Privacy Policy

Tides is grateful to be able to communicate with you through https://www.tides.org/ (our “Website”). Centering equity and justice in everything we do, Tides’ Website aims to educate and inform visitors about ways to shift power to communities of color and other groups historically denied power.

This Privacy Policy describes how Tides (which consists of Tides Network, The Tides Center, Tides Foundation, Tides Two Rivers Fund, and Tides Inc. (collectively referred to in this policy as “Tides,” “we,” “us,” and “our”)) collects, uses, protects, and discloses information collected about individuals who visit and engage with us through our Website.

Tides believes in transparent, respectful, lawful use of Personal Information (defined below). By visiting the Website or providing information to us via the Website, you are consenting to the terms of this Privacy Policy as well as our Terms and Conditions of Use. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use the Website.

The Categories and Sources of Personal Information We Collect

The Categories of Personal Information We Collect

“Personal Information” broadly includes any information that identifies, relates to, describes is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household; “Personal Information” also includes any other information that constitutes “personal information” or “personal data” under any privacy or data protection law that applies to Tides and our Website. Data that is aggregated or anonymized is not Personal Information.

As a general matter, Tides collects information, including Personal Information – such as name, title, email address, mailing address, telephone number, and social media information – when you voluntarily choose to provide it to us.

Additionally, Tides may automatically collect certain information about you when you visit our Website that may also constitute Personal Information, including the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer, mobile device or other device you used to access the Website or other device identifiers, the type of browser and operating system you used, the date and time you visited the Website, the Internet address of the site from which you linked to the Website, the links you follow from the Website (including to our third-party donations processor(s), as discussed below), and the reading history and other analytics related to how visitors to the Website use and view the content we’ve provided.

Sources of the Personal Information Tides Collects

Information Submitted by You. Tides collects the Personal Information you voluntarily choose to provide through your interactions with our Website. For example, Tides may collect your Personal Information when you:

  • sign up to receive our newsletter or other communications;
  • complete one of our online forms;
  • request information or assistance;
  • send an e-mail or call us (including one of our employees) through the contact information provided on the Website;
  • provide user-generated content on any part of the Website that permits it; or
  • respond to, inquire about, or apply for an employment opportunity on the Website.

Information Collected Automatically via Technology, Including Cookies. We may also obtain information in other ways through technology, some of which may be linked to you personally. For example, Tides uses “cookies” to enhance your experience while visiting the Website. “Cookies” are small pieces of data sent to your computer browser from our web server and stored on your computer’s hard drive. This data identifies you as a unique user and facilitates your ongoing access to and use of the Website. Tides and its Service Providers (defined below) also use cookies to measure aggregate web statistics, such as collecting the number of visitors to the Website, the number of repeat visitors, and the most popular webpages.

Please note that you may choose to set your web browser to refuse or delete cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you choose to turn off cookies, however, some parts of the Website may not function properly. If you block or delete cookies, not all of the tracking that we have described in this Privacy Policy will stop.

In addition to the above, we may also use tiny graphics files with unique identifiers called tracking pixels (or beacons or clear GIFs) to recognize when someone visits our Website or views an online ad or email, as well as for targeted advertising purposes as further discussed below. We also use Google Analytics, which uses cookies, to help us analyze how users use the Website. That use may be subject to the Google Analytics Terms of Use and Google Privacy Policy. Additional information is available here:  https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. You have the option to opt out of Google’s use of cookies by using the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser add-on at: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/. Finally, some web browsers may be configured to send “Do Not Track” signals to the online services you visit. We do not currently respond to “Do Not Track” or similar signals.

Information Collected via Third-Party Sources. Lastly, we may collect information about you (i) when you interact with Tides’ pages or accounts on social media platforms (e.g., click on our social media links and/or provide information to us on those accounts), (ii) through third party sources, including your organization or company, or (iii) from our third-party Service Providers (defined below) acting on our behalf, for example when you make a donation to Tides through our third-party donations processor(s). For more information, please see the sections below titled “Information Collected From and About Tides’ Donors” and “Third-Party Service Providers.”

Information Collected From and About Tides’ Donors. In addition to the data collected from all Website visitors, Tides may collect additional Personal Information from donors who donate to Tides through the Website (“Donors”), which may include the name and address of the donor and types and amounts of the donation.

In addition to the uses of Personal Information set out below in the section titled “How Tides Uses the Information It Collects,” we use such information collected from Donors to process donations, issue tax receipts and analyze giving patterns.

Online donations to Tides are facilitated by our non-affiliated Service Providers (defined below), which include Network for Good and Click & Pledge. If you so choose when you make a donation, you will be linked to our Service Providers’ websites, which may be subject to separate privacy policies and other terms and conditions. In some cases, these other websites are made available via “framing technology,” and may appear to be a part of our Website. We urge you to familiarize yourself with the individual terms of each linked or framed site prior to submitting any Personal Information. We are not responsible for the data collection, privacy and information sharing policies and procedures or the content of such websites.

How Tides Uses the Information It Collects

Tides uses the information described in this Privacy Policy primarily to communicate with you and to enhance your experience on the Website. More specifically, we may use Personal Information to: operate the Website and provide our services to you; respond to specific inquiries and requests; add you to our mailing or marketing lists; deliver relevant ads or content to you; manage, supervise or send our newsletters and other communications; contact you regarding an employment opportunity or application; process any registration or similar information you provide; improve our services, sites, facilities, events and other programmatic operations; communicate with you about a donation or processing a transaction; better understand how visitors use the Website so that we can improve the Website or its offerings; or comply with applicable law, court order, subpoena, or legal process.

