Legal status and privacy policy

Legal status

The Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation Limited (RCH Foundation) is a public company limited by guarantee.

The RCH Foundation is endorsed by the Australian Tax Office (ATO) as an Item 2 Deductible Gift Recipient, known as an ancillary fund (ABN 15 007 143 142).

RCH Foundation No. 2 Trust is endorsed by the ATO as an Item 1 Deductible Gift Recipient. This means we are eligible to receive funds from Item 2 DGR entities such as philanthropic trusts, foundations and prescribed private funds (ABN 75 761 829 818).

The RCH Foundation holds Tax Charity Concession status. Therefore all donations of $2 and over are fully tax-deductible.

Privacy policy

The Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation (‘we’, ‘us’ or ‘our’) complies with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (including the letter and the spirit of the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) and any relevant State laws in relation to the management of personal information.

This Privacy Policy explains in general terms how the RCH Foundation protects the privacy of your personal information.  The RCH Foundation expects that associated organisations and fundraisers will abide by the practices set out in this Privacy Policy.

How we collect and handle your personal information

Unless you provide it to us, we do not seek to collect personal information about you or your child’s association with The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne (the hospital). When we do obtain names and contact details of potential donors from third parties, that information is not related to any contact that you or your child may have had with the hospital.

On occasions donors deliver their donations and associated personal information to the hospital. We are a related body corporate of the hospital and we handle donations instead of the hospital, so both entities interpret such a donation as intended for and given to us.

We do not obtain any health information from the hospital. On occasions donors give us information about a patient or former patient of the hospital or someone else who inspired their donation. While we value the sentiments involved, in accordance with APP 4.3 we will de-identify or delete the patient information (unless we separately have consent of the patient or former patient to its collection and retention, which we rarely seek).

Generally, the kinds of personal information that we collect includes the name, address, telephone numbers, e-mail address and contribution history of a donor, fundraiser or similar supporter. To the extent that we collect sensitive information for retention, such as health information, we only do so with the necessary consent (which may be the consent of a parent or guardian where applicable).

Our purpose for collecting personal information is to raise funds for the RCH. We use the information to enable us to send you information about research, education and fundraising events and activities. We may also use the information to contact you seeking financial support for the hospital or the RCH Foundation. From time to time we publicly acknowledge donors by name but will not name you if you request anonymity.

We will not disclose your personal details to an unrelated third party (other than a suitably contracted service provider) without your consent or as required by law.

Although the RCH Foundation works closely with the RCH, we will not disclose your personal information (including your donation history) to the hospital unless you give us your consent.

Occasionally we allow like-minded organisations to contact you with information that may be of interest. They allow us to do the same so we can reach more people with vital information. Please contact the RCH Foundation by sending an email to [email protected] or by contacting us if you do not want us to share your information.

Credit card information

The RCH Foundation recognises the importance of online payment security. The RCH Foundation website allows you to make a secure online donation via credit card. When you enter your credit card information, we encrypt the data on a secure server operated by us. You can verify the secure status of the donation page by clicking on the padlock icon in your browser.

Your encrypted credit card information is then transferred securely to an online payment system operated by Stripe. Stripe creates a secure connection with your bank and confirms if payment has been accepted. Stripe privacy policy can be viewed www.stripe.com

Although we encrypt your credit card information we do not retain your credit card number. If you choose to make a regular donation, your credit card details will be securely stored by Stripe which will automatically process the donation.

Security of your personal information

We have typical business processes in place to reasonably protect the security of your personal information, including physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online. Only authorised staff can access your personal information.

The computer system used by the RCH Foundation is located on-site at The Royal Children’s Hospital in a physically and electronically secure environment. Data is also kept on a software system and database provided under contract by an external commercial organisation. RCH Foundation believes that the contractor is bound, either by law or by contract, with the Australian Privacy Principles. It is possible as part of the contractor’s operating systems that personal information is stored on servers in foreign jurisdictions from time to time (which are not practicable to specify in this document), however all personnel of the contractor are obliged to comply with the contractor’s privacy practices.

Gaining access to the information we hold about you

The RCH Foundation will, upon request, provide you with information that we hold about you, unless there is an exception which applies under relevant privacy laws. Access can only be denied in certain circumstances.

You can contact us to request access to the personal information we hold about you or change your contact details by sending an email to [email protected] or by contacting us.

Unless there is an exception which applies under privacy laws we will provide you with a photocopy and/or printout of the information held by us within 14 days. No charge will be made for this service.

Keeping your personal information up to date

We take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up-to-date whenever we collect or use it. If you find that the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date, please contact us immediately and we will take steps to correct the information.

Opting out

We understand if you wish to ‘opt-out’ of receiving RCH Foundation material. You can send us an ‘opt-out’ notification at any time by sending an email to [email protected] or by contacting us. We will honour all requests to ‘opt-out’ of receiving material from the RCH Foundation.

Addressing your concerns

If you have a query on how your personal information is collected or used, or if you are concerned that we may have breached any requirement of the Australian Privacy Principles or any other legislative requirement applicable to the RCH Foundation, please notify our Privacy Officer by sending an email to [email protected] or by contacting us.

We take all complaints and concerns seriously. Our Privacy Officer will investigate your concerns, and respond to you within 14 business days of your concern being received by the RCH Foundation. If you are dissatisfied with the response, you may refer to the Australian Information (Privacy) Commissioner.

Whistleblower Policy

The RCH Foundation is committed to supporting people who wish to make a  complaint. The RCH Foundation takes issues raised seriously and, will escalate and act on them as a matter of priority. Privacy and confidentiality of information will be a priority in handling complaints.

Section 9.4AAA of the Corporation Act 2001 (Act) provides direction for this policy. People wishing to make a complaint and RCH Foundation employees are supported with the information and guidance contained within this policy

View the Whistleblower Policy here

 

Social media terms of service

The RCH Foundation welcomes contributions to our social media accounts and encourages discussion related to the projects we support, our donors, events and more. To ensure a safe environment for all members of our community, we ask users to abide by these Terms of Service and reserve the right to remove any content we deem inappropriate.

When posting please respect the views of other users and be aware that our accounts are accessed by minors. Accordingly, posts and contributions should be suitable for individuals of all ages.

All material posted by users must comply with the relevant service’s Terms of Use. In addition, users may not post any material that:

  • Is abusive, threatening, discriminatory or defamatory
  • Is unlawful, fraudulent, misleading or malicious
  • Infringes on the intellectual property rights of others
  • Is offensive, obscene or otherwise inappropriate
  • Is entirely off-topic or material that has been excessively reposted by a user
  • Advertises or offers to sell any good or services, contains spam or any other unsolicited commercial message

We reserve the right, in our absolute discretion, to remove, untag and/or report any posts, including those that violate these Terms of Service.

Users who breach these Terms of Service may be blocked from contributing, and the RCH Foundation accept no liability for any loss arising out of or in connection with Users being blocked from the relevant service or the deletion of a User’s content.

Comments and posts on our social media accounts do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the RCH Foundation its employees or affiliates. The RCH Foundation does not endorse this material and is not responsible for its accuracy.