the Graduate Outcomes Survey (created by the Higher Education Statistics Agency), to protect or defend our rights, interests or property or that of third parties act (in urgent circumstances) to protect the personal safety of Abertay University constituents or the public, or protect against legal liability.

Processing in line with your rights

You have the right to: 

1. Be informed about the data we hold on you.
2. Access the data we hold on you.
3. Update or edit the data we hold on you.
4. Erase certain data we hold on you.
5. Request that we stop processing your data in a specific way.
6. Be provided with your data in a portable way.
7. Object to specific processing of your data.
8. Object to automated decision making and profiling where there is a significant effect on you.

Data Security

Everyone working at the University has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential. There are strict codes of conduct in place to keep your information safe.  Staff abide by the Data Protection Acts 1998 and 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2018 and the University Data Protection Policy and other IT-related policies. 

We ensure that suitable measures are in place to prevent the unlawful or unauthorised processing and against the accidental loss of, or damage to, your personal information. This includes: 

1. Storing data on a secure, specially designed, customer relationship management database.
2. Training all our staff in Data Protection and their responsibilities.
3. Collaborating only with reputable companies for data processing services, who comply with Data Protection Regulations and put in place appropriate non-disclosure agreements.
4. Ensuring that alternative protection is in place if we work with trusted organisations based outside the European Economic Area (EAA) in countries that do not have comparable data protection laws to the UK.

Control over your data

You can update your own data or contact preferences at any time by completing this form. 

You can also email alumni@abertay.ac.uk at any time.

If you wish us to stop contact, you can do so completing the following form.

We will still need to retain minimal details about you on our database to:

• Ensure your details are not re-added in the future for another purpose.
• If an alumni, to retain your educational details with the University, for future reference e.g. for degree validation /replacement transcripts. This will include name, date of birth and education record/s details.

Accessing your data

If you would like to formally access your personal information in the first instance please make a request in writing to:

Data Protection Officer
Academic Registry
Abertay University
Kydd Building
Bell Street
Dundee DD1 1HG
Tel: 01382 308000 email: dataprotectionofficer@abertay.ac.uk

You will not have to pay a fee to exercise any of your rights. However, the University may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances. You are also entitled to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (the “ICO”) (www.ico.org.uk) about any concerns about the way the University has handled your personal data. The University would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

From time to time we may use your data for new purposes not described in this Privacy Notice.  If there are changes we will always post the policy changes on this Privacy Notice.

Last Updated:  December 2019