Privacy Policy

1. About us

The Actors’ Trust is a charity that supports actors and stage managers to thrive. We do this primarily by providing support and assistance to those experiencing financial hardship and other needs, by way of providing grants and other services.

2. How we collect data

We collect personal data when

• You register as a member, friend, volunteer or donor directly with us, via phone, email, by post or in person.
• Your complete an enquiry or application form either by post, telephone or online.
• You provide it to a partner organisation working directly on our behalf. For example, by providing your information onto one of our donor platforms.
• You permitted a third party to share your information with us. For example, if you consented to another organisation making a welfare referral to us on your behalf.
• Traffic data, weblogs, location data, and any other communication may be collected. These details come from your visit to our site and any resource tools you use while on the site.
• Any communication on our website or to personnel allows us to collect information

Your data can be collected and processed when our website is in operation by you. This may include your name, address, email address and telephone number, and other details.

3. What type of data we collect and how we use it

The information we collect from you allows us to improve our services or products for you.

The information we collect about you depends on your relationship with us.

3.1. Personal data

In most cases, we collect basic personal information when you contact us. This normally includes your name and contact details (such as your address, email address, and telephone number), as well as other information, such as your date of birth. We collect this information so we know who you are and can contact you. We ask for information such as your date of birth to help us verify who you are, when you get back in touch.

When we need to, we also process your financial information, such as your credit or debit card details, bank account details, and whether you are a UK income taxpayer (for Gift Aid purposes). We may also collect information about your income, expenditure, savings, or debts, where that is relevant to our relationship.

As examples, we may collect financial information when you:

• Make a donation
• Purchase something from our Card Shop
• Complete a Gift Aid declaration
• Request financial assistance from us
• Are being supported by our services
• Pay a membership or ‘Friend of the Actors’ Trust’ fee

3.2. Special category data

In certain circumstances, we may need to process special categories of personal data, which include information about your health, racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, and sexual orientation, or genetic and biometric information.

As examples, we may process special category data when you:

• Take part in research or a campaign where processing your sensitive information is necessary
• Apply to attend an event and have access or dietary requirements
• Are a beneficiary, member, supporter, or volunteer and we require the information related to monitoring equality, diversity, and inclusion (where this cannot be collected anonymously)

3.3. Criminal offence data

In limited circumstances we may process information related to criminal convictions, offences, and related security measures. Where we need to process this information, we usually do so with your consent.

As examples, we may process criminal offence data if you:

• Have been involved with the criminal justice system and seek assistance from us, and processing criminal offence data is necessary in relation to your request
• Want to volunteer in a role that requires a suitable criminal records check, such as a DBS check, or where we require you to complete a volunteer vetting self-declaration
• Take part in research or a campaign and it is necessary to process criminal offence data

Other circumstances where we may process criminal offence data include:

• Fraud detection and prevention
• Ensuring network and information security
• Indicating possible criminal acts or threats to public security

Where information related to criminal activity, allegations, investigations, or proceedings is uncovered while carrying out audits, investigations, or other legitimate organisational functions

4. Why we use personal data

We want to use your data to ensure that we communicate with you in your preferred manner as far as possible and ensure we provide you with relevant information about our services, making a donation or helping the industry.

We may also use your information for the following purposes:

4.1 We use the information you provide about yourself to communicate with you and administer any orders for products or services you submit.

4.2 We may also use your information to send you details of our products or services that may be of interest to you, unless you notify us that you do not wish to receive this information.

4.3 We may also pass your information onto selected third parties to enable them to send you information which may be of interest to you, but only if you have given us permission to do so. You can tell us to stop this at any time.

4.4 We will always provide you with an opportunity to decline communications and third-party data usage.

4.5 We may provide statistical related data about our visitors to third parties like advertisers, but this will be anonymised to ensure your privacy.

4.6 We will not disclose any of your personal information without your permission unless we are required by law to do so (for example, if required to do so by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime).

