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You, our alumni, supporters and friends, are extremely important to us. Whether supporting our students from all backgrounds to achieve extraordinary things or contributing to our life-changing research to fight diseases, tackle global challenges and change society, your help makes the incredible happen.
We value our relationship with you and would like to send you relevant communications, offering beneficial services, thanking you for your support and sharing future opportunities for providing support which may be of interest to you. To do so, we need to process your personal information.
We are committed to protecting your personal information and being transparent about what we do with it. This Privacy Notice sets out how we, University of Nottingham of University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD (the “University”), telephone number: +44 (0) 115 951 5151 process the personal data we collect for alumni and supporter engagement activities, including volunteering, fundraising and advocacy. We are the data controller for personal data relating to you that we process.
What information do we hold?
We hold a range of personal data about you, the vast majority of which we obtain from you. Depending on your relationship with us, examples of categories of personal data which we may hold are:
- personal identifiers and biographic information (for example your name, gender, date of birth, student/ alumni number)
- contact details and communication preferences (for example email address)
- information about your time at University (for example courses studied, society memberships, scholarships received)
- professional details (for example where you work, your position)
- your current interests, activities and accolades
- relationships to other alumni, supporters and friends
- your support for the University (for example your donations, volunteering or advocacy)
- your engagement with the University (for example event attendance, direct communications with us)
- how you may support us (for example likelihood and capacity to donate or volunteer)
Special categories of data
We may occasionally process special categories of personal data (as defined under article 9 of UK GDPR). We will only do so with the consent of the data subject, or where the data is manifestly public. The data is used for clearly defined purposes (such as recording dietary or access requirements for event attendance). Special categories data will only be retained in the context for which it was originally collected (for example data collected as part of an event response will only be used for that event).
How we obtain your data
If you are a former student, your record will have been created when you graduated (or earlier if you have benefitted from or supported our work). If you are a supporter or friend, your record will have been created when you became involved in our work.
As our relationship develops, much of the data we hold is provided by you. For example, when you provide us with updated contact details, change your communication preferences, take advantage of our services, register for an event or support us by making a donation or volunteering.
We pay attention to how you interact with us and will record this information. For example, whether you open or click on our emails, your interactions with University-operated social media accounts, and what you visit on our websites.
We sometimes obtain information about you from publicly available sources. For example social networking sites, company websites, dedicated business websites (for example Companies House) or publications and articles in the media (for example the Queen’s Honours List), and may use trusted external companies to do this on our behalf.
We may analyse the above to create additional information about you. For example, to assess your level of engagement, your likelihood and capacity to donate or volunteer and potential areas of interest for future communications.
How do we use it and why?
In general terms, we process your personal data for the purposes of alumni and supporter engagement activities, including volunteering, fundraising and advocacy.
We only process data for specified purposes and if it is justified in accordance with data protection law.
