Last Updated: December 9, 2024

Privacy Policy for SMS/MMS Communications

Introduction At Students Rising Above (SRA), we respect your privacy and are committed to protecting the personal information you share with us. This policy explains how we handle and use your personal information in relation to SMS/MMS communications.

Information Collection We collect personal information when you opt-in to receive SMS/MMS messages from us. This may include your mobile phone number and, depending on the context, your name and email address. We collect this information directly from you when you provide it to us through our sign-up forms, webforms, or other means of communication.

Use of Information The personal information we collect is used to send you updates and communications about our programs, fundraising events, and other notifications related to our services via SMS/MMS. We may also use this information to respond to your inquiries or requests.

Sharing of Information We do not share or sell your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes. Any third-party service providers we use to support our communications, including SMS/MMS delivery, are strictly prohibited from using your information for any other purposes and are required to maintain the confidentiality and security of the information.

Opt-Out and Support Options You have the right to opt-out of receiving SMS/MMS messages from us at any time by replying “STOP” to any message. For assistance or to request more information about our privacy practices, you can reply “HELP” or contact us directly at [contact information].

Changes to This Policy We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated revision date.

Contact Us If you have any questions or concerns about our use of your personal information, please contact us at [email protected].

Privacy Policy URL [Insert URL here] – This link directs to the full privacy policy on our website, including detailed information on how we handle personal information across all aspects of our operations.

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Last Updated: January 1, 2015

Welcome, and thank you for your interest in the Foundation for Students Rising Above, a California nonprofit public benefit corporation doing business as Students Rising Above (“SRA”, “we,” or “us”) and our web site at www.studentsrisingabove.org (the “Site”), as well as our other web sites (including our College2Careers Hub web site (the “Hub”)), applications, and other services provided by us and on which a link to this Privacy Policy (this “Policy”) is displayed (collectively, together with the Site and Hub, our “Service”).

This Policy describes the information that we gather from you on our Service, how we use and disclose such information, and the steps we take to protect such information. By using the Service, you consent to the privacy practices described in this Policy.

This Policy is incorporated into and is subject to the SRA Terms of Use: https://studentsrisingabove.org/terms-of-use/. Capitalized terms used but not defined in this Policy have the meaning given to them in the SRA Terms of Use.

Information We May Collect through the Service:

  • User-provided Personal Information. When you use our Service, you may provide and we may collect information that specifically identifies an individual.  For the purposes of this Policy, we refer to this information as “Personal Information.” Examples of Personal Information can include an individual’s name, email address, mailing address, and phone number. Personal Information may also include other information, such as an individual’s date of birth, geographic area, or preferences, when that information is linked together with other information that identifies a specific individual. You may provide us with Personal Information in various ways on the Service. For example, you provide us with Personal Information when you register for an account, use the Service (such as sending messages through, or posting User Content on, the Hub), or send us emails.
  • Cookies and Automatically Collected Information. When you use our Service, we may send one or more cookies – small text files containing a string of alphanumeric characters – to your computer or other device. Please review your web browser “Help” file to learn the proper way to modify your cookie settings. Please note that if you delete, or choose not to accept, cookies from the Service, you may not be able to use all of the features of the Service.  We may also automatically record certain information from your device by using various types of technology, including “clear gifs” or “web beacons.”

This automatically collected information may include your IP address or other device address or ID, your web browser and/or device type, the web pages or sites that you visit just before or just after you use the Service, the pages or other content you view or otherwise interact with on the Service, the dates and times that you visit, access, or use the Service, and your approximate location and predicted age. We also may use these technologies to collect information regarding your interaction with email messages, such as whether you opened, clicked on, or forwarded a message. This information is gathered from all users, and we may connect this information with your Personal Information.

  • Information from Other Sources. We may obtain information, including Personal Information, from third parties and sources other than the Service, such as your friends, your high school, other educational institutions, other not-for-profit, education-related organizations, or other organizations that help us provide the Service. If we combine or associate information from other sources with Personal Information that we collect through the Service, we will treat the combined information as Personal Information in accordance with this Policy.

How We Use the Information We Collect. We use information we collect through the Service in a variety of ways, including the following:  

  • We use the information that we collect on the Service to operate, maintain, enhance and provide all features of the Service, to provide you with services and information that you request, to communicate with you, and to respond to comments and questions and otherwise to provide support to you and our other users.
  • We use the information that we collect on the Service to understand and analyze the usage trends and preferences of our users, to improve the Service, and to develop new services, features, and functionality.
  • We may use cookies and automatically collected information to:  (i) personalize our Service, such as remembering your information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the Service; (ii) provide customized content and information; (iii) monitor and analyze the effectiveness of the Service; (iv) monitor aggregate site usage metrics such as total number of visitors and pages viewed; and (v) track your use of features provided through the Service.

When We Share Information.   Except as described in this Policy, we will not disclose your information that we collect on the Service to third parties without your consent. Your information may be disclosed to third parties if you consent to us doing so, as well as in the following circumstances:

  • Any information that you voluntarily choose to include in a publicly accessible area of the Service (such as the Hub community message boards or group discussions) will be available to anyone who has access to that content, including other users.
  • We work with third party service providers to provide web site, application development, hosting, maintenance, email, and other services for us. These third parties may have access to or process your information as part of providing those services for us. Generally, we try to limit the information provided to these service providers to that which is reasonably necessary for them to perform their functions.
  • We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with state and federal laws, in response to a court order, judicial or other government subpoena or warrant, or to otherwise cooperate with law enforcement or other governmental agencies.
  • We may share or disclose such information as we believe, in good faith, is appropriate or necessary to (i) take precautions against liability, (ii) protect ourselves or others from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful uses or activity, (iii) investigate and defend ourselves against any third-party claims or allegations, (iv) protect the security or integrity of the Service and any facilities or equipment used to make the Service available, or (v) protect our property or other legal rights, or the rights, property, or safety of others.

