Privacy
Privacy Notice
Please click here for our Donor Privacy Policy & Donor’s Bill of Rights.
We at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago (“BBBS,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) respect your concerns about privacy and value the trust you have placed in us. This Privacy Notice describes the types of personal information we collect, how we use it, with whom we share it, and the choices available to you. It covers information collected through our website, enrollment and application forms, and other interactions with our organization. We tell you how you can update your contact information, remove your name from our mailing list, or contact us with any questions you may have about our privacy practices.
What types of information does BBBS collect and use about me?
We may collect personal information from you in several different ways. Please read through the section that describes how you are interacting with us for more information.
When you apply to be a Big. When an adult applies to become a volunteer Big, we collect personal information from you through our application, including your name, address, phone number, email address, and date of birth. We also collect employment and background information, references, and the results of required background checks conducted through a credentialed screening provider. Background checks are required of all adult volunteers.
When you apply for a child to become a Little. A parent or legal guardian may apply for a child to become a Little, and through that process, we may collect information about the child, including the child’s name, date of birth, grade level, school, and zip code. We also collect the parent or guardian’s name, relationship to the child, and contact information, as well as information the parent or guardian voluntarily shares about the child’s interests, goals, and any special needs or considerations that would help us make a successful match.
When you use our website. When you visit our website, we may collect information from you such as your IP address, browser type, device information, referring URL, pages you visit, and time spent. We use cookies and similar tracking technologies on our website to understand how you use our website, to improve your experience, and to measure the effectiveness of our online outreach. You can adjust your browser settings to refuse cookies, although some features of our website may not work as intended in that case. For more information on how we use cookies, please see “Cookies and Web Beacons” below).
When you make a donation or purchase. Please see our Donor Privacy Policy & Donor’s Bill of Rights for more information about how we handle donor information.
When you sign up for our newsletter or respond to other BBBS communications. You provide us with your email address or phone number so we can send you the information you requested, including communications with BBBS alumni and information about legislative issues important to BBBS. You may provide us with survey information to help us learn more about your preferences.
When you contact us. If you reach out to us through our website, by phone, or by email, we may collect your name, contact information, and the contents of your message in order to respond to you.
Information about Children and Teens. Our Site is not intended for persons under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information online from persons in this age group. We reserve the right to delete any information identified as having been provided by such persons.
How does BBBS use the information?
We use personal information about you to:
- Review and process applications from volunteer Bigs and families enrolling Littles.
- Conduct required background checks on adult volunteer applicants.
- Enroll Big Brothers and Big Sisters and children and youth.
- Communicate with you about program activities, schedules, and updates about program activities, schedules, and updates.
- Send newsletters, event invitations, impact reports, and other communications to supporters.
- Enable you to make donations to BBBS and communicate with you about donations and donation appeals.
- Enable contact with BBBS alumni.
- Share information about BBBS, including through targeted marketing and outreach campaigns, including on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and others, and on platforms such as Google.
- Offer program participants, from time to time, discounts and rewards provided by our supporters.
- Communicate Agency updates with you through our newsletter.
- Comply with applicable law and protect the safety of the children and families in our program.
- Improve our website and organizational communications.
Does BBBS share personal information with third parties?
BBBS does not trade, sell, or rent personal information about you to third parties for their own marketing purposes. We do share this information with service providers we have retained to perform services on our behalf, but these service providers are not authorized by us to use or disclose the information, except as necessary to perform services on our behalf or to comply with legal requirements. We also may disclose information about you to other members of the BBBS family (such as our National Organization, which may have their own privacy policies) and as required by law. We share information as follows:
- Service providers we have hired to help us operate our programs, website, database, email platform, background check services, and payment processing. These providers are authorized to use your information only as necessary to perform services for us.
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (our national organization) and other members of the BBBS network, which may have their own privacy policies. We encourage you to review those policies.
- Matched volunteers and families, on a limited basis: once a Big and Little are matched, each party receives only the information about the other that is necessary to support the mentoring relationship, as authorized by the parent or guardian.
- Advertising platforms (such as Meta, LinkedIn, and Google), in the limited manner described above.
- Legal and safety disclosures: when required by law, court order, or when we believe disclosure is necessary to protect the safety of a child or other individuals.
