Canopy is an international environmental not-for-profit dedicated to protecting the world’s forests, species, and climate, and supporting the advancement of traditional and indigenous communities’ rights by harnessing the power of the global marketplace. 

Canopy
1726 Commercial Drive,
Vancouver, BC
Canada V5N 4A3
Tel: +1 604 253-4808
Email: info@canopyplanet.org
Registered Society # S- 45706

Privacy Policy

The purpose of this policy

To fulfill our conservation aims and objectives we need to communicate with a range of people in a variety of ways: face to face, via post, telephone, or electronic mail, on social media, and through our website. To be effective, we need to collect and store data provided to us by donors, potential donors, supporters of our work, visitors to our website, guests at our events, brand and conservation partners, and suppliers. This data will always and only be used to further our charitable aim: to protect Ancient and Endangered Forests

This policy explains the nature of the personal data we collect and why we collect it. Our aim is to ensure that we are transparent and honest about the data we collect and to give users a better understanding and control over the data we maintain about them.

Canopy is fully committed to protecting the privacy and security of everybody we communicate with.

What is personal data?

Personal information is ‘any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified in particular by reference to an identifier.’ An identifier could be a name, email address, telephone number, social media handle, photograph, address, payment details, organizational affiliation, etc.

What personal data do we collect?

We collect data you knowingly and voluntarily give to us, including information you provide when you register for our newsletter, make a donation, communicate with us – through a face-to-face meeting or via email or post, attend one of our events, use our website or interacting with us on social media. This data may include:

  • Personal details (name, email address, telephone contacts, and postal address)
  • Financial information, such as gift aid information
  • Details of your interests and preferences, such as project and event interests as well as how you would like us to communicate with you
  • Organizational affiliation
  • We also maintain a record of your activities and involvement with Canopy so that we have a history of event attendances, donations, interests, and inquiries. This assists us in improving our communications with you.

Why do we collect personal data?

As an environmental not-for-profit, our key goal is to protect Ancient and Endangered Forests globally. To do this, we need to keep our supporters and partners up to date with our work, we need to support our brand partners and we need to engage in fundraising, which depends on us developing and maintaining open channels of communication with various individuals and organizations. We collect personal data in order to:

  • Maintain a list of people who have donated to us before so we can keep them updated on the impact of their donation;
  • Keep information on donors up to date;
  • Keep donors, supporters, and partners informed of events we are running that we think will be of interest to them;
  • Keep a record of donors who we think may wish to donate to our work in the future;
  • Keep supporters, donors, partners, and anybody who has shown an interest in our work (e.g. through signing up for our newsletter, adding an email address to a list at one of our events) up to date with our latest news;
  • Monitor usage of our website and social media output, evaluate and improve the content on our website;
  • Analysis: We may carry out analysis on our, donors and partners to determine the success of our efforts to inform our approach and understand how we can improve our communications and engagement;
  • Maintain a list of people who we are in regular communication with;
  • Maintain a list of people who have opted out of any of our communications so we know not to contact them.

How we communicate with you

Sending our news and markets updates

So that we can keep partners, supporters and donors informed of our activities we send out a newsletter by email every two months. Our newsletter gives information on our work, our team, our events, and other activities we undertake. We view providing this information as an essential part of serving our donors, supporters, and partners.

Any recipient can unsubscribe from our newsletter by using the ‘Unsubscribe’ option in the email or by contacting us (contact details above).

If you do not currently receive our newsletter but wish to receive it, you can sign up, either through our website or by contacting us at info@canopyplanet.org.

Sending information on events and fundraising

We will continue to send information to our donors, supporters, and partners who have worked with us in the past, however, recipients are free to change their contact preferences at any time by contacting us by telephone, post, or email (contact details above) or by using the unsubscribe option in the email they receive. New supporters will be asked if they would like to opt-in to receive it via our newsletter or through our website.

Communicating with donors

  1. For European countries only: Our legal basis for the collection and processing of personal data to do this is ‘Legitimate Interest’.
  2. For European countries only : Our legal basis for processing data to send email invitations for events and information on fundraising is ‘Consent’.

We send information to donors to fulfill our duties when we receive a donation. This may include updates on funded work and news about the organization.

Updating your information

Please let us know if your personal information changes. We would like to make sure we are only sending you the information that you are interested in and that it reaches you in the format you prefer. To update your information please contact us by telephone or email (contact details above).