5. Marketing and fundraising communications

Marketing is vital to ensure the Actors’ Trust raises money to help those in need and to raise our profile in the acting and stage management industry.

Where you have consented to this, or where we rely on legitimate interest (see under 7. below) having had previous contact with you, we may use your personal data to carry out direct marketing and send you marketing messages, materials, adverts and promotions relating to services we or our trusted service partners provide. This includes marketing on our mobile application(s). You will be free to withdraw your consent to this, or update your choices, at any time, by contacting us as detailed in this privacy policy, as detailed in any direct marketing that you receive or by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the relevant email communication.

Publicly available sources

We want to improve how we talk to you and the information we provide through our website, services, products and information. To do this we combine the information you have given us with information available from external sources so that we can better understand our supporters, your preferences and needs, to provide a better experience for you.

We may carry out targeted fundraising activities using research techniques based on the information that we hold about you. We may also work with third party organisations that provide additional insight; this may include general information about you that is publicly available.

This information can be appended to the information that you have provided which allows us to use our resources more effectively by better understanding the background of our supporters and making appropriate requests based on what may interest them and their capacity to give.

6. Digital and social media platforms

The Site may include links to other web sites or material which are beyond our control. We will not be responsible for content on any site outside the Site.

To interact with our audiences online we have our own digital presence, such as our websites. We also maintain a presence on a range of third party digital and social media platforms.

Our websites and digital platforms

We may use our websites to collect personal data directly from you, such as through secure online forms. We also gather general information about the use of our websites, such as which webpages users visit most often, and which services, activities, or events are of most interest. We may also track which pages users visit when they click on links in the Actors’ Trust emails. We may use this information to personalise the way our websites are presented when users visit them, to make improvements to our websites, 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 websites. In addition, we may use this information to build profiles of people who may be interested in our services.

Cookie Policy

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences. Further information about cookies can be obtained from www.AboutCookies.org. We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system. Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us. You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website. Actors’ Trust does not use Cookies to store information such as credit card numbers, telephone numbers, or other information you provide.

Third parties that may collect your personal data

Our websites may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins, and applications. Clicking those links or activating those plug-ins or applications may allow third parties to collect your information.

When you interact with third parties online, such as by visiting their website or digital or social media platforms where we maintain a presence, both the Actors’ Trust and the third party may process your personal information. In this regard, we may be a joint controller of your data, alongside the third-party platform.

Examples of this are if you:

• Set up a fundraising page using a third-party digital fundraising platform
• Use a third-party portal to apply to participate in a fundraising activity or to attend a commemorative event
• Seek welfare assistance via a third-party application or referral portal, such as to apply for an individual financial grant
• Interact with us or content we have posted on a social media platform

When you interact with a third-party platform, the third party will process your data in line with their privacy and cookies policies. You can update your privacy and cookie preferences directly with the third party. We are not able to update your preferences for how third parties use your information.

Our presence on third party digital and social media platforms

We use third party digital and social media platforms to share a range of content, including videos, images, graphics, stories, information, and web links, that our followers can interact with by liking, commenting, and sharing. We interact on those platforms by responding to post comments and mentions and receiving and responding to private messages.

We analyse data from activity on digital and social media platforms and create reports to understand how our content has performed, in terms of reach and engagement; how it has been received, in terms of comment and private message volume and sentiment; as well as analysing our overall channel performance, in terms of audience size, reach, and engagement.

In addition to our presence on digital and social media platforms, we use third party social media tools to schedule and publish content, reply to comments and messages, compile reports, and monitor insights.

Our marketing on digital and social media platforms

To provide relevant messaging to our supporters, or reach potential new supporters, we conduct marketing on social media and other digital platforms.

For our current supporters, we may provide limited data to social media platforms, such as an email address or phone number, to enable them to identify your social media profile. That information is shared through a secure interface, which hashes or scrambles the data, making it unreadable to anyone but the intended recipient.