 

  • We may share information about you, including Personal Information and aggregated data (that is, data about you and other users that does not specifically identify you), with other not-for-profit, non-profit, or educational institutions or entities, including without limitation the National College Clearinghouse, to enhance or provide the Service, to evaluate the effectiveness of the Service, and to determine whether certain educational or scholarship information is relevant to you.  
  • Information about our users, including Personal Information, may be disclosed and otherwise transferred to an acquirer, successor, or assignee as part of any merger, acquisition, debt financing, sale of assets, or similar transaction, or in the event of an insolvency, bankruptcy, or receivership in which information is transferred to one or more third parties as one of our organization’s assets.
  • If you apply to volunteer to assist SRA in providing its services—whether through the Service or otherwise—we will disclose Personal Information and other information to a third party service provider who conducts applicant screenings on our behalf.  
  • We greatly value our donors’ expectations of privacy.  If you donate to SRA, we will not share or sell your information, including your Personal Information, except with service providers for the purposes of facilitating your donation and communicating with you. Please note that we use Greater Giving and First Giving to process donations and other payments.  Information about Greater Giving’s privacy practices may be found here: http://www.greatergiving.com/Portals/0/docs/Security-Privacy-FinancialTransactions.pdf.  Information about First Giving’s privacy practices may be found here: http://info.firstgiving.com/general-privacy.

 

Your Choices

You may, of course, decline to share certain Personal Information with us, in which case we may not be able to provide to you some of the features and functionality of the Service.  For instance, accessing the Hub requires you to provide some Personal Information. You may update, correct, or delete your Hub account information and preferences at any time by accessing your “My Profile” and “Settings” pages on the Hub. If you wish to access or amend any other Personal Information we hold about you, you may contact us at [email protected]. Please note that while any changes you make will be reflected in active user databases within a reasonable period of time, we may retain copies of information for backups, archiving, prevention of fraud and abuse, analytics, satisfaction of legal obligations, or where we otherwise reasonably believe that we have a legitimate reason to do so.

If you receive promotional emails from us, you may unsubscribe at any time by following the instructions contained within the email. You may also opt out from receiving commercial email from us by sending your request to us by email at [email protected], by writing to us at the address given at the end of this policy, or by contacting us directly through our web site at https://studentsrisingabove.org/about-us/#about_us_sra. We may allow you to view and modify settings relating to the nature and frequency of promotional communications that you receive from us in user account functionality on the Service.

We do not track our Site visitors over time and across third party web sites to provide targeted advertising and do not specifically respond to Do Not Track (“DNT”) signals. However, some third party web sites do keep track of your browsing activities, including across other web sites on the Internet, which enables these web sites to tailor what they present to you. If you are visiting such web sites, your browser may allow you to set a DNT signal on your browser so that third parties know you do not want to be tracked.  We use Google Analytics to collect and process certain analytics data; Google provides some additional privacy options described at www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/.  Finally, please note that your device operating system or browser may also include settings, options, or add-on components to control the placement and presence of cookies.   

 

Third-Party Links

The Service may contain features or links to web sites and services provided by third parties. Any information you provide on third-party sites or services is provided directly to the operators of those services and is subject to those operators’ policies, if any, governing privacy and security. We are not responsible for the content or privacy and security practices and policies of third-party sites or services to which links or access are provided through the Service. We encourage you to learn about third parties’ privacy and security policies before providing them with information.

Children’s Privacy

Protecting the privacy of young children is especially important. Our Site is a general audience site not directed to children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under the age of 13 through the Service or otherwise without obtaining parental consent. If you are under 13 years of age, then please do not use or access the Service at any time or in any manner. If we learn that Personal Information has been collected on the Service from persons under 13 years of age and without verifiable parental consent, then we will take the appropriate steps to delete this information. If you are a parent or guardian and discover that your child under 13 years of age has obtained an account on the Service, then you may alert us at [email protected] or contact us directly through our web site at https://studentsrisingabove.org/about-us/#about_us_sra and request that we delete that child’s Personal Information from our systems.

 

Data Security

We use certain physical, managerial, and technical safeguards that are designed to improve the integrity and security of Personal Information that we collect and maintain. We cannot, however, ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or store on the Service, and you do so at your own risk.   

Please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable.  We cannot and do not guarantee that your information will not be accessed, viewed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards.  If we learn of a security breach, then we may attempt to notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate protective steps.

 

Changes and Updates to this Policy

Please revisit this page periodically to stay aware of any changes to this Policy, which we may update from time to time. If we modify this Policy, we will make it available through the Service, and indicate the date of the latest revision. In the event that the modifications materially alter your rights or obligations hereunder, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you of the change. For example, we may send a message to your email address, if we have one on file, or generate a pop-up or similar notification when you access the Service for the first time after we make the material changes. Your continued use of the Service after the revised Policy has become effective indicates that you have read, understood and agreed to the current version of this Policy.

 

Our Contact Information

 

Please contact us with any questions or comments about this Policy, your Personal Information, our use and disclosure practices, or your consent choices by email at [email protected]. You may also contact us directly through our web site at https://studentsrisingabove.org/about-us/#about_us_sra.

 

Students Rising Above

PO Box 192492

San Francisco, CA 94119-2492

 

415-333-4222