Privacy Policy
Effective Date: July 11, 2023
Organization: Great Comfort Ministries, Inc. (EIN: 85-3013670)
Great Comfort Ministries, Inc. (“GCM,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website (greatcomfortministries.com), submit a prayer or volunteer request, register for an event, or make a charitable donation.
Please read this privacy policy carefully. By accessing or using our website and services, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.
1. Information We Collect
We may collect personal and non-personal information about you in a variety of ways. The information we may collect includes:
- Personal Data: Personally identifiable information, such as your name, email address, physical address, and telephone number, which you voluntarily give to us when you make a donation, register as a volunteer, fill out an intake form, or request pastoral counseling.
- Financial Data: Financial information, such as data related to your payment method (e.g., valid credit card number, card brand, expiration date) that we may collect when you process a donation. Note: All online donations are processed securely through our verified third-party payment gateways (e.g., Zeffy, Stripe, or PayPal). GCM does not store your raw credit card data on our servers.
- Derivative Data: Information our servers automatically collect when you access the site, such as your IP address, your browser type, your operating system, your access times, and the pages you have viewed directly before and after accessing the site.
- Sensitive Ministry Data: Information submitted via prayer requests or pastoral counseling intake forms. This information is treated with strict ecclesiastical confidentiality.
2. How We Use Your Information
Having accurate information about you permits us to provide you with a smooth, efficient, and customized experience. Specifically, we may use information collected about you to:
- Process charitable donations and issue IRS-compliant tax-deductible receipts.
- Administer community outreach programs, volunteer schedules, and event registrations.
- Respond to pastoral counseling intakes, prayer requests, and customer service inquiries.
- Send you ministry newsletters, campaign updates, and impact reports (you may opt-out at any time).
- Fulfill Google Ad Grants compliance by tracking aggregated, non-identifying site analytics to improve user experience.
3. Disclosure of Your Information
We deeply value your trust. Great Comfort Ministries does not sell, rent, or trade your personal or donor information to third parties. We may share information we have collected about you in certain situations, including:
- By Law or to Protect Rights: If we believe the release of information about you is necessary to respond to legal process, to investigate or remedy potential violations of our policies, or to protect the rights, property, and safety of others.
- Third-Party Service Providers: We may share your information with trusted third parties that perform services for us or on our behalf, including payment processing (e.g., Zeffy), data analysis, email delivery, hosting services, and customer service.
- Donor Anonymity: If you request that your donation remain anonymous, we will honor your request in our public donor recognition materials, maintaining your information only for internal IRS record-keeping purposes.
4. Tracking Technologies
Cookies and Web Beacons: We may use cookies, web beacons, tracking pixels, and other tracking technologies on our website to help customize the site and improve your experience. You can manage or disable cookies through your browser settings; however, disabling cookies may affect your ability to use certain features of our site.
Website Analytics: We use Google Analytics to allow tracking technologies and remarketing services on the Site through the use of first-party cookies and third-party cookies, to analyze and track users’ use of the site, determine the popularity of certain content, and better understand online activity. By accessing the site, you consent to the collection and use of your information by these third-party vendors.
5. Security of Your Information
We use administrative, technical, and physical security measures to help protect your personal information. While we have taken reasonable steps to secure the personal information you provide to us, please be aware that despite our efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and no method of data transmission can be guaranteed against any interception or other type of misuse.
6. Policy for Children
We do not knowingly solicit information from or market to children under the age of 13. Any enrollment of youth in our “Children | Learn” pillar must be completed by a parent or legal guardian. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13 without verifiable parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible.
7. Options Regarding Your Information
You may at any time review or change the information in your account or opt-out of our active email lists by contacting us using the contact information provided below. Upon your request to terminate your communication with us, we will deactivate or delete your account information from our active databases, though we may retain some information in our files to prevent fraud, troubleshoot problems, and comply with IRS 501(c)(3) record-keeping requirements.
8. Contact Us
If you have questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:
Great Comfort Ministries, Inc.
Richmond, TX
Phone: (713) 280-8967