Last updated: 1 September 2025
Policy owner: Data Protection Officer, The Devon Farmers' Benevolent Fund
This Privacy Policy explains how The Devon Farmers' Benevolent Fund collects, uses, stores and protects personal data about you. It applies to everyone who interacts with us — supporters, donors, volunteers, grant applicants, referrers, partners and website visitors.
The Devon Farmers' Benevolent Fund is a data controller registered with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). We are committed to processing your data in accordance with the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations.
Who we are
The Devon Farmers' Benevolent Fund
Registered charity in England & Wales: No. 1133149
Registered office: 1 Brockhill Lodge, Station Road, Broadclyst, Exeter EX5 3AR, Devon
What personal data we collect
We collect only personal data that is necessary and relevant to the way you interact with us. Depending on context this may include:
- Contact details — name, email, postal address, telephone number.
- Donation information — amount, frequency, payment reference (we do not store card details), Gift Aid declaration status.
- Communication preferences — how and whether you want to hear from us.
- Volunteer and referrer information — role, organisation, areas of Devon covered, skills.
- Hardship application information (a special category for us — see below).
- Website usage data — IP address, browser type, pages visited, collected through cookies (see our Cookie Policy).
- Correspondence — records of emails, letters and messages where relevant to our work.
Hardship applications — additional protections
Because hardship applications involve sensitive personal information about a farming household's financial, medical and family circumstances, we treat them as a specially-protected category of data. Specifically:
- Hardship application records are held in a secure, access-controlled system accessible only to the trustees and grants committee members who need them.
- We do not use applicant data for any purpose other than considering the application and administering the grant.
- We do not share hardship application details with third parties, with the exception of essential processing (e.g. bank transfer of a grant) or where we are legally required to do so.
- We retain hardship application records for a maximum of six years after the close of the application, after which they are securely deleted, except where the Trustees have an overriding safeguarding or legal reason to retain them.
How we collect your data
- Directly from you, when you donate, volunteer, subscribe to our dispatches, complete a form on our website, or write to us.
- From a trusted referrer (with your consent), when a hardship application is made on your behalf.
- Automatically via our website and analytics tools, with your consent where required.
- From public sources, for due diligence on major gifts or partnerships (in line with Fundraising Regulator guidance).
How we use your data
We use your personal data for the following purposes:
- To process donations and claim Gift Aid on your behalf where you have confirmed your eligibility.
- To consider hardship, education and research applications and administer any grants made.
- To send communications you have asked for — newsletters, dispatches, updates on specific grants.
- To respond to enquiries, complaints and feedback.
- To manage volunteering, referrer relationships and partnerships.
- To improve our website and administration.
- To comply with legal and regulatory obligations — Charity Commission, HMRC, safeguarding.
Legal bases for processing
- Consent — for marketing emails, most website cookies, and any sensitive data processing.
- Contract — where you have entered into an agreement with us (volunteer, supplier, grant recipient).
- Legitimate interests — to administer donations, acknowledge gifts, and keep supporters informed in a proportionate way.
- Legal obligation — including tax, safeguarding and charity reporting requirements.
How long we keep your data
- Donation and Gift Aid records — at least six years for tax purposes.
- Hardship application records — up to six years after close of application, then securely deleted.
- Volunteer records — for the duration of your involvement and up to three years after.
- Marketing consent records — as long as you remain opted in, plus a short audit period after unsubscribing.
- General enquiries — up to two years.
Who we share your data with
We do not sell or rent your personal data. We may share it with:
- Service providers acting on our behalf (e.g. payment processors, hosting providers) — contractually bound to protect it.
- HMRC, for Gift Aid claims.
- Regulators or law enforcement where legally required, or for safeguarding purposes.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Rectification — ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
- Erasure — ask us to delete your data in certain circumstances.
- Restriction — ask us to limit how we use your data.
- Portability — request your data in a machine-readable format.
- Object — to processing based on legitimate interests, including direct marketing (which we will stop immediately on request).
- Withdraw consent — at any time, where we rely on consent.
To exercise any of these rights, contact our Data Protection Officer at dpo@devonfarmersbenevolent.org.uk. We respond within one calendar month. There is no fee unless a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.
Cookies
Our website uses cookies — see our Cookie Policy for full details.
Security
We take the security of your data seriously and apply technical and organisational measures appropriate to the risk — including encrypted storage of hardship applications, access controls for trustees, and secure transmission via HTTPS. In the unlikely event of a data breach affecting your rights, we will notify you and the ICO as required by law.
Children's data
Our work is primarily with adult farmers and farming families. Where our programmes (such as educational grants) involve children indirectly, we process their data only to the extent necessary and with appropriate parental consent. Our website is not intended for children under 13.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, please contact us first at dpo@devonfarmersbenevolent.org.uk. You also have the right to complain directly to the Information Commissioner's Office:
ICO · Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow SK9 5AF · ico.org.uk · 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The most recent version will always be posted on this page with an updated "last updated" date.