If you sign up to receive a Tides newsletter, we may contact you with information that we think will be of interest to you. If at any time you wish to stop receiving these or other communications, please follow the unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of the email, or send Tides an email at [email protected] and ask to be removed from Tides’ email list.

Tides also uses your Personal Information collected through tracking technologies via the Site for purposes such as to associate different devices you use and deliver relevant ads and/or other content to you on certain third-party services or platforms. Specifically, Tides engages and works with Service Providers and other third parties to serve advertisements for Tides, some of which may be tailored to your interest based on your browsing of the Site and elsewhere on the Internet (sometimes referred to as “targeted” or “interest-based” advertising), including sending you an ad on a third-party service after you have left the Site (i.e., “retargeting”).

How Tides May Disclose Personal Information

In addition to the purposes described above in the section titled “How Tides Uses the Information It Collects,” Tides may further disclose your Personal Information to the following third parties and/or in connection with the following purposes.

Tides does not sell your Personal Information to any third parties for any purpose.

Third-Party Service Providers

Tides uses third-party service providers (e.g., donations processor(s), fraud screening providers, analytics providers, advertising partners and networks, hosting providers and other third-party service providers) (collectively, “Service Providers”) to help us operate the Website and administer certain functions, services or activities on our behalf. We may disclose your Personal Information with such Service Providers to collect donations online, process applications for employment, deliver relevant ads or content to you, or provide analytics, maintenance or site improvement, and provide operational support. These Service Providers may have access to Website visitor Personal Information, but are required to protect the confidentiality of the information and to use it only for the limited purpose for which it was provided.

Compliance with Laws, Law Enforcement Requests and to Protect Others

Tides will disclose Personal Information about those who use our Website or communicate with us when required to do so by law, or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with applicable laws, or to respond to a court order, subpoena, or search warrant. Tides may also disclose Personal Information if we reasonably and in good faith believe it is necessary to protect the rights, property, and safety of you, us or others, including our Service Providers or other visitors to our Website. We may transfer or otherwise disclose your Personal Information in connection with a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, or other transaction in which a third party assumes control of all or part of our business.

User Consent / Other Services

From time to time, we may explicitly request consent to use your Personal Information in a manner not covered by this Privacy Policy. In such a circumstance, we would ask you to voluntarily “opt in” to agree to such use. In addition, communications through our Website often lead to additional partnership opportunities and engagements, including in relation to grantmaking, programmatic or other collaborative partnerships. Tides may collect and use additional information in relation to those interactions, in each case as appropriate to the relationship between the parties, but which is beyond the scope of this Privacy Policy.

Aggregated Data

Tides may disclose aggregated or anonymous demographic information not linked to any Personal Information regarding visitors to our Website with third parties without restriction, including in connection with maintaining, improving, and fixing any operational errors on the Website.

How Tides Protects User Information

Tides is committed to keeping your Personal Information safe and secure. Therefore, we maintain data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures designed to help protect against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure or destruction of your Personal Information. Even so, despite our reasonable efforts, no security measure is ever perfect or impenetrable. You are also responsible for keeping your Personal Information secure; for example, you should make sure you only use trusted wireless connections in transmitting any Personal Information or other sensitive information. You are encouraged not to share sensitive information with us unless it is absolutely necessary.

If you provide credit card information to make a donation, your credit card information is not stored, held or accessible by Tides. Instead, such information is collected by our third-party Service Providers specializing in the secure processing of credit or debit card transactions. To the extent a Service Provider is used to process any donations, your information will only be used by the Service Provider in connection with processing related to the donation, including for reporting purposes.

We comply with all Internal Revenue Service, state and local regulations and Tides’ internal policies governing the retention, management, and destruction of donor information collected and maintained by Tides.

Third Party Websites

Tides may provide links from the Website to other websites or services, which are provided for your convenience. Tides does not own, operate or control these websites or services nor content or links that appear on such third-party websites, and is not responsible for the practices employed by websites linked to or from the Website. Browsing and interaction on any other website, including websites that have a link to or from Tides’ Website, is subject to that website’s own terms and policies.

Minors and Our Commitment to Children’s Privacy

Protecting the privacy of minors is especially important. We do not knowingly collect any Personal Information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly track the use of our Website by minors. Additionally, no part of the Website is directed to persons under the age of 13. If you are a parent or guardian and discover that your child under 13 years of age has provided us with Personal Information, please alert us at [email protected]. If Tides becomes aware of having collected or maintained Personal Information about anyone under the age of 13, Tides will promptly delete the information.

Visitors from Outside the United States

This Website is controlled and operated in the United States. If you choose to access the Website from outside the United States, you acknowledge that you will be transferring your information, including Personal Information, outside of those regions to the United States for storage and processing, as necessary to provide to you the products and services available through the Website.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

Tides may update this Privacy Policy at any time. When it does, Tides will post the updated Privacy Policy and revise the updated date at the top of this page. We encourage you to frequently check this page for any changes to stay informed about what Personal Information Tides collects and how it uses such information. You acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review this Privacy Policy periodically and become aware of any modifications since your last visit.  Your continued use of the Website following the posting of changes to this Privacy Policy will be deemed your acceptance of those changes.

Contacting Tides

If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy or anything relating to the Website, please contact Tides at [email protected]. We will try to respond as soon as possible.

Last Updated on December 12, 2023.