Depending on our marketing campaign, you are then either excluded from the campaign, if it is not relevant to you, or included, if we think it is something you will be interested in seeing.

The information we provide to digital and social media platforms may also be used by them to identify and market to people with similar interests and characteristics to our current supporters, who we think may be interested in finding out about our work.

7. The legal basis for using your data

We process your personal data under one or more of the following lawful bases:

• Consent: you have given clear consent for us to use your personal data for a specific purpose.
• Contract: we need to use your information for a contract we have with you, or because you have asked us to do something before entering into a contract with us.
• Legal obligation: using your information is necessary for us to comply with the law.
• Vital interests: using your personal data is necessary to protect someone’s life.
• Legitimate interests: using your personal information is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party, and your own interests or any impact the processing may have on you do not override those legitimate interests.

In most cases, we will only use your personal information where we have your consent or because we need to use it in order to fulfil a transaction with you, for example because you have purchased an item on our website.

There are also other lawful reasons that allow us to process your personal information and one of those is called ‘legitimate interests’. This means that the reason we are processing information is because there is a legitimate interest for the Actors’ Trust to process your information to help us to achieve our aim of helping as many people as possible who are in need in the acting and stage management industry.

If we process your Personal Information under the ‘legitimate interest’ lawful basis we make sure that we take into account, your rights and interests and will not process your personal information if we feel that these are adversely affected. Some examples of where we have a legitimate interest to process your Personal Information are if we contact you about our work, use your personal information for carrying out research to better understand who our supporters are, for our legal purposes (for example, dealing with complaints), or for complying with guidance from the Charity Commission.

Legitimate interests

We may process your personal data when we or a third party have a legitimate interest in doing so. This may include where those interests are wholly aligned with your own interests. We only process your personal data for legitimate interests when there is a defined purpose, the processing is necessary for that purpose, and we are satisfied that, on balance, your own interests and the privacy impact of the processing do not override the interest in using the data.

Our legitimate interests are as follows:

• General queries and other contact: When we are contacted, such as when a supporter calls us, or a member of the public or beneficiary get in touch with us, we and the individual have a legitimate interest in us processing information to enable us to resolve the matter we have been contacted about. Where this involves us collecting special categories of data, we request the individual’s consent.
• Direct Marketing: We will send postal marketing and fundraising asks which further the aims and objectives of the Actors’ Trust. We may also make contact by live phone call for these purposes. To help limit any negative impact, we conduct profiling, analysis, and segmentation, to help ensure our marketing is relevant to your interests.
• Administering ‘do not contact’ and exclusion lists: Where you have opted out of receiving contact from us, have registered your preferences with a third-party statutory exclusion list, or have made a self-exclusion from certain types of contact, we will keep appropriate details (such as your name and contact details) to permit us to exclude you from relevant contact.
• Donations, legacies, gifts, and grants: We will process data that is necessary for us to receive and record the donation, legacy, gift, or grant.
• Ordering online: Where providing goods is not covered by a contract, we will share your name and delivery address with a reputable third-party delivery company, so the goods can be delivered to you. Whether the provision of goods is covered by a contract or not, we may also provide the third party with additional contact information, such as your email address or telephone number, so they can provide you with delivery updates.
• Gift Aid: Where you have informed us that a donation is eligible for Gift Aid, by completing a Gift Aid declaration, we will use your personal data to claim Gift Aid.
• Preventing fraud: We may process your information to protect you and us against fraud, such as when transacting on our website, and to ensure our websites and systems are secure.
• Personalisation: Where the processing enables us to enhance, modify, personalise, or otherwise improve our services/communications for the benefit of our supporters.
• Analytics: To process your personal information for the purposes of supporter analysis, assessment, and profiling, on a personalised or aggregated basis, to help us with our activities and to provide you with the most relevant information.
• Research: To determine the effectiveness of promotional campaigns and advertising, and to develop our products, services, systems, and relationships.
• Verifying eligibility and suitability: In relation to those who apply for membership or a voluntary position, as well as verifying that those who request our support are eligible to receive it from us. This can include requesting and obtaining references, such as in relation to volunteering roles, as well as establishing a person’s connection to the acting and stage management industry and their financial eligibility, in relation to the support we provide to our beneficiaries.
• Philanthropic research: To seek support, promote fundraising and legacy campaigns and send invitations to some of our fundraising events. As a charity we are reliant on voluntary donations to support our work.. For a small number of people, we may undertake research to identify potential interest in supporting our work, this helps us to make appropriate requests. We make use of publicly available information and other information available to us, we avoid processing sensitive data for this purpose. Where this activity results in us approaching those individuals to establish a relationship, we will tell them about our research. In other cases, records are not created.
• Due Diligence: We may need to conduct due diligence checks to determine if companies and individuals we may engage with have been involved in or convicted of offences such as fraud, bribery, or corruption, or if us engaging with those individuals or organisations otherwise stands against our charitable purposes or presents reputational risk.

