Privacy Policy

Effective Date: [DATE TO BE SET]

Introduction

Casa Alterna values your privacy. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Atlanta, Georgia, and we serve immigrant neighbors who often face real risks when their personal information is mishandled. We take that seriously. This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. If anything here is unclear, please reach out to us. We would rather answer a question than leave you wondering.

This policy applies to information we collect through our website at casaalterna.org, our donation and registration forms, our newsletter, and any related services we provide.

Information We Collect

Information You Give Us

When you fill out a form on our website, we collect the information you provide. Some forms (such as donations and event registrations) are handled by trusted services we list below; others, like our basic contact form, are sent to us by email through our website. Depending on the form, the information collected may include:

  • Your name
  • Your email address
  • Your phone number or mailing address, if you provide it
  • A message or comment, if you write one
  • Event registration details, when you sign up to attend something we host
  • Donation amount and billing information (see the section on donations below)

Donations and Donor Records

When you give to Casa Alterna, your donation is processed through Little Green Light, our donor-management system. Little Green Light handles the donation form and the payment itself under its own security and privacy practices. Casa Alterna does not see, store, or have access to your full card or bank account number.

Your gift creates a donor record in Little Green Light that helps us thank you, send your tax receipt, keep track of your relationship with Casa Alterna over time, and stay in touch in the ways you’ve asked us to. A typical donor record includes your name, contact information, the donations you’ve made, any events you’ve attended, and a log of communication between us (for example, that we sent you a thank-you email on a particular date). We treat this information with care, and we do not share it with other organizations.

Future Online Store

We are planning to open an online store on this website to offer items such as a book, t-shirts, and hoodies. When the store launches, it will use WooCommerce on our website and Stripe to process payments. Stripe will handle your card information directly under its own security and privacy practices; Casa Alterna will not see or store your full card number. We will update this policy with shipping and order details before the store goes live.

Information Collected Automatically

Like most websites, ours keeps basic server access logs. These logs are maintained by our web host and typically include your IP address, the date and time of your visit, the pages you requested, and your browser type. We use this information to keep the site running, to troubleshoot problems, and to protect against abuse. We do not use this information to build advertising profiles or track you across other websites.

We also use a small number of essential cookies to keep the site working properly. See the Cookies section below for details.

How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

  • Process your donation and send you a tax receipt
  • Maintain your donor record so we can keep our communication with you accurate and personal
  • Coordinate event registrations and follow up about events you signed up for
  • Send our newsletter, if you signed up for it
  • Respond to questions, prayer requests, or messages you send us
  • Keep accurate records of donations and contributions for IRS and 501(c)(3) reporting
  • Maintain the security and proper functioning of our website
  • In the future, fulfill orders from our planned online store

We do not use your information to build advertising audiences, and we do not sell or rent your information to anyone.

Cookies and Similar Technologies

Cookies are small text files that websites place on your device to remember things between visits. We only use cookies that are necessary for the site to work properly. Specifically:

  • Login and session cookies, used only if you log in to a staff or admin account on our website
  • Language preference cookie, set by Polylang so the site remembers whether you are reading in English or Spanish
  • Cache cookies, set by LiteSpeed Cache to help pages load faster

We do not use Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Meta tracking pixels, or any third-party advertising or marketing trackers on this website. We have made an intentional choice not to add those tools.

Third-Party Services

To run our website and our programs, we rely on a small number of trusted service providers. Each of these providers has its own privacy policy, which we encourage you to review.

  • Little Green Light is our donor-management system. It handles our donation forms, processes donations, and stores donor records and our communication history with you. Little Green Light Privacy Policy
  • Mailchimp delivers our newsletter and similar mailings to subscribers. Mailchimp Privacy Policy
  • SMTP2GO delivers transactional emails such as receipts, registration confirmations, and replies to your inquiries. SMTP2GO Privacy Policy
  • GreenGeeks hosts parts of our website and maintains the related server access logs. GreenGeeks Privacy Policy
  • Cloudflare delivers our website to your browser and provides security and performance services. Cloudflare Privacy Policy
  • Future online store and Stripe. When we launch our planned online store, it will use WooCommerce on this website and Stripe to process payments. We will update this section before the store goes live. Stripe Privacy Policy

Embedded Content

Some pages on our website may include videos hosted on YouTube. When we embed YouTube videos, we use YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com), which means YouTube does not set tracking cookies on your device until you press play.