We use your data to:
Purpose of data use and justifications
Purpose | Legal Basis | Justification |
Data Sharing |
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Import of data, as detailed above, into The Raiser's Edge, including new graduates, Emeritus Professors, Honorary Graduates, Queens Honours, Student Union Inspirational Awards and Vice-Chancellor's Medal recipients |
Legitimate Interest |
Important to maintain records of University alumni, award winners and Emeritus Professors. |
Internal research and analysis for purposes including email analytics, KPIs, monitoring performance and quality where there is no direct impact on data subjects |
Legitimate Interest |
Data is used to report on office projects/activities. |
Publishing donor data |
Consent |
Donors, who have not expressed a wish to remain anonymous, are added the University's online Donor Roll of Honour. Data published is their name and year of graduation. |
Scholarship Award Recipients |
Contract |
Students in receipt of a scholarship will be made aware that their data will be shared with other University departments as part of their agreement. It is important that the University is able to carry out its obligations effectively. |
Sharing of alumni data with other University schools/departments |
Legitimate Interest |
Important to ensure the University can speak effectively to its alumni community (e.g. the Nottingham in Westminster network) |
Sharing of alumni data with external bodies for the purposes of inviting alumni to participate in non-statutory benchmarking exercises. |
Legitimate Interest |
Benchmarking exercises are a significant way for the University to demonstrate the excellence of its offering to prospective students (e.g. the Financial Times' Business Education Rankings or the Economist's MBA rankings) |
Events |
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Event attendees guest lists and additional requirements |
Consent |
Attendees are asked if they have any additional requirements for the event they are attending - these may need to be shared with catering/event staff to accommodate dietary or special requirements. Consent is requested for sharing data at the event with other attendees (e.g. guest lists) |
Event briefing meetings |
Legitimate Interest |
Important to know who is attending University events and for staff to be briefed in order to support at the event. |
Fundraising |
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Conferring naming honours |
Legitimate Interest |
Allows the University to make a decision on whether it should name a University resource after an individual or organisation. |
Due diligence for gift acceptance |
Legitimate Interest |
Important to protect the University from potential reputational damage and to comply with the University's Gift Acceptance Policy. |
Major gift fundraising solicitation plans |
Legitimate Interest |
A bespoke plan is drawn up to communicate with major gift prospects in a way that they would find engaging and on topics they would enjoy. |
Propensity/predictive modelling for fundraising activities |
Legitimate Interest |
Allows the University to better understand who has the capacity to give and to what level. Also excludes those who do not have the capacity or inclination to give. |
Wealth screening |
Legitimate Interest |
Allows the University to gain an understanding of the potential gift capacity of prospects. This is usually completed by comparing data the University holds with other publicly available sources. |
Soliciting support (e.g making donations, community fundraising, advocacy and volunteering) |
Consent Legitimate Interest |
Where solicitations of support are made electronically, the legal basis for doing so is consent, where solicitations are made by non-electronic means, this will be under legitimate interests. |
General Processing |
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Sending emails to recent graduates inviting them to participate in the annual Graduate Outcomes Survey and sharing data with HESA for the purposes of contacting students to encourage them to respond. |
Statutory Obligation/ Legitimate Interest |
The HESA survey is a statutory task of HESA to complete and we are required to share information with HESA for the purposes of undertaking the survey. The University also relies on its legitimate interest in contacting students to invite them to participte in the survey to allow us to understand how students are experiencing their learning and teaching and to benchmark ourselves against other institutions to consider via league tables whether the experiences and patterns reported nationally are reflective of our own students’ experience.
This processing activity is important for the University as it provides a way of obtaining feedback on programmes, courses, teaching and facilities from a large sample of students.
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Approving membership to the University of Nottingham Alumni LinkedIn Group (including updating employment details) |
Legitimate Interest |
Important to create an online network for University alumni and for the University to maintain accurate records for alumni employment details. |
Cascade application forms and feedback from completed projects |
Contract |
Students or staff in receipt of monies from the Cascade Project will enter into an agreement with the University. Individuals who are unsuccessful will provide consent in order for the University to process their application. |
Email selection and preparation for mass communication |
Legitimate Interest |
Important to ensure the correct people are selected for mass communications (e.g. newsletters, event invites and mass fundraising appeals). |
Ensuring you are thanked for your support (e.g. sharing stories from those who have benefited from your support via our magazine) |
Consent |
Important to ensure our supporters are aware of the impact their gift, whether volunteering or financial, has made. |
Facilitating consideration and awarding of honorary awards to recognise significant achievement |
Legitimate Interest |
Important to ensure that those who have made significant achievements are recognised by the University. |
Identifying future opportunities for providing support which may be of interest to you (e.g. asking you to speak to current students or fund our research into children’s brain tumours) |
Legitimate Interest |