You have a right to object to your personal data being processed under legitimate interests if you do not consider we have compelling legitimate grounds for the processing. Please see the section below for more information.

8. Your data protection rights

Access to your Information: The Data Protection Act 1998 and General Data Protection Regulation gives you certain rights to access any data we have about you. Our contact information is given below, which should be used to gain details about information we hold on you.

9. How we protect data

We take all reasonable processes to ensure your data is secure.

Secured servers are used to ensure proper data storage. Information on transactions is kept encrypted for safety measures.

When credit/debit card information is transmitted, we use industry standard, SSL (secure socket layer) encryption.

Transmission of data on the internet can never be ultimately secure. We do not and cannot guarantee security of information collected electronically or transmitted; however, we take all necessary steps to provide the best security available. As a result of our inability to guarantee safety, you are submitting information to us at your own risk. Where needed a password may be necessary to access areas of our site. You are responsible for the safety and confidentiality of the password you generate.

10. How long we keep personal data

We only keep hold of personal data for as long as we need to, related to the purposes for which it was collected, or for other purposes that are compatible with those purposes (such as to meet our legal obligations). We record how long we need to keep personal data in our data retention schedule. When we no longer need personal data, it is securely deleted or destroyed. Where practical, we inform you how long we will retain your data, at the time you provide it to us.

For example, where our uses of personal data involve financial data being stored (including data related to tax), we normally keep those records for 7 years, from the time of a relevant transaction or decision. This is so we can demonstrate compliance with financial record keeping requirements, tax and charity law, and other applicable rules and regulations. This timeframe applies to records related to purchases, donations, gifts, legacies, and grants that we receive, and where data is processed to claim Gift Aid. This period also applies to records created when financial assistance, or other advice or grants are provided.

11. Changes to our Privacy Policy

We keep this privacy notice under review. Where we need to make changes to our privacy information, we will update this privacy notice. In this case, the amended version will be published on the Site.

12. Recruitment

The Actors’ Trust takes your privacy seriously. We’ll always keep your personal information safe and secure and will never sell your details.

This privacy notice tells you how we collect and use your personal data, related to our recruitment processes.

The information you provide to us, and that we may obtain from other sources, such as in employment references, will be used for progressing your application and assessing your suitability for the role you have applied for. It may also be used in a confidential manner to help us monitor our recruitment processes. Where necessary, we will use your personal information to meet our legal obligations, and for our legitimate purposes, such as in relation to managing any complaints about the recruitment process.

We ask you for your personal details, including name and contact details. We will also ask about your previous employment, experience, education, and details of referees, as well as information relevant to the role. Our recruitment team and hiring managers will have access to this information. We do not collect more information than we need to fulfil our stated purposes and will not retain it for longer than is necessary.