Once you press play, YouTube will receive information about your visit, including your IP address, the video you watched, and basic technical details about your browser, under YouTube’s own privacy policy. If you would rather not share that information with YouTube, you can simply choose not to press play, or you can watch the video on YouTube directly through their app or website.

We do not embed Facebook posts, Instagram posts, or other social-media content that would set advertising or tracking cookies on your device.

How We Share Your Information

We share your information only in limited circumstances:

  • With the trusted service providers listed above, only as needed for them to provide the service to Casa Alterna. For example, Little Green Light holds your donor record and processes your donation so our team can keep your information accurate, send your tax receipt, and respond to you well. These providers act on our behalf, under their own privacy policies and our agreements with them. They are not separate organizations we are sharing your data with for their own purposes.
  • With our staff and authorized volunteers, only as needed to do their work for Casa Alterna
  • When required by law, as described in the section below

We do not sell your information. We do not share your information with other organizations for their marketing. We do not trade donor lists.

Requests from Government and Law-Enforcement Agencies

Casa Alterna serves immigrant neighbors, and we know that the people we walk alongside often face real risks. We want to be clear about how we handle requests for personal information from government or law-enforcement agencies.

Casa Alterna does not voluntarily share personal information with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), or any other immigration-enforcement, law-enforcement, or government agency for the purpose of immigration enforcement. We will not provide names, addresses, contact information, donation records, event registrations, or any other personal data to these agencies based on an informal request, a phone call, an email, or a visit.

We will only disclose personal information when we are required to do so by a valid, legally binding court order or subpoena issued by a court of competent jurisdiction. Even in those cases, we will, where appropriate, consult legal counsel and challenge requests that we believe are overbroad, improperly issued, or inconsistent with our values and our obligations to the people we serve.

If you have concerns about your information for any reason, please contact us. We will do our best to answer honestly and to protect you.

Data Retention

We keep your information only as long as we need it for the purpose it was collected, or as long as we are required to keep it by law.

  • Donor records. We keep records of donations in our donor-management system (Little Green Light) for at least 7 years to meet IRS and 501(c)(3) recordkeeping requirements. Information about your relationship with Casa Alterna (such as a log of past communication and the events you’ve attended) is retained for as long as you remain on our donor or supporter list, so that we can stay in touch with you well.
  • Newsletter subscribers. We keep your email on our list until you unsubscribe or ask us to remove it. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any newsletter, or by emailing us.
  • Contact-form submissions. We typically keep messages sent through our contact form for up to 2 years, so we can refer back to a conversation if you reach out again. You can ask us to delete your message sooner.
  • Event registrations. We keep registration records as long as we need them for that event and for our internal reporting, and then we archive or delete them.
  • Server access logs. Our web host typically retains access logs for a short period (commonly a few weeks to a few months) for security and troubleshooting.

Your Rights

You have the right to:

  • Ask what personal information we have about you
  • Ask us to correct information that is wrong or out of date
  • Ask us to delete your information, as long as we are not required to keep it by law (for example, donation records we must keep for tax purposes)
  • Opt out of our newsletter or other communications, at any time

To exercise any of these rights, email us at [email protected]. You can also unsubscribe from our newsletter directly by clicking the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any email we send you.

If you live in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you may have additional rights under the GDPR, including the right to data portability and the right to lodge a complaint with a data-protection authority. Contact us at the email above and we will work with you in good faith.

Children’s Privacy

Our website is not directed to children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and you believe your child has provided personal information to us through this website, please contact us at [email protected] and we will delete it promptly.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, for example to reflect new tools we use, new programs we launch (such as our planned online store), or changes in the law. When we update the policy, we will post the new version on this page and update the effective date at the top. For significant changes, we may also let our newsletter subscribers know directly.

Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, or about how we handle your information, please reach out:

Casa Alterna
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://casaalterna.org

A Spanish-language version of this Privacy Policy will be available through the language switcher at the top of the site.

Last reviewed: [DATE TO BE SET]