Important to ensure that our alumni and supporter's needs and expectations are met. It means the University can speak with its audience on topics that they are interested in. |
Interviews for alumni/supporter publications |
Consent |
Interviewees volunteer to take part in interviews in which the University may publish across various channels (e.g. website, social media and/or alumni magazine) |
Offering you beneficial alumni-focused services (for example, events and webinars with sector-leading experts, networking opportunities, mentoring and careers advice, volunteering opportunities, and the latest updates and news from the University) |
Contract |
Important to deliver and alumni relations service that benefits new graduates (up to 3 years post graduation). |
Updating contact details and preferences |
Consent |
Individuals in contact, or those who wish to be in contact with the Campaign and Alumni Office can update their details either online or through paper forms. |
Volunteering application data and registering of interest for future roles |
Consent |
Individuals who wish to volunteer for roles with the University will provide consent for their information to be shared with relevant University departments and relevant committees/boards. Those who wish to register their interest for future volunteering roles give their consent for the University to process their data. For individuals who have completed a volunteering role a contractual agreement will be in place. |
Gift Processing |
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Alumni Survey (data preparation for mailing list & online survey population) |
Legitimate Interest |
Surveying alumni helps to strengthen future communication activities, review progress against University objectives and helps to improve upon the life-long relationship between alumni and the University. |
Gift Processing (including gifts via third parties - e.g. JustGiving) and gift agreements where required and collection of gift aid, where approropriate. |
Contract |
It is necessary that data is processed for individuals who have donated to the University. The University and the individual enter into a contractually agreement to ensure both sides can fulfil their obligations. Where a gift agreement is required these will be shared with relevant University departments in order to allocate the funds to the correct areas. |
Processing non-alumni community fundraiser data |
Consent |
It is necessary that data is processed for individuals who have donated to, or in aid of, the University. |
Processing of Small Change Big Impact donations and communications |
Consent/Contract |
It is necessary that data is processed for individuals who have donated to the University. The University and the individual enter into a contractual agreement to process donations, and the University relies on consent via a soft-opt in under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations for the communications, as it is reasonable to assume that donors are interested in the impact of their donations and opportunities for additional fundraising. |
Legal basis & justification
Legitimate interest in providing a robust infrastructure to support the disbursal of Cascade funding (as a related student experience programme). Contractual necessity for successful applicants / projects.
The legal basis for processing your personal data in the context of our relationship with alumni and supporters is that it is necessary for the pursuit of our legitimate interests to support our vision to deliver an outstanding student experience, world changing research and a mutually beneficial alumni and supporter community. In addition, there are some tasks which are carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of our official authority, for example the completion of Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education/Graduate Outcomes survey.
Who do we share it with?
Within the University, your data is available only to staff who have received appropriate training and have a genuine reason for accessing this information. Staff may include current students who are employed as callers in our telephone campaigns.
If you donate and agree to add Gift Aid to your donation, we will share donation details with HMRC necessary to process this claim.
We share data with companies processing data on our behalf (for example a mailing house to send our alumni and supporter magazines, or software providers). These companies are carefully vetted and appropriate agreements are put in place to ensure the security of your data.
We are required to disclose some personal data of graduates to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) for the purpose of a survey of new graduates.
We may disclose some personal data of graduates to other external agencies for the purposes of participating in recognised benchmarking exercises, including but not limited to the Financial Times' Business Education Rankings or the Economist's MBA rankings.
Sometimes to achieve the purposes for which we are processing your personal data we may need to share your personal data with other organisations based outside the European Union. If this is necessary, we will ensure that there are appropriate safeguards in place to protect your personal data.
We will never sell your data to other companies or charities.
When do we transfer data overseas (outside of the European Union)?
The University of Nottingham also works with suppliers and partners who may make use of Cloud and/or hosted technologies. We undertake data security due diligence on our partners, ensure that suitable contracts are in place and that these partners conform to appropriate accreditations.
Wherever these transfers take place, the University will have an appropriate contract in place and there are strict rules regarding the confidentiality and security of your information in place to safeguard it.
How long do we keep your data?
We will retain your data indefinitely in support of your lifelong relationship with the University or until there is no longer a legal basis for holding it or you object to use of your data for direct marketing purposes.
Where can I get more information?
If you have any questions about this notice, please contact the alumni relations team.
We will keep this privacy notice under regular review and we will place any updates on this web page.
This page was last updated on 20 October 2023 at 16:25 (GMT)
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