Privacy statement Direct Social Communications

Direct Social Communications BV (Victor Rauterstraat 33, 1070 Brussels, KBO 0427.917.874 - hereinafter "DSC") is a communications agency that helps non-profit organisations design and implement fundraising campaigns.

Below you can read more about our activities and processing of personal data in the context of fundraising campaigns for our partner organisations.

Our activities
For what purposes do we process personal data?
What personal data are processed?
How long do we keep personal data?
How do we secure personal data?
External service providers
What rights do you have?
Our contact details
Adjustments to our privacy policy

Our activities

Non-profit organisations can realise their goals only if they have the necessary resources. Therefore, they rely on donations from companies, from other organisations and from individuals.

It is therefore important for these organisations to appeal to the widest possible target audience when realising their projects and fundraising campaigns. This is why many organisations use professional agencies such as DSC. We organise fundraising campaigns for these organisations and ensure their follow-up. For example, we ensure that donors receive a tax certificate on behalf of the organisation concerned if they are entitled to one.

For what purposes do we process personal data?

As a service provider, we process personal data on behalf of our clients. These are donor and prospect data used to set up and follow up fundraising campaigns.

Furthermore, we also process personal data as a data controller. If someone has made a donation to an organisation working with us, that person's address title, name, address and donation details may also be provided to DSC. The donors concerned are of course informed of this in advance by the association concerned.

We then process this data in our own database to allow it to be used for similar fundraising purposes by other non-profit organisations. Thus, when you make a donation to a particular organisation, you may also be contacted by another organisation to inform you about their projects and similar opportunities to make a donation to their charity. If you then make a donation to that organisation, your details will be included in their database. If you do not make a donation, your details will obviously not be included in that organisation's database.

The transfer of personal data to DSC is based on the legitimate interest to ensure that charitable organisations can obtain funds to further their mission.

Sometimes we also receive address files from third parties. These include subscribers to newspapers, magazines or newsletters, consumers, members of associations, donors of organisations that do not cooperate with us, participants in competitions or surveys, etc. We then obtain these addresses for one-off use for an organisation's specific fundraising campaign.

For more information on the third parties involved or the list of organisations working with us, please contact us (see "Our contact details").

What personal data are processed?

Personal data processed as part of fundraising campaigns are address title, name, language, gender, address and donation details. In addition, we may also process the e-mail address, date of birth and other information if the donor voluntarily provides that information and consents to the use of that information for campaigns and their follow-up.

The state registration number of a donor can be processed if this number is provided voluntarily and is only used for stating the number on the tax certificate (when the donor is entitled to it).

For certain fundraising campaigns, personal data are selected based on specific profiles such as gift history, age or personal preferences.

We also ensure that the personal data we process, as processors or controllers, are accurate and complete. If data subjects or third parties (e.g. a banking institution or bpost) communicate changes in donors' personal data to us or to organisations working with us, they are amended in the file and the data are updated.

Sometimes we also enrich our or customers' files with additional data such as phone numbers.

How long do we keep personal data?

Data that we process as processors on behalf of our clients we keep in accordance with the guidelines of the organisations involved.

Personal data we process in our own file will be kept for 10 years after the donor last made a donation. During this period, the donor's personal data may be used for fundraising campaigns. After that, the personal data will be deleted or anonymised.

We will no longer process your data on our files for the purposes described in this privacy statement if you let us know that you no longer wish us to do so. You can read more about this under "What rights do you have?".

How do we secure personal data?

We make every effort to protect personal data as much as possible. We ourselves store personal data on well-secured physical servers and cloud environments in Europe. When we cooperate with other service providers, we also require a similar level of security from them.

External service providers

We use external service providers for the execution and follow-up of fundraising campaigns. For the production of direct mail campaigns, we rely on our sister company Direct Operations bv, which works with a supplier headquartered in the United States for some productions. Innovairre Communications LLC also processes personal data outside the European Union. Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC) have been entered into with this supplier, as imposed by the European Commission. A copy of these standard contractual clauses can be obtained through us upon request.

We ensure that the service providers we work with process personal data in accordance with the terms of this privacy policy and applicable law. We also enter into processor agreements with our processors.

What rights do you have?

If we process your personal data in our file under our responsibility, you may inspect it, have it amended or deleted. You can also oppose processing or request its restriction. If you exercise your right to oppose processing, your right to oblivion or your right to data erasure, we will retain your data based on our legal obligation to allow you to exercise your right and to respect your wish not to be contacted by us or our customers any more.

You can also ask for an extract of your data in our database within the legal conditions. In this case, we will ask you to send a copy of the front of your identity card with your request so that we can verify that you are the actual applicant.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint regarding the processing of your data with the Belgian Data Protection Authority, via e-mail to contact@apd-gba.be or by letter (Printing Press Street 35, 1000 Brussels).

Our contact details

If you wish to exercise your rights or have a question, you can reach us via e-mail (donateurs@dsc.be) or via this contact form.

You can contact us by phone on 02 302 40 84. We can be reached every working day from 9am to 1pm and from 1.30pm to 5.30pm.

You can of course also write a letter to "Donors Service", rue Victor Rauter 33, 1070 Brussels. Our DPO ("Data Protection Officer" or "Data Protection Officer") can be contacted at the same postal address.

When contacting us, please provide your full name and address as it appears on the correspondence you received. This will allow us to check whether your details are kept in our address file or whether we have rented your details from third parties.

If you contact us, we will treat your data with care and only use it to exercise your right and respect your wishes.

Adjustments to our privacy policy

This document was last updated on 28/06/2022.

We have tried to make this privacy policy as clear and comprehensive as possible. If there are any significant changes to the way we process your personal data, you can find these changes in our privacy policy on this page.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please contact us by phone, e-mail or post (see "Our contact details").