Privacy Policy

Solutions Journalism Network (SJN) aims to protect your private information as best we possibly can. We are not in the business of selling your information. All the information we track, store and analyze is related to providing resources to our members and serving the mission of our organization: to transform journalism so that all people have access to news that helps them envision and build a more equitable and sustainable world.

Your privacy is important to us. It is the policy of Solutions Journalism Network, Inc. (we) to respect the privacy of its donors, members, grantees, partners and others with whom we interact. This privacy policy applies to information collected through our websites (“Sites”), other applications, including mobile applications (“Apps”), and any other interactions we may have with you (collectively, the “Services”), in compliance with the applicable law.

Please read this policy carefully. We will post any material changes to it here so that you will always know what information we gather, how we might use that information, and whether we will disclose that information to anyone. We reserve the right to change this website privacy policy at any time. In some cases, by using our Services, you consent to the data practices described in this statement.

The information we collect directly from you

We collect information you provide directly to us. For example, we collect information when you interact with us as a donor, send us an email, fill out a form, respond to a survey, register for an event, or otherwise communicate with us. The personal information that we may collect includes, but is not limited to:

  1. Name
  2. Address
  3. E-mail addresses
  4. Phone numbers
  5. Employment information
  6. Educational, journalism training and certification information


If you voluntarily provide us with your information online, such as when you make a contribution, complete a survey, submit a grant or membership application, or send an email, we may gather personal information through that communication. On certain pages of our site, such as our donate page or an information request form, you may be asked to provide information such as credit card, address and other information. We do not gather this information on our site or any affiliated giving sites without your permission. We can obtain your permission to gather before, during or after our site or affiliated giving sites collects your information. Permission may be granted to us in the donations you make to us or in other forms and applications that you complete online or offline.

The information we collect directly from third parties

We may gather information about you that is available to the public from other websites or sources such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

We may also gather information about you by providing names, addresses and/or phone numbers that are gathered through the website or from other sources to third-party vendors for the purpose of obtaining information relevant to our mission.

The information we collect automatically

When you access or use the Services, we may automatically collect certain information about you, including:

  1. Log Data. As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, device identifier, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, clickstream data, and other usage data. We may combine this automatically-collected log information with other information we collect about you. We use log data to monitor use of our sites and services, for security purposes and for technical administration.
  2. Device Information. We may collect information about the device you use to access our website or mobile applications, including the hardware model, operating system and version, unique device identifiers and mobile network information.
  3. Information Collected by Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies. We and our service providers may use various technologies to collect information, including cookies and web beacons. Cookies are small data files stored on your hard drive or in device memory that help us to, among other things, improve our Services and your experience, see which areas and features of our Services are popular and count visits. Web beacons are clear, electronic images that may be used on our Services or in our emails and help deliver cookies, count visits, understand usage and campaign effectiveness and determine if an email has been opened and acted upon. If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you targeted ads, you may opt-out by emailing us at Ambika [at] solutionsjournalism [dot] org. You can also delete cookie files from your hard drive, or avoid them altogether, by configuring your browser to reject them or to notify you when a cookie is being placed on your hard drive. Not all features of the Services will function as intended if you reject cookies. You can find out more about cookies at http://www.allaboutcookies.org/.

We use the following cookies on our site:

  1. Google Analytics provides us the following information about each website visitor: pages viewed, location (country and city), search terms used, referral information (i.e., did the visitor come from another site, a search, or a link) and technology used (device, browser, and operating system)
  2. YouTube cookies, which are used by YouTube to track video plays, location and user preferences, and which can be used by YouTube to serve up ads and related content in videos.
  3. Unauthed_search_count tracks the number of searches non-logged-in users make in order to limit searches.
  4. Solutions_database_session helps us authenticate users.

Photography

Photos or video taken at our events may be used in publications such as brochures, newsletters, magazines and video presentations. Such photos or videos may also be used electronically in online publications, our websites, emails, social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter, or in other electronic forms of media. If you are pictured and would like us to discontinue using the photo, please contact Ambika Samarthya-Howard.

Links to other sites

Our website may contain links to affiliated vendor sites, such as email services, online donor pages, and events registration pages. We are not responsible for the content or the privacy practices employed by those other sites. A link to another website does not constitute an endorsement of that site or any of the content or information provided by that site. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our Site and to read the privacy policies of each website that collects personal information.

Statistics

Our web servers use log files, which include IP addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks in order to analyze trends, administer the site and collect broad demographic information for aggregate use. We utilize a third-party vendor, Google Analytics, to assist in collecting and analyzing such data. For more information about how Google collects and processes data when you visit websites or use apps that use Google technologies, please see www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners.

Statistics from email are collected and analyzed on both an individual and an aggregate basis. We use these statistics to better provide services to the public.

We may also use and disclose to third parties aggregated information and statistics regarding donations and contributions. No individual personal information is included.