You may also be asked to provide equality and diversity information. You don’t have to provide this information but doing so helps us monitor and improve our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion. The information you give, or choose not to give, will not affect your application.

We will not share any of the information you provide during the recruitment process with any third parties for marketing purposes or store any of your information outside the European Economic Area. We and/or our data processors will hold the information you provide securely in electronic and/or physical format.

If your application is successful, and you take up employment with us, the information you have supplied will be used to administer your contract of employment with us, in accordance with our data protection policies.

If you are unsuccessful, your information will be kept on file for 6 months and then is deleted

If you are invited for interview, and/or we make a conditional offer of employment, we’ll ask you for more information so that we can carry out pre-employment checks. You must successfully complete pre-employment checks to progress to a final offer.

We must confirm the identity of our staff and their right to work in the UK, and seek assurance as to their trustworthiness, integrity, and reliability.

You must therefore provide if asked:

• Proof of your identity and right to work in the UK. You will be asked to produce the original documents. Copies of these will be held on your employee file.

• Proof of your qualifications. If these are needed for your role, you will be asked to evidence these. Copies of these will be held on your employee file.

• You may be asked for a criminal records declaration to declare any unspent convictions.

• If the role you are applying for has been assessed as requiring a criminal records check, we will share your name, email address, and details of the role with our third-party supplier, to facilitate a check being conducted with the relevant disclosure service (e.g., Disclosure and Barring Service, Disclosure Scotland, Access NI, etc.).

• We’ll contact your referees, using the details you provide in your application, to obtain references. Copies will be held on your employee file.

• We may also ask you to complete a questionnaire about your health, to establish your fitness to work. We may ask you to complete an independent health assessment. Your name and email address will be used to register you for this.

• We’ll request your bank account details to process salary and other payments.

• We will ask for emergency contact and next of kin details, so we know who to contact in case you have an emergency at work.

The information you provide at any stage of the application process will be subject to verification, and we may need to contact people and/or organisations (e.g., referees, previous employers, educational establishments, professional bodies, etc.) to confirm that information.

13. Your Individual rights

You have various rights in respect of the personal information we hold about you, which are detailed below. If you wish to make use of any of these rights or make a complaint, you can do so by contacting us on the details below.

Access to your personal information: You have the right to request access to a copy of the personal information that we hold about you, along with information on what personal information we use, why we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it for and whether it has been used for any automated decision-making. You can make a request for access free of charge. Please make all requests for access in writing and provide us with evidence of your identity.

Right to object: You can object to our processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest and there is something about your particular situation, which makes you want to object to processing on these grounds. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes. Please contact us as noted above, providing details of your objection.

Consent: If you have given us your consent to use personal information (for example, for marketing or receiving grants), you can withdraw your consent at any time.

Rectification: You can ask us to change or complete any inaccurate or incomplete personal information held about you.

Erasure: You can ask us to delete your personal information where it is no longer necessary for us to use it, you have withdrawn consent, or where we have no lawful basis for keeping it

Portability: You can ask us to provide you or a third party with some of the personal information that we hold about you in a structured, commonly used, electronic form, so it can be easily transferred.

Restriction: You can ask us to restrict the personal information we use about you, where you have asked for it to be erased or where you have objected to our use of it.

Automated-decision making: Automated decision-making takes place when an electronic system uses personal information to make a decision without human intervention. You have the right not to be subject to automated decisions that will create legal effects or have a similar significant impact on you, unless you have given us your consent, it is necessary for a contract between you and us or is otherwise permitted by law. You also have certain rights to challenge decisions made about you. We do not currently carry out any automated decision-making.

Please note, some of these rights only apply in certain circumstances and we may not be able to fulfil every request.

14. Contacting us

We welcome and hope you do not hesitate to make any queries, comments or requests you may have regarding this Privacy Policy.

Please contact us at hello@actorstrust.org.uk or write to us at the following address: Actors’ Trust, 6 Adam Street, London, WC2N 6AD, UK.