Privacy Policy

Information We Collect

We collect information directly from you when you:

• Contact us — your name, email address, phone number (optional), and the content of your message.
• Make or intend to make a donation — your name, email address, and organization (unless you choose to give anonymously), along with the amount and frequency you select. Payment itself is completed on Stripe's own secure payment page, not on this website — see “Donations and Payment Processing” below.
• Comment on or like a news story — the name and message you provide with a comment, which are shown publicly on that story.

We also automatically assign every visitor a temporary, anonymous session identifier (via Firebase Anonymous Authentication) the first time you submit a form, leave a comment, or like a story. This identifier lets us attribute your own submissions to you (for example, so you can't like the same story twice) and does not, by itself, include your name or contact details. We do not use advertising trackers, analytics cookies, or third-party marketing pixels on this site.

How We Use Your Information

• To respond to questions submitted through our Contact page.
• To follow up on a donation, including reconciling it against payments received through Stripe.
• To moderate and display comments left on our news stories.
• To recognize donors publicly on our Impact page — but only when a donor has not chosen to give anonymously, and only after our staff has separately confirmed the donor wishes to be featured. Donor email addresses and donation amounts tied to an individual are never made public.
• To maintain the security and proper functioning of this website.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to anyone, and we do not use it for advertising.

Donations and Payment Processing

This website does not process card payments or store any payment card information. When you choose to donate, we record your stated intent (name, email, amount, and frequency, unless anonymous) and then redirect you to a secure payment page hosted by Stripe, Inc. to complete your gift. Any payment details you provide there are collected and processed directly by Stripe under Stripe's own privacy policy — we never see or store your card details.

Who We Share Information With

We use a small number of service providers to operate this website, each of whom processes information on our behalf and under their own security and privacy commitments:

• Google Firebase — hosts our database and handles authentication for staff and anonymous visitor sessions.
• Cloudinary — hosts images used on this website (programs, stories, team photos).
• Stripe — processes donation payments, as described above.

We do not share your information with any other third party except where required by law, to protect our legal rights, or with your explicit consent.

What's Public vs. Private

Comments you leave on a news story are public and visible to anyone who visits that page, along with the name you submit with them. Contact form submissions and donation records are never public — they are visible only to authorized ULF staff. A donor's name and total gift amount appear publicly on our Impact page only when the donor did not choose to remain anonymous and our staff has separately marked that record for public recognition.

Cookies and Local Storage

This website does not use advertising or analytics cookies. We use your browser's local storage only for functional purposes — for example, remembering a staff member's dark/light mode preference in our admin dashboard. This information stays in your own browser and is never sent to us or any third party.

Data Retention

We keep contact messages, donation records, and comments for as long as reasonably necessary to operate this website and maintain our records, or until you ask us to delete your information (see “Your Rights and Choices” below).

How We Protect Your Information

All information submitted through this website is transmitted over encrypted (HTTPS) connections. Contact messages and donation records are stored in a database that only authenticated ULF staff can access, and staff accounts are further restricted by role — for example, only administrators can confirm a donation or feature a donor publicly. No method of storing or transmitting information is 100% secure, but we take reasonable, industry-standard measures to protect it.

Your Rights and Choices

You can ask us to access, correct, or delete the personal information we hold about you, or ask us to stop using it, by contacting us using the details below. If you are a donor who has already been featured publicly and would like to be made anonymous instead, let us know and we will remove your name from public view.

Children's Privacy

This website is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.

International Visitors

United Link Foundation operates offices in Nigeria and the United States, and the service providers listed above operate data centers in multiple countries. By using this website, you understand that your information may be processed and stored outside of your own country of residence.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for legal or operational reasons. We will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page when we do.

Contact Us

If you have questions about this policy or how we handle your information, contact us at info@unitedlinkfoundation.com or at one of our offices:

• Nigeria Office: 10 Elder Marcus Street, Rumuepirikom, Port Harcourt 500101, Rivers State
• United States Office: 13811 Heatherstone Dr, Bowie, MD 20720, USA