Donations and event registrations

Online donations and event registrations are processed by affiliated vendors, including PayPal, Click & Pledge, EventBrite and TSYS. Credit card and other information you provide when making an online donation is provided directly to the third-party vendor for the purpose of processing and recording gifts. All credit card information is encrypted at the time of processing and not stored for further use.

How we use and disclose information we collect

We use the information we collect to execute a specific user request and/or further the mission of Solutions Journalism Network, Inc., which is to transform journalism so that all people have access to news that helps them envision and build a more equitable and sustainable world.

We do not sell online information that is collected from our donors and friends. We sometimes share information with third-party vendors and service providers or with other organizations that may occasionally be commercial in nature if we determine there is a benefit to our members and friends. We may share personal information with our funders to report our programmatic progress. We may disclose your information to third-party representatives with whom we contract to update our files. We may use any information you disclose to us or in online applications to process your donations or to call, mail and market information about our work to you. We may also publicize your name, your category of support in our honor roll of donors, annual report and/or other donor recognition publications, which are publicly available, unless you specifically ask to remain anonymous.

In certain cases, we will obtain your permission to disclose before, during or after our site collects your user information. Permission may be granted to us in the donations you make to us or in other forms that you complete online or offline.

We provide information to third-party vendors for updating and marketing purposes as described in this policy in support of our goals and objectives. We do not sell, trade, rent or otherwise provide any of your information to other organizations, except for the sole benefit of our work, as when information is provided to mailing service providers. Also, although unlikely, we may be required by law enforcement or judicial authorities to provide information to the appropriate governmental authorities. In these cases, we will provide this information to the extent we have determined that the disclosure of any such information is legally required.

Security

Our site is hosted on Heroku. Heroku “is designed to protect customers from threats by applying security controls at every layer from physical to application, isolating customer applications and data, and with its ability to rapidly deploy security updates without customer interaction or service interruption.” You can read Heroku’s security policy here.

We operate secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection systems. Our databases, including the system administration logs, are password-protected. The information you provide is stored in a secure location and is used and disclosed only as set forth in this policy. User information is accessible only to designated staff who need the information to perform a specific function or task related to our mission, such as gift recording, assisting and communicating with donors, or providing donors with reports and receipts.

Our online giving page is a secure site, evidenced by the lock icon located on user browser pages. Our application systems are similarly secured and data sent over our systems is encrypted. Our systems make it difficult for your information to be stolen or intercepted while it is being transferred over the Internet and while it is stored on our system. However, no encryption system can guarantee perfect security with the Internet.

Rights and choices

Opt-Out. If you do not wish to receive communications from us, you may unsubscribe at any time.

Correction. You have the right to access your personal information and to correct, amend, or delete such personal information if it is inaccurate. Requests for access, correction, amendment, or deletion should be sent to Ambika Samarthya-Howard. If you delete any account information, we may retain certain information as required by law or for legitimate business purposes.

"Do Not Track Requests." Your Internet browser and mobile device may allow you to adjust your browser settings so that “do not track” requests are sent to the websites you visit. We respect your wishes and will not track user activity once “do not track” signals have been activated.

California Privacy If you are a California resident, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits you to request information regarding the disclosure of your personal information by us or our affiliates to a third party for the third party’s direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an email to Ambika Samarthya-Howard.

International operations

The Organization has updated its policies regarding the recording and use of personal information for individuals residing in the United Kingdom and the European Union, in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (“GDPR”). This privacy policy describes how we, Solutions Journalism Network, as a controller of Personal Data, process the personal information of certain categories of data subjects.

If you are an individual residing in the UK or the EU, please visit your Profile Page if you are a member of our network to edit your data and provide us with your communications preferences, or email or write to us at the addresses listed above.

We will only process your personal data for the purposes for which we collect it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we determine that we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

We collect different personal data from you for specified purposes and based on a specific legal ground.

What personal information we collect

We collect your name, postal address, email address, phone number, username, password, demographic information (such as your occupation), your location (such as city, state that you have provided to us to join in-person events), your organization, employer or university, social media usernames and other information you give to us during the membership application process to provide the best membership program and services possible.

We collect volunteering availability and network affiliations with email and other communication infrastructure services to connect and nurture our membership network for the benefit of the members and to coordinate volunteer efforts.

The legal grounds for the two above descriptions of data we process is that we have a legitimate interest in educating, informing and attracting support for its charitable purpose.

We collect your credit card and bank wire info in order to process donations and payments and to send donation receipts.

We collect grantee application information you provide in order to support production of journalism and for facilitating payment and evaluation of grant effectiveness in promoting our mission.

The legal grounds for the two above descriptions of data we process are based off of a legal obligation and fulfilling the needs of a contract.

