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This Privacy Statement (together with our terms and conditions and any other documents referred to in it) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from or about you will be processed by us.
Your personal data is controlled by Concern Worldwide, a company limited by guarantee, registered in Ireland (company number 39647), Charity Regulation Authority (number 20009090), which has been granted Charitable Status (charity number CHY5745), with its registered office at 52/55 Lower Camden Street, Dublin 2, Ireland “Concern”).
Please read the following carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.
Concern is committed to protecting your personal data and will comply with all applicable legislation including the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), the Irish Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2011.
We have appointed a Data Protection Officer and questions, comments and requests regarding our use of your personal data and this privacy statement are welcomed and should be addressed to them at: The Data Protection Officer, Concern Worldwide, 52/55 Lower Camden Street, Dublin 2, Ireland or by email to DPO@concern.net
Table of Contents
- Information We Collect
- Our use of your personal data and retention periods
- Personal data we may otherwise collect
- Cookies & Similar Technologies
- Your rights with regard to your information
- Disclosure of your information
- Where we send and store your personal data
- Changes to our Privacy Statement
Information we collect
Personal data you give us
We collect personal data about you, when you contact us, for example when you enquire about our activities, fill in forms or make donations on www.concern.net (our site) or correspond with us by phone or e-mail. If you are a program participant receiving assistance from Concern then we also collect your data directly, which is usually through completion of a form and a bespoke privacy statement is usually provided.
This includes information you provide when you share information via websites which we manage.
The information you give us may include your first name, surname, postal address, e-mail address, phone number, date of birth, financial information (details and records of payments to / through Concern), your personal preferences about being contacted, your comments about our services and your photograph.
Our use of your personal data and retention periods
We will only use your personal data for the purpose and legal bases set out in the table below.
We will retain your information as long as we are required to do so in line with any legal obligations. Otherwise, we will generally retain your information in accordance with our defined retention periods which are set out in the table below.
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Purposes for which personal data are processed |
Personal data that are processed |
Legal basis of the processing (and legitimate interests pursued, if applicable) |
Data Use and Retention Period |
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Analysing your data to inform the marketing we send to you. |
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Consent for the purpose of sending marketing communications Legitimate interests of updating you on our work and how your donation has been used. |
For informing marketing communications: we send marketing for 4 years from last donation / last interaction. |
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Sending you marketing about our activities We will send you communications for the purposes of keeping you informed about our work, how your donations are being used, to encourage volunteering, to enable your participation in our Global Citizenship initiatives, to encourage you to learn more about Concern’s work and to provide information about goods or services we feel may interest you. |
Contact details such as:
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For electronic marketing communications: 2 years from the date of last engagement / activity / interaction. For postal marketing communications: 4 years from the date of last engagement / activity / interaction. For participants relating to Global Citizenship initiatives: until July post participation. For volunteer adjudicators with our Global Citizen Initiatives: 2 years For Teachers involved in our Global Citizenship Initiatives: 2 years |
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Third party marketing: We use your personal information to deliver relevant advertising to you through third-party platforms (such as social media or advertising networks). This may include sharing limited information (such as email address in hashed format) with these platforms to help us reach people who are more likely to be interested in our work. We ensure that any data shared is handled securely and in line with data protection laws. |
Email address in hashed format and we will share mobile phone number where it is absolutely necessary in order to correctly match you. |
We rely on our legitimate interests of promoting our activities and keeping you informed about our work. You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, where that processing is based on our legitimate interests, unless we have compelling grounds or otherwise need your data for legal reasons. |
For marketing communications: 4 years from the date of last engagement / activity / interaction |
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Donor profiling Donor Propensity profiling As part of the process of obtaining support for Concern’s charitable causes, we may assess the funding capacity of individuals, i.e. their capacity to financially contribute to the Concern causes, based on the information they provide to us or information available from public sources such as company records, media reports and LinkedIn. We may occasionally use a third party to support us with Donor Propensity Profiling Personalised Supporter Engagement To better understand and engage with our existing donors and supporters, we create profiles on our CRM system. This helps us tailor our marketing campaigns and communications to match your interests and preferences. In both cases of profiling you have the right to object. |
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Legitimate interest in seeking to develop relationships with individuals who we consider may be interested in supporting Concern’s work. Insofar as any communications or advertising falls within direct marketing, such material is sent on the basis of consent. You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, where that processing is based on our legitimate interests, unless we have compelling grounds or otherwise need your data for legal reasons. |
7 years from last engagement / interaction |
