Your data

What data we collect and why we collect it

The British Birds Charitable Trust (BBCT) is a charity whose prime asset is the shareholding in BB 2000 Limited, publisher of British Birds. It also raises funds for its charitable objects, supporting ornithology and the conservation of birds, and makes charitable grants from funds raised and the distributable surplus from BB 2000 Ltd.

In order to conduct our activities, we obtain details of private individual donors (name and address) which we use to enable us to reclaim tax from HMRC.

We will also have names, addresses and sometimes other contact details of individuals who are either candidates for grants and awards or the named contact were the candidate is a group or organisation. Where the grant applicant is under the age of 18 years, of their parent or guardian. Without these details we would not be able to notify candidates of the decision on their award or send them the payment.

We do not share the information with any other organisation, except that the names of successful individual recipients of awards, or their representatives, will be passed to BB 2000 Limited for publication in British Birds as part of the promotion of the trust and its work. Applicants for grants who apply using BB 2000 Limited’s website will supply their personal contact information as part of such route for their application.

As the collection and use of this personal data is an essential part of the charity’s work in administering grants and it is only used for such purpose, we rely on the legitimate interest ground in the General Data Protection Regulations.

Storage and security

The personnel who keep the information we receive are as follows:

Donors’ names and addresses – these will be held by the trustee responsible for financial administration, the names being shared among trustees for information purposes and with directors of BB 2000 Limited, the trust’s trading subsidiary.

Names and addresses of individuals nominated to represent grant applicants. These will be held by the trustee or trustees responsible for administering the trust’s principal grant making activity. The name and address of the contact of the successful nominees will be supplied to the chair, the trustee responsible for financial administration and to the administrator of BB 2000 Limited to enable cheques for the grants to be drawn, signed and dispatched.

Names and addresses of individuals nominated for young persons’ awards. These are collected and held by individuals to whom the trust delegates running the scheme. The name and address of successful applicants will be supplied to the trustee responsible for grants and the administrator of BB 2000 Limited to enable cheques to be drawn, signed and dispatched.

All trustees and the others responsible for administering donations and grants store this information on personal computers, protected by off the shelf anti-virus software. As part of the trust’s regular meeting agendas, trustees will be reminded of the need to delete personal information for applicants, or contacts for applicants, when the information is no longer required. BB 2000 Limited itself has a data protection policy for personal information it holds or processes.

All individual information (other than names of successful individual donors and grant applicants, which will be kept permanently as a record of their success and the activities of the trust) will be deleted once used for consideration of grants, acknowledgement of donations and reclaiming tax on gifts under covenant, subject to retaining donor details for a period as recommended for data for tax purposes by HM Revenue and Customs.

Although we do not currently do so, we may carry out some analysis of the grant applications we receive, and the source of individual donations to enable us to understand better the effectiveness of our fundraising and donation activity which will be carried out before such data is destroyed, but the results of the analysis will not include any individual’s data that would enable any donor, grant recipient or nominee to be identified. No other processing of data will be undertaken. 

Your rights in relation to data we hold

Under UK and EU data protection legislation, individuals whose data is held by an organisation have rights in relation to such data. These are (in outline, and insofar as relevant to our activities) rights to be informed of the information held, to be supplied with copies, to require details to be corrected or updated, to require deletion of information no longer needed, and to restrict the use of data or its processing. Should you wish to exercise any right, please contact the trust’s chair (currently Neil Bucknell, c/o 4 Harlequin Gardens, St Leonards on Sea, TN37 7PF).