Privacy Policy

The Children’s Inn at NIH

The Children’s Inn at NIH (“The Inn,” “we,” “us”) deeply values your privacy. This notice explains what information The Inn collects, how it is used, and how we protect your privacy. This notice applies to information we receive by mail, through social media platforms, or online via our childrensinn.org and related websites, such as name, address, phone number, email address, and credit/debit card information. We also collect information on families who will be staying at The Inn. We may also collect information about you from other publicly available sources and combine it with information you have voluntarily provided us to streamline our fundraising processes.

Information We Collect

When you use our site, we may collect the following information from you:

• Your name, comments, and/or contact information if you provide feedback to us from an online survey.
• Your name, contact information, and credit card information if you make a donation to The Inn online; credit card information is used only for processing payments and is not stored on our systems in order to comply with applicable laws.
• Your name, comments, and/or contact information if you register for services or complete any of our forms online.
• Your name and contact information if you sign up to receive newsletters or updates on job openings.
• Your device parameters, such as the type of device you are using, the date and time of your site access, your browser type, IP address, and other information about how your device interacts with our site.
• The location of the device you are using to access our site helps us enhance our site, deliver relevant content, or request support.
• The other information you have provided to us, such as comments or questions.

Remember, even if you provide us with your email address, we will never send you an email asking for your credit card information or your Social Security number.

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act

The Inn does not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from children (minors under 13) on our online platforms without parental or guardian consent. If you are a parent or guardian and become aware that your child has provided us with information, please contact us using any of the methods outlined below.

How We Use Information

The information we collect is used to verify residents' eligibility to stay at The Inn, respond to questions, thank donors, inform about special events and marketing campaign initiatives, or provide other updates, for which you may opt out. Personal data is never shared with advertisers. Like other nonprofits, The Inn does rent/exchange its donor lists with other nonprofits to reduce expenses so that additional funds may go towards supporting The Inn’s mission. To facilitate our fundraising activities, we participate in certain “cooperative databases,” as do many other reputable charitable organizations. This means that we occasionally contribute donor names and postal addresses to a shared database that other participating organizations also access. Note that the cooperative database does not allow participating organizations to identify donors to the nonprofit or access donation amounts, but may identify a donor as being interested in a particular type of charitable organization (e.g., child health). Our partner organizations will not have continued access to your name and address unless you choose to respond to their mailings. They may also be required to comply with certain laws or guidelines concerning your information, such as the Direct Marketing Association’s guidelines for ethical business practice. We do not sell your information or share your email address with cooperative databases.

The Inn may also use algorithms to provide our constituents with better and more personalized services. Different technologies are used to process information and recognize patterns in data. For example, data about constituents’ interactions with The Inn and our campaigns are analyzed to optimize future communications and interactions. The Inn may combine data collected across sources, including publicly available information.

If you decide you do not wish to have information shared with other nonprofits, The Inn will remove your name and address from lists that are rented/exchanged. To request that your information be removed, please email us at communications@childrensinn.org or call 301-496-5672, and we will honor your request.

How We Disclose Information

The Inn engages technical services from various companies. These organizations may have access to your information if needed to perform the functions they were hired to address, and for no other purpose. We will not release or use this information for any other purpose unless we have your consent.

To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may disclose your information if required to do so by law to comply with state and federal laws, in response to a court order, judicial or other government subpoena or warrant, or to otherwise cooperate with law enforcement or other governmental agencies.

We also reserve the right to disclose your information that we believe, in good faith, is appropriate or necessary to (i) take precautions against liability, (ii) protect ourselves or others from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful uses or activity, (iii) investigate and defend ourselves against any third-party claims or allegations, (iv) protect the security or integrity of the site, or (v) protect our property or other legal rights (including, but not limited to, enforcement of our agreements), or the rights, property, or safety of others.

Social Media and Third-Party Links

The Children’s Inn at NIH believes the information on our social media pages may be helpful to our families and supporters. Sharing this information does not indicate an official endorsement from The Inn of the organizations that originated the information. 

The Inn reserves the right to remove any content (posts, comments, or creative visuals) that contains profanity, discrimination, spam, misinformation, copyright infringement, violence, and/or the promotion of such. 

The Inn does not control the privacy and security practices of sites not owned by The Inn, and we encourage you to check their privacy policies. The Inn also works with analytics service providers, such as Google Analytics, and other vendors, to provide us information about traffic to The Inn’s site. To prevent technology companies from collecting this information, you may be able to install opt-out browser add-ons. For more information, go to Google Analytics Opt-outs. 

Data Security

The Inn uses appropriate physical, managerial, and technical safeguards that are designed to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and security of personal data that we collect and maintain against accidental or unlawful loss, theft, and misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, destruction, or any other type of unlawful processing. All sensitive/credit information is transmitted via Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and then encrypted in our payment gateway providers’ database, accessible only by those authorized with special access rights to such systems and required to keep the information confidential. 

The Inn takes the security of the personal information you provide very seriously, and we take reasonable measures to safeguard it in accordance with our Privacy Statement. We comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (“PCI DSS”) for financial transactions and the information we collect from you. Unfortunately, no website, server, or database is completely secure. The Inn cannot guarantee that your information will not be disclosed, misused, or lost by accident or by the unauthorized acts of others. The Inn’s computer systems are based in the United States, and your information will be processed there, where data protection and privacy laws may not offer the same level of protection as in other parts of the world, such as the European Union. By using any portion of our online platforms, you understand and consent to the transfer of your information to the United States and those third parties with whom we share it as described in this privacy policy.

Your Choices Regarding Your Personally Identifiable Information (both public and non-public)

We will provide you with the means to ensure that personally identifiable information in your account file is correct and current. You may review this information by contacting communications@childrensinn.org or 301-496-5672.

You should be aware that it is not always possible to completely remove all your information from our databases, as some residual data may remain due to backups and other factors.

Please also keep in mind that any opt-out choices you make will not apply in situations where: (a) you make a specific request for information from us or (b) we use your personally identifiable information for either operational purposes (e.g., to complete transactions requested by you, or to send you administrative communications either about your account with us or about features of our site, including any future changes to this Privacy Notice, the Terms of Use, or any other policy or terms that affect you and your use of our site) or fulfillment purposes (e.g., completing any transaction that you execute).

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

Updates to our privacy notice will be posted on this page. The policy's effective date will be listed.

Contact

If you would like to update, correct, or remove your name from our mailing list, you may unsubscribe online or by contacting communications@childrensinn.org or 301-496-5672. You may also contact us at:

The Children’s Inn at NIH
7 West Drive
Bethesda, MD 20814