Privacy Policy

Directions For Our Youth, Inc. (DFOY) is strongly committed to protecting your privacy, whether you’re a donor, website visitor, or anyone else who communicates or connects with us.

The following Privacy Policy applies when you make a donation to Directions For Our Youth, Inc., or when you visit our site: www.dfoy.org. It also applies to other situations when you choose to share your personal information with Directions For Our Youth, Inc.. By visiting our websites, you are accepting this Privacy Policy.

Donor information

If you make a donation, either online or otherwise, we’ll request certain personally identifiable information about you (such as your name, address, telephone number, email address, and credit card information). This information ensures that we can securely process your donation and communicate with you about it. We may also use your information to improve our promotional efforts, keep you updated about our work, analyze website usage, and improve our website’s content, layout, and services.

If you share personal information about others with us, or if others give us your information, we will only use that information for the specific reason it was provided.  For example, if you ordered a gift or made a donation in someone’s name, we may collect the name and address of the gift recipient in order to deliver the gift or notify the recipient. We will only use this information for the specific purpose it was provided. If you believe that someone has shared your personal information with us and you don’t want to be included in our database, please let us know so that we can remove you. Call us at 212-362-4020 or email info@dfoy.org.

Sharing with third parties

In the interests of improving your experience and the services we can offer you, we may share your information with third-party business partners, such as a direct mail provider or marketing agency. If you don’t want us to share your personal information with these third-party business partners, such as a direct mail provider or marketing agency, please contact us at 212-362-4020 or email info@dfoy.org.

We do not sell or rent our mailing list to other organizations that solicit donations or sell any products. Directions For Our Youth, Inc. employs companies to help us host our donor information database, send postal mail and email, model our data, and process online donations and credit card payments. These companies need to have access to personal donor information, but we require them to keep it confidential. They are only authorized to use this information as necessary to provide their specific services to us.

We hold onto your information as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you with services, comply with our legal obligations, or resolve disputes and enforce our agreements. If you’d like us to remove your contact information from our systems, or to know what kind of information we have stored about you, please contact us at 212-362-4020 or email info@dfoy.org. (For more information, see the Security section below.)

Other information

If you shared personal information like your name, postal address, and email address for purposes other than donating (such as receiving an email newsletter or invitations to events), we collect, store, and use this information primarily for the purposes it was submitted.

We may also use this information to improve our communication with you and provide additional information about our work that we think would be of interest to you. We may share this information and material with you via online social platforms, websites, phone, text/SMS, postal mail, or email, as permitted by applicable law.
We do not share this information with any third parties except those that provide us with certain services like database hosting (as described above).

Employment

If you have used the Directions For Our Youth, Inc. website to seek employment or a volunteer position at Directions For Our Youth, you may have submitted (through our sites or otherwise) personally identifiable information. This might include your name, address, telephone number, email address, and any other personally identifiable information requested in online or offline forms, as well as an electronic or paper copy of your resume/CV). Any of this information is strictly private. No information stored or submitted in such forms will be used for any purpose other than to assess your qualifications as an employee or volunteer for Directions For Our Youth, Inc.

Other disclosures

We may be required to disclose your personal information to the government or to third parties pursuant to law enforcement inquiries, court orders, subpoenas and similar requests, or when we otherwise believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary or appropriate in connection with any activity that violates the law or may expose us to liability.

Security

The personal information that you provide is stored in a secure location and accessible only by designated employees trained in the proper handling of donor information. We employ industry standard techniques such as firewalls, encryption, intrusion detection, and site monitoring to protect your personally identifiable information from unauthorized access by users inside and outside the organization.

We do everything we can to safeguard your personal information. That said, the reality is that “perfect security” does not exist on the Internet. Third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications. If you have any questions about the security of your personal information, you can contact us at 212-362-4020 or email info@dfoy.org.

Normal browsing

Directions For Our Youth, Inc. does not collect any personally identifying information from you when you visit our sites unless you choose to provide it to us.

You can safely browse the Directions For Our Youth, Inc.’s site without telling us who you are or revealing any information about yourself. As is typical for organizations with websites, the information we gather during normal browsing comes from two sources: standard server logs collect information such as the IP (Internet Protocol) address, domain name, browser type, operating system, mobile related information if you access our website using your mobile device, and information such as the site that referred you to us, the files you downloaded, the pages you visited, and the dates/times of those visits. This information is used to improve our website by making it more easily navigable and ensuring that visitors can easily find what they’re looking for.

Cookies and tracking technologies

We want to make sure our website is a valuable resource that enables visitors like you to find the information you’re seeking. In order to meet that goal, Directions For Our Youth, Inc. and its partners use cookies, session replay/capture or similar technologies to analyze trends, administer the website/donation forms, track users’ movements around the website/donation forms, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole.

A cookie is a small piece of text that stores information on your browser in your computer’s hard drive. It carries a general marketing source code with you as you explore the site. This cookie does not capture or hold any personally identifying information about you and is deleted when you end your session by leaving our site or closing your browser. We use cookies as part of campaigns in order to analyze trends, gather broad demographic information, and monitor site traffic patterns that can help us further develop and improve the design and functionality of our site.