We may rely on more than one of the lawful bases for processing your information described above. If our processing is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw the consent at any time. If our processing is based on our legitimate interests, you have the right to object to processing. To withdraw your consent or object to processing, please contact Ambika Samarthya-Howard.

We will store your information for as long as necessary for us to provide the Services and as long as you don’t withdraw your consent or object to the processing.

If our processing of your information is subject to the GDPR, under certain circumstances, you have the following rights:

  • Request access to your personal data;
  • Request correction of the personal data we hold about you;
  • Request erasure of your personal data;
  • Request the restriction of processing of your personal data; and
  • Request the transfer of your personal data to another party.

To exercise your rights you should contact Ambika Samarthya-Howard.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant EU supervisory authority.

Third parties & data transfers

We use Google Analytics to analyze our website visitors’ history and improve our website offerings, and have anonymized this information.

We use the Google Maps API to generate maps on our impact page and on our Solutions Story Tracker®. No personal data is collected.

Donations and payments are collected by third-party vendors such as Click and Pledge, and are stored on third-party vendors such as Quickbooks, TSYS (Total System Services), Salesforce and Netsuite. We collect financial information you provide, including your credit card information, your name, and address to process your donation. Donors voluntarily provide donation information at the time of donation, and consent to the use of that information for processing the donation, fulfilling legal obligations related to the gift, and for future charitable solicitation.

For grant applications, we use third-party vendors such as VeerWest, Salesforce, Dropbox to review the quality of the application and determine the deliverable will serve the goals of our mission.

We collect our membership application information through our website hosted on Heroku.

For member communications, we use third-party vendors such as Mailchimp, Survey Monkey, Airtable, EventBrite and GSuite to provide the best services possible and share funding opportunities and other membership benefits.

We may use plugins and libraries such as Drift to communicate with you in real time on our website.

To track program goals connected to realizing our mission, we use Google Data Studio, Airtable, Microsoft Office and Salesforce to analyze our engagements, track interest in our offerings. We also collect attendee names from in-person or online trainings or if website users have opened our curriculum or toolkits. We have a legitimate interest in educating, informing and attracting support for our charitable purpose.

Our websites may use social media features, such as the Facebook “like” button, the “Tweet” button and other sharing widgets (“Social Media Features”). You may be given the option by such Social Media Features to post information about your activities on a website to a profile page of yours that is provided by a third-party social media network in order to share with others within your network. Social Media Features are either hosted by the respective social media network or hosted directly on our website. To the extent the Social Media Features are hosted by the respective social media networks, the latter may receive information that you have visited our website from your IP address. If you are logged into your social media account, it is possible that the respective social media network can link your visit of our websites with your social media profile even though we have taken steps to anonymize your data on our site.

Your interactions with Social Media Features are governed by the privacy policies of the companies providing the relevant Social Media Features.

Web Beacons. We may log information using digital images called Web beacons on our Site or in our emails. We use Web beacons to manage cookies, count visits, and to learn what marketing works and what does not. We also use Web beacons to tell if you open or act on our emails.

If we transfer your information to a recipient in a country outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”), we will ensure that at least one of the following shall apply: (i) the transfers will be to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission; (ii) we have used specific model contracts approved by the European Commission which are intended to give personal data the same protection it has in Europe; (iii) where we use providers based in the US, we may transfer information to them if they are part of the EU-US Privacy Shield, which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between Europe and the US; or (iv) any alternative transfer mechanism that can under GDPR lawfully support the transfer. Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the EEA.

Children's policy

Our Services are intended for use by users aged 16 and older. In all cases, we do not market to or intentionally collect any personally identifiable information from children under 18 years of age. If you are under 18, please do not register with us or provide us with any personally identifying information. If we become aware that a visitor under the age of 18 has submitted personal information without verifiable parental consent, we will remove his or her information from our files. Please contact us at Ambika Samarthya-Howard if you become aware that a child for which you are the parent or guardian has provided us with personal information without your consent.

Information requests

If you have provided us with any information during a prior visit to or use of our site, you may request that we give you access to such information by sending us an email to Marie von Hafften. You have the right to review the information and make any corrections to it that are appropriate.

Editing, deleting or deactivating personal information

If your personal information changes (such as ZIP code, phone, email or postal address), or if at any point you'd like to be removed from our systems entirely, you may contact us directly by emailing us at Marie von Hafften.

How to contact us

Should you have other questions or concerns about these privacy policies, please contact Ambika Samarthya-Howard.

Changes to our policy

Our online privacy policy may change from time to time. If we make any substantive changes to our policies, we will post notice of changes on this page.

Acceptance of Privacy Policy

By using solutionsjournalism.org, its subdomains and/or any of our other websites you signify your acceptance of our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to this policy, we ask that you refrain from using this site or our Services. Your continued use of our site following the posting of changes to these terms will mean that you accept these changes.

Last updated September 2021.