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Administration of records of donations to and support for Concern, and related administration associated with such processing and record keeping. Carrying out any obligations we have that arise from your support for Concern, such as those outlined in this section. |
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Legitimate interests in processing donations received, ensuring donations are recorded as being from the correct donor, and keeping effective records of Concern’s supporter base, including keeping our donor records up to date, together with legitimate interests in obtaining tax rebates associated with such donations, with any such sharing of donor / supporter data with the tax authorities (Revenue Commissioners) for rebate purposes being carried out with the donor’s / supporter’s instruction. In certain circumstances, the processing of financial information is carried out on the basis of our legal obligations relating to SEPA direct debits or CHY Tax Renewals. Legitimate interest in ensuring our supporters have all the information they need and our obligations to them are fulfilled. |
We are legally required to hold this data for 7 years. For data held for tax rebate purposes, in some cases, we need to retain this for up to 15 years, in order to maximise the donation where the donation qualifies for tax relief. |
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Participant Data: we obtain and use participant data to identify and assess those who most need our assistance and to provide them with resources so that they can support themselves. We also use their data to monitor their progress and to assess the success of the programme. |
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We rely on our legitimate interests to process this personal data, including for the purpose of providing our programmes which may include provision of food, cash, medical assistance, farming equipment and education to those who need it, within our programme countries. We often work closely with donors or within a consortium with other NGOs and may be required to share personal data with them and where we do so this is based on consent or the legitimate interest of the participant or the organisation. |
7 years or in line with our Corporate Donor requirements |
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Third party contractor/service provider employees: we process personal data for the purpose of any required investigations for safeguarding or other purposes as may be required. |
Other personal data where this is required for the purposes of carrying out an investigation or dealing with a complaint |
We rely on our legitimate interests and Section 55 1 (b) (iv) of the Data Protection Act 2018 i.e. that the processing is necessary to prevent injury or other damage to the data subject or another person or loss in respect of, or damage to, property or otherwise to protect the vital interests of the data subject or another person. |
7 years or in line with Donor requirements |
Personal data we may otherwise collect about you
With regard to each of your visits to our sites, we automatically collect the following information:
- Technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, and operating system and platform. For further information about the technical information which we collect please see Cookies & similar technologies section below, and our Cookies Policy.
- Information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time); products you viewed or searched for; page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page and any phone number used to call our customer service number.
We are also working closely with third parties (including, business partners, sub-contractors in technical, payment and delivery services, advertising networks, data analytics service providers, and search information providers) and may receive from or share information about you with them. All such processing is undertaken for the purposes of carrying out Concern’s activities as detailed in this privacy statement, in compliance with applicable data protection law.
Cookies & similar technologies
Our websites and sub-domains use cookies and similar technologies to: provide users with the best possible digital experience; improve our website’s functionality and security; understand more about who visits our websites, where they come from, and how they donate; and to assist us in spreading news about Concern’s work through digital marketing activities.
Please visit our Cookie Policy to find out more about cookies and similar technologies. You can find a detailed list of all cookies placed on devices via our website, and a list of vendors placing those cookies including links to their privacy statements, in the Cookie Declaration on the cookie policy page.
Refusing / opting out of cookies
Some cookies, such as marketing cookies or preference cookies require your consent before we use them. If you want to manage your consent, including withdrawing your consent / opting out of these cookies, you can do so at any time here:
Some of our cookies are considered necessary/essential to the working of the site and so they operate on the site without consent.
Our site and subdomains may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.
Profiling
As described in the table above, in order to identify donors who might be interested in supporting Concern's activities, we sometimes use personal donor data like past donations and geo-demographic information, along with public information from sources such as company records, social media sites like LinkedIn, and media outlets like newspapers. We carefully evaluate this information using a method called Donor Propensity Profiling. Additionally, Concern assigns a profile to each donor in our Supporter Relationship Management system, categorising them into broader lifestyle and behavioural segments. This helps us tailor our fundraising and marketing efforts to better match the interests of our supporters.
If you do not wish your information to be used as part of donor propensity profiling or to have a profile assigned to you on our CRM, please call our donor support team on 01 417 7777, or by email to preferences@concern.net
Third party marketing
This is the sharing of donor data securely with approved external third-party platforms so Concern can send tailored marketing messages to audiences using these platforms. If you would rather we did not share your data for this kind of marketing you can object to this by calling our donor support team on 01 417 7777, or by email to preferences@concern.net
Your rights with regard to your information
You have rights under Irish and EU data protection law, with regard to how we collect and use your data. You can exercise these rights at any time by contacting us via email at preferences@concern.net or in writing at: The Data Protection Officer, Concern Worldwide, 52/55 Lower Camden Street, Dublin 2, Ireland.