We also use cookies for “retargeting” in our internet advertising campaigns so that third party vendors, including Google, can show you advertising about Directions For Our Youth, Inc. as you browse the Internet. Retargeting makes it possible for us to connect you with specific outreach messages, encourage you to revisit our website, or consider donating.

The use of cookies does not affect your anonymity. Cookies are only used to obtain non-personal information. If you prefer, you can usually set your browser to refuse cookies, or to notify you when you receive a new cookie. You can also opt out of receiving cookies on the Directions For Our Youth, Inc. website for Google advertising by visiting the Google advertising opt-out page (http://www.google.com/privacy/ads/#toc-edit).

Please keep in mind that if you disable cookies, it may limit your use of certain features or functions on our website.

To manage Flash cookies, please click here. Our website includes social media features, such as the Facebook “Like” button, and widgets, such as the “Share This” button. These features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or directly on our website. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policies of the companies providing them.

We may work with data providers to target advertising to you personally through online and offline methods including email, display media, and direct mail. This advertising may be directed to you because you visited or logged in to our website. When we generate this advertising, data we collect from you through online cookies and other technologies may be combined with other de-identified data (such as a hashed, non-readable email, or postal address) in order to tailor ads to you based on your preferences and other information. To learn more about targeted advertising, these providers, or how you can opt out, please visit the DAA’s consumer choice page at http://www.aboutads.info/choices.

Technologies other than http cookies may be used by third parties in a similar way, to recognize the email recipients’ computer or device and to keep track of which user identities match to which devices or browsers. Those technologies may not respond to browser settings that block conventional cookies. You can learn more about opting out of many of these types of technologies by visiting the NAI’s opt-out page at http://www.networkadvertising.org.

External links

The fact that Directions For Our Youth, Inc. has provided a link to a site should not be interpreted as an endorsement, authorization, sponsorship, or affiliation with respect to the site, its owners, or its providers. There are risks associated with using any information, software, or products found on the Internet, and Directions For Our Youth, Inc. encourages you to make sure you understand these risks before retrieving, using, relying upon, or purchasing anything via the Internet.

Please be aware that Directions For Our Youth, Inc. is not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites—even if they are linked to from our web pages.

Note to parents & children

As an youth development organization, Directions For Our Youth, Inc. welcomes children to learn more about our organization and how they can participate in our programs. We also want to make sure we are respectful of the privacy of our young users. We encourage parents to monitor their children’s use of the Internet and to help us protect their privacy by instructing them never to provide personal information on this site or any other without permission.

We will never attempt to extract unnecessary information from our users, regardless of age. Consistent with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (“COPPA”), we will never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without prior verifiable parental consent. If we become aware that a child under 13 has provided us with this information without consent, we will use our best efforts to remove it from our files. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that a child under 13 has provided such information to us, they should contact us at 212-362-4020 or email info@dfoy.org.

Updating your information

We are always working to keep the information you share with us up-to-date. At any point, you can contact us to request details about whether we hold any of your personal information. If you have donated to us and would like to access, correct, update, or delete your personal data or adjust your mail preferences, please let us know. You can update that information by calling us at 212-362-4020, email info@dfoy.org, or mail the update to Directions For Our Youth, Inc., 26 Bruckner Blvd 5th Floor Bronx, NY 10454.

Opt-out preference

If you’d like to stay up-to-date on our work with youth and the community, you can sign up to receive email, newsletter, or other communications from us. If you ever want to stop receiving this information, you can easily update your email preferences by using the “Unsubscribe” link found in emails we send you or at your member profile on our website. To opt out of SMS messages, simply reply STOP to cancel. Message and data rates may apply. You can also update your preferences by contacting us at 212-362-4020 or emailing info@dfoy.org.

SMS Messages

Directions For Our Youth, Inc. may use SMS or text messaging services to communicate with our supporters, families, and other contacts, in an effort to share the latest DFOY news. Message frequency may vary, typically once per month. Standard message and data rates may apply. Your consent to receive these marketing text messages is not required as a condition of services from Directions For Our Youth, Inc. Texts may be sent using an automatic telephone dialing system.

To opt out of SMS messages, simply reply STOP to cancel. Message and data rates may apply. To update your preferences, contact us at 212-362-4020 or email info@dfoy.org.

Changes to this privacy policy

We occasionally make changes to our Privacy Policy based on your comments and our need to update and accurately explain our data collection and disclosure practices. We encourage you to periodically check this page to see the latest privacy information.

Questions or suggestions

Your voice is important to us. We want to hear what our site visitors and donors have to say about our services and our policies. If you have any questions, concerns, or complaints about this Privacy Policy, please send an email to info@dfoy.org, call us at 212-362-4020, or write to us by mail: Directions For Our Youth, Inc., 26 Bruckner Blvd 5th Floor Bronx, NY 10454.

Governing law

You agree that your use of this Privacy Policy and any disputes relating thereto shall be governed in all respects by the laws of the State of New York. Any dispute relating to this Privacy Policy shall be resolved solely in the state or federal courts located in the Bronx, New York.