SMS Terms & Conditions. By enrolling in BBBS program services, you consent to receive text messages from us at the telephone number you provided, including program-related communications, reminders, surveys, and updates.
For HELP, please contact us at (312) 207-5600. To opt out of receiving messages, reply with “STOP” at any time. Message frequency may vary. Standard message and data rates may apply.
No mobile information will be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.
Donations/Event Ticket Purchases. When you make an online donation or purchase a BBBS event ticket, you may choose to give us contact and payment information (such as credit card information) so we may process your order. When you pay for a BBBS event ticket or make a donation using a credit card, we use your credit card information only to fulfill your order and for other internal purposes.
Contact Us Link. If you contact us via our website, we may ask you for information such as your name, address and email address so we can respond to your questions or comments. Unless you consent, we do not retain this information except to respond to your inquiries.
How does BBBS protect personal information?
The security of personal information is a high priority for us. We maintain safeguards to protect against unauthorized disclosure, use, alteration and destruction of the personal information in our possession. For online transactions, we use SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption — you will see “https” in your browser address bar. No data transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. If you believe your information has been compromised, please contact us right away.
What are my choices?
Opt out of communications. To stop receiving email communications from us, click the “unsubscribe” link in any email, or contact us at bbbschgo@bbbschgo.org from the email address we have on file. To stop receiving text messages from BBBS, reply STOP.
Update your information. To update your contact information, please email us at bbbschgo@bbbschgo.org from the email address we have on file.
How does BBBS update its Privacy Notice?
We will update this Privacy Notice from time to time to reflect changes in our programs or practices. When we do, we will update the date at the top of this page. For significant changes, we will provide additional notice as appropriate.
Cookies and Web Beacons
In order to help enhance the performance and functionality of the Site, our website uses session, persistent and third-party “cookies” that store a small piece of data on a users’ computers and collect certain information about your visit to and interactions with our Site. We also use cookies to understand your browsing activities so that we can measure the success of online advertising campaigns we run on the Site. Our Site also uses web beacons (either directly or from our partners) to determine if you have visited our website previously and remember your preferences. These beacons aid in providing more relevant advertising to the user, as well measuring the success of an advertising campaign, but provide no personally identifiable information.
Cookies are small text files that web servers are placed on your device when you visit a website, and can be accessed by web servers when the user visits a website or views an advertisement. A session cookie is a cookie that stores information as a user is using the Site but is deleted once the browser session is finished. A persistent cookie is a cookie that stores information as a user utilizes the Site and stores and uses that information in connection with future visits of the user to the Site. Third-party cookies and/or web beacons are cookies or web beacons provided by our technology and/or advertising partners.
The cookies and web beacons we use collect information including the browser used to access the site, date and time, the URL of the page being loaded, users who have visited a particular website(s), any previously assigned cookie identification (a unique identifier assigned to a user to identify repeat visitors), browser window size, the geographic location of the user, device and operating system used to access the Site. The information we collect from these cookies and web beacons is used to determine information about a user’s visit to our Site, including the number of visits, average time spent, pages viewed, navigation history through the website, and other statistics. This information is used to enhance the users experience while visiting our Site and to improve the performance of our Site by, among other things, allowing us to monitor Site performance, making the Site easier to use, measuring the effectiveness of promotional placements, and tailoring the Site (including the ads and offers a user receives) to better match a user’s interests and preferences.
You can change the settings of your internet browser to delete all cookies and prevent the use of cookies. The Help function in your browser should provide information on how to configure your cookie preferences. You can also visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout for information on how to opt out of Google Analytics cookies. By continuing to use our Site, you are agreeing to our placing cookies and/or web beacons on your computer in order to analyze the way you use our Site. Please read this cookie policy carefully for more details about the information we collect when you use the Site. If you do not wish to accept cookies or web beacons in connection with your use of this Site, please discontinue use of the Site.
Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to websites operated independently of BBBS. We provide those links for your convenience only and are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those sites. We encourage you to review the privacy notices of any sites you visit.
How can I contact you?
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago
130 S. Jefferson St., Suite 200
Chicago, IL 60661
(312) 207-5600