Helene Marks Early Start Foundation (“HMESF”, “we”, “us”, “our”) is strongly committed to protecting the privacy of our donors, website visitors and other individuals who communicate with us. We wish to help you better understand the information we gather, how we handle it, whether we disclose it to anyone, and your options regarding our use of, and your ability to correct, this information. The following Privacy Policy applies when you visit this website (the “Site”), make a donation to HMESF or purchase an item from us, either online or otherwise, or otherwise share your personal information with us as discussed below. By visiting our Site, you are accepting this Privacy Policy.

Credit Card Transactions

If you make a donation, either online or otherwise, or purchase an item from HMESF, we will request certain personally identifiable information about you (such as your name, address, telephone number, email address, and credit card information). This information enables us to process your transaction and communicate with you about it. In addition, we may use such information to improve our marketing and promotional efforts, keep you updated about our work, analyze website usage, and improve our Site's content, layout, and services.

When you send personal information to us by submitting an online form on our Site, [the information you transmit to us travels by high-grade encryption using the https protocol]. The information is accessible only by designated employees trained in the proper handling of customer 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.] While we take reasonable precautions to ensure the security of the information entrusted to us, please be aware there are risks associated with conveying information through the Internet and that third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications.

We do not sell, rent, or exchange our mailing list to or with other organizations that solicit donations or sell any products. We may employ other companies to assist with functions such as processing online donations and credit card payments. These companies have access to personal donor information as needed to perform their functions. While we take reasonable precautions to ensure the companies we work with use industry standard techniques to ensure data security, we are not responsible for the privacy practices of any other companies or Internet sites. If you prefer to make a donation or purchase by postal mail or by phone, you may contact us at [ ].

Other Information

Through our Site or otherwise, you may decide to submit personally identifiable information (such as your name, postal address and email address) for purposes other than donating (such as receiving an email newsletter or further information as to a particular topic). We collect and store this information and use it for the purposes for which you submitted it. In addition, we may use such information to improve our marketing and promotional efforts, keep you updated about our work, analyze website usage, and improve our Site's content, layout, and services. While we do not share this information with any third parties and take reasonable precautions to ensure the security of the information entrusted to us, please be aware that there are risks associated with conveying information through the Internet and that third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications.

Other Disclosures

Please be advised that we may 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.

Normal Browsing

We do not collect any personally identifying information from you when you visit our Site unless you choose to provide such information to us. [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, 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.] We may use such information to improve our marketing and promotional efforts, analyze website usage, and improve our Site's content, layout, and services.

We may also use cookies, which are small text files that a website transfers to a site visitor's hard disk or browser for added functionality or for tracking site usage. Our cookies do not capture or store any personally identifying information about you, or any data about your past usage of our site. We use information captured by cookies only for blind statistical analysis and to tailor our communications with the public. [Our cookies are deleted when you end your session by leaving our Site or closing your browser.]

External Links

This Site contains hyperlinks to other websites. Unless we expressly state otherwise, the fact that we have provided a link to another website is not an endorsement, authorization, sponsorship, or affiliation with respect to such site, its owners, or its providers, and we make no representations whatsoever concerning the content of those sites. We are also not responsible for the privacy practices of any other Internet sites, including those sites to which we hyperlink.

Updating Your Information

We work to process and maintain accurately the information that you share with us. If you have donated to us and would like to correct or update your personal data or to adjust your mail preferences, you can do so by calling us at [ ], or by sending us the update via postal mail sent to [ ].

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may, from time to time, make changes to our Privacy Policy, by posting such changes on the Site. When we post changes to this Privacy Policy, we will revise the “last updated”
date at the top of this Privacy Policy. Your use of the Site following the posting of an updated Privacy Policy constitutes acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy. We encourage you to periodically check back for updates.

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 Manhattan, New York.