Effective Date: 20 July 2026
Mercy Care Trust (“we”, “our”, or “us”) is committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring that your personal information is handled responsibly, securely, and in accordance with applicable data protection laws, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Mercy Care Trust is a registered charity in England and Wales.
Registered Charity Number: 1175037
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, share, and protect your personal information when you visit our website, make a donation, volunteer, contact us, apply for a role, or otherwise engage with our charity.
1. Who We Are
Mercy Care Trust is a charitable organisation based in Birmingham, United Kingdom. We work to relieve poverty, provide humanitarian support, promote mental health and wellbeing, and develop community initiatives, including the establishment of a food bank.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we process your personal information, please contact us using the details provided in the Contact Us section below.
2. Information We Collect
The information we collect depends on how you interact with Mercy Care Trust.
Personal Information
We may collect personal information such as:
- Full name
- Postal address
- Email address
- Telephone number
- Date of birth, where relevant
- Emergency contact details for volunteers, where appropriate
Donation Information
If you make a donation, we may collect:
- Donation amount
- Donation history
- Payment confirmation
Online payments are processed securely by our payment providers. We do not store your debit or credit card details on our website.
Volunteer and Employment Information
If you apply to volunteer or work with us, we may collect:
- CV or employment history
- Qualifications
- References
- DBS information, where required
- Right-to-work documentation
- Skills and experience
Website Usage Information
When you visit our website, we may automatically collect certain technical information, including:
- IP address
- Browser type
- Device information
- Pages visited
- Time spent on our website
- Information collected through cookies and similar technologies
3. How We Use Your Information
We may use your personal information to:
- Respond to enquiries and requests
- Process and administer donations
- Manage volunteers
- Administer recruitment processes
- Deliver our charitable services
- Keep you informed about our work where you have agreed to receive updates
- Improve our website and services
- Comply with legal and regulatory obligations
- Prevent fraud and maintain the security of our website and services
We will only process your personal information where we have a lawful basis to do so under applicable UK data protection law.
4. Lawful Basis for Processing
Depending on the circumstances, we may process your personal information on one or more of the following lawful bases:
- Consent – where you have given us permission to process your information for a specific purpose.
- Contract – where processing is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you.
- Legal obligation – where we are required to process information to comply with the law.
- Legitimate interests – where processing is necessary for the legitimate interests of Mercy Care Trust or a third party, provided your rights and interests do not override those interests.
- Vital interests – where processing is necessary to protect someone’s life or safety, where applicable.
5. Sharing Your Information
We do not sell or rent your personal information.
Where necessary, we may share information with trusted third parties, including:
- Payment processing providers
- IT, hosting, and website service providers
- Professional advisers
- Government bodies and regulators where required by law
- Law enforcement agencies where legally required
Third parties processing personal information on our behalf are required to handle it securely, confidentially, and in accordance with applicable data protection requirements.
6. Keeping Your Information Secure
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against:
- Unauthorised access
- Loss
- Misuse
- Alteration
- Unauthorised disclosure
- Destruction
While we take reasonable measures to protect your personal information, no method of transmitting or storing information over the internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
7. How Long We Keep Your Information
We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary to:
- Fulfil the purposes for which it was collected
- Meet legal and regulatory requirements
- Resolve disputes
- Maintain appropriate financial and organisational records
When personal information is no longer required, we will securely delete or anonymise it in accordance with our applicable retention practices.
8. Cookies
Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to improve your browsing experience and understand how our website is used.
Cookies may help us to:
- Understand how visitors use our website
- Improve website functionality and performance
- Remember user preferences
- Analyse website traffic
You can control or disable cookies through your browser settings. Disabling certain cookies may affect how some parts of the website function.
9. Your Rights
Under UK data protection law, you may have the right to:
- Request access to the personal information we hold about you
- Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information
- Request deletion of your personal information where appropriate
- Request restriction of processing
- Object to certain types of processing
- Request transfer of your information (data portability), where applicable
- Withdraw your consent at any time where processing is based on consent
These rights may be subject to certain legal conditions and exemptions.
If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details below.
10. Marketing Communications
We will only send you newsletters, fundraising updates, or other marketing communications where we have an appropriate lawful basis to do so.
Where communications are based on your consent, you may withdraw your consent or unsubscribe at any time by:
- Clicking the unsubscribe link included in our emails
- Contacting Mercy Care Trust directly
11. Third-Party Websites
Our website may contain links to websites operated by third parties.
Mercy Care Trust is not responsible for the privacy practices, security, or content of third-party websites. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any external website you visit.
12. Children’s Privacy
Our website is not intended to knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13 without appropriate parental or guardian consent.
If we become aware that we have unintentionally collected personal information from a child in circumstances where appropriate consent was required, we will take reasonable steps to delete the information.
13. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in legislation, regulatory guidance, our services, or the way we process personal information.
Any updated version will be published on this website with a revised effective date.
We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to remain informed about how we protect your information.
14. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your data protection rights, or have concerns about how your personal information is handled, please contact:
Mercy Care Trust
Registered Charity No. 1175037
Birmingham, United Kingdom
Email: info@mercycaretrust.org
15. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, we encourage you to contact Mercy Care Trust first so that we have an opportunity to address your concerns.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent regulator for data protection.
Further information about your data protection rights and how to make a complaint is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office.