- You have the right to access personal data we hold which relates to you, and related information including how we acquired such data where it wasn’t provided by you, and the purposes for which it is being used.
- You have the right to have inaccurate personal data rectified. If you discover that we hold inaccurate personal data about you, you have a right to instruct us to correct that information.
- In certain circumstances, you have the right of erasure. This means that you can request that Concern removes any and all references to you from our records and systems. We will comply with all such requests in a timely manner, as required by GDPR, unless a permissible exemption to erasure applies, for example a legal obligation that requires us to retain your data.
- You have the right, at all times, to object to marketing communications. When we receive an objection from you, such as by unsubscribing from electronic marketing communications or opting out of postal marketing, Concern will stop sending marketing communications to that number, email or postal address.
- You may also have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, where that processing is based on our legitimate interests, unless we have compelling grounds or otherwise need your data for legal reasons.
- Where we process your personal data based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time with effect for the future. The withdrawal of your consent does not affect the use of your information before the withdrawal.
- You also have the right to request that we restrict our processing of your data, and a right to data portability, i.e. the right to have your data transmitted to you or another party in a portable format, which may be applicable in certain circumstances.
- Concern creates a profile of donors in order to inform our direct marketing. We describe this in the table above. If you wish to object to this profiling please contact dpo@concern.net or preferences@concern.net
Complaint
If you feel your personal data has been processed inappropriately, please let us know and we will do everything we can to rectify the situation. You can email our DPO at dpo@concern.net
You have the right to lodge a complaint with a regulator such as our supervisory authority, the Irish Data Protection Commission, another EU supervisory authority or, in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Disclosure of your information
We share your personal information with any member of our Group of organisations, which means our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries. We share your information with selected third parties including:
- Partners, suppliers and sub-contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into with them for a specified purpose (for example, printers, banks, payment service providers, payment software solution providers, data analysts, SMS and email marketing providers, social media platforms, data verification service providers, and tax authorities);
- Institutional donors; In some cases we are required to share personal data of beneficiaries with our institutional donors as part of the funding agreement in order that they assess the progress of the programme and provide services themselves.
- Advertisers and advertising networks that require the data to select and serve relevant adverts to you and others.
- Analytics, web developers and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our site.
We may disclose your personal information to third parties in the following circumstances:
- In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.
- In the event that we restructure or reorganise our organisation in which case we may disclose your Personal Data to the relevant parties.
- If any Concern entity or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it will be one of the transferred assets.
- If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms and conditions and other agreements, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of any of the Concern entities, our beneficiaries, our service recipients or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of national security, fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
Where we send and store your personal data
We transfer and store data globally. Where we transfer, store or otherwise process personal data outside the EEA we ensure appropriate safeguards, contractual or otherwise, are in place and in compliance with applicable data protection law. Concern also transfers data collected in accordance with this Privacy Statement to Concern Worldwide UK. We also transfer data to other countries where our partners, vendors, service providers and other third parties are located outside of the EEA, for the purposes described in this policy.
We rely on Adequacy Decisions from the European Commission where they recognise that certain countries and territories outside of the European Economic Area ensure an adequate level of protection for personal information. We transfer data from the European Economic Area to countries including the US, UK, Belarus and Georgia. For transfers to jurisdictions that do not benefit from an Adequacy Decision, Concern relies on Standard Contractual Clauses or the EU/US Data Privacy Framework, as applicable. If you would like a copy of our Standard Contractual Clauses, please contact dpo@concern.net.
Concern takes all reasonable steps necessary to ensure that your personal data is processed securely and in accordance with this Privacy Statement.
All information you provide to us is stored on secure servers. Any payment transactions will be encrypted using SSL technology. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone.
Changes to our privacy statement
Any changes we may make to our privacy statement in the future will be posted on this page. Please note that we will email you with any material changes to this statement.
Please check this Privacy Statement occasionally to see any updates or changes to our privacy statement.
Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy statement are welcomed and should be addressed to: The Data Protection Officer, Concern Worldwide, 52/55 Lower Camden Street, Dublin 2, Ireland or DPO@concern.net or call 01 417 7700.
This page was last updated in September 2025.
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