Applying for a job with us

If you apply for a job with us, and you provide personal data such as the information on your CV, we will process and store the personal data we collect to:

  1. Support the recruitment and selection process
  2. Answer any questions you may have
  3. Use third parties to provide services such as references, qualifications, and verification of information you have provided.
  4. Undertake checks on criminal convictions

If you submit your personal information to a job board, online recruitment tool, social media platform, headhunting agency, etc. your details could then be passed to Canopy. We recommend that you ensure you have given your consent to that organization that may share your data. If we receive your details via a third party and are unclear about consent, we may either check with you before using your data further or fully delete the information.

If you do not join us as an employee for any reason, your data will be stored for a short length of time in line with our Data Protection Policy to ensure compliance with relevant legislation. [For European Countries: The legal basis we use for processing your data if you apply for a job is ‘Consent’.]

Bank account information

We do not keep bank account information for grantees and suppliers. This data is managed by Gift Tool a company that delivers web-based software solutions. so that they can fulfill contractual payments. View their privacy policy.

Data Security

Once we have received your information it will be stored electronically and is managed in accordance with our Data Protection Policy following strict control and security procedures to prevent any unauthorized access. We will keep your data for as long as we consider it necessary to carry out our activities, taking into consideration legal, taxation and accounting requirements.

Understanding exactly what data we maintain about you

You can contact us at any time to ask what information we hold on you and to update it or ask us to delete it. To do this please contact: info@canopyplanet.org

Or you can write to our Development and Operations Director at our postal address (1726 Commercial Drive, Suite 1, Vancouver BC V5N 4A3, Canada).

If you wish to verify the personal details we maintain about you, we require your full name, address, and email, and your relationship to Canopy. Please note that information will only be disclosed regarding the person making the request, or to someone who is acting on their behalf (such as a solicitor or someone with a verified power of attorney). We will ask for proof of identity before we release any information.

No mobile information will be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes. All other categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.

How long do we store your data?

This depends on the nature of our relationship with you. If you are a long-term partner or ongoing donor, we need to retain your personal data so we can communicate project updates and inform you of the impact of the work you have funded.

We need to communicate with partners, supporters, and potential donors about the work we undertake to meet our objectives, through a range of formats, including email communications. We also want to make partners and supporters aware of our events, via email.

We collect data through personal contact when someone has expressed an interest in learning more about Canopy’s work and supporting the aims and objectives of our organization. Processing their data to deliver email content fulfills this.

Those individuals who have given us personal data are interested in the environmental protection objectives of Canopy, which are for the public benefit. The individual’s interests are aligned with those of Canopy.

If at any point we get this wrong, we are committed to rectifying our mistake and keeping you informed.

Information collected by our web server

We collect aggregated information on site visitors, which we use to analyze the use of our website. We do not identify individual users. We use tools such as Google Analytics to learn what brings visitors to our website and which pages they view.

We retain all information you submit through our website, for example by registering for our newsletter or making a donation. If you have donated via a third party, such as GiftTool, Charitable Impact, or ActBlue, please refer to their Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Use of Cookies

Cookies are small text files that are collected by your browser from websites you visit which are then stored on your device. Cookies are widely used to enable website functionality – they make sites work more efficiently. There is no requirement to log in to the Canopy website, so the cookies used are generally for the purpose of analytics. Google Analytics uses cookies to help us understand where the site is being accessed from, the type of browser and operating system being used, the IP address of the user, and the pages being accessed, but it does not identify individuals. Use of Google Analytics enables us to better understand the needs of our online audience and to develop and adapt what we provide on our website accordingly.

Read more about the way Google Analytics uses cookies.

Our Newsletter

Canopy uses a third-party application called Mailchimp, which is an email marketing tool, to send out our newsletter and occasional communications around our work. This tool allows us to monitor very basic information such as the links subscribers to our newsletter visit, how many times they open the newsletter, and when a user unsubscribes. This helps us to understand which stories are of most interest to our supporter base and to adjust the content we include accordingly. View Mailchimp’s privacy policy.

Other websites

Our website contains links to external websites. Canopy is not responsible for the privacy practices and content of those sites and cannot guarantee that content linked to them will always be available.

Questions and Complaints

If you have a question concerning our Privacy Policy or you wish to make a complaint, please contact us at info@canopyplanet.org.

Or you can write to or telephone Fawzia Ahmad, Development and Operations Director fawzia@canopyplanet.org.

Changes to this policy

Our privacy policy may be updated to reflect any new regulations that may come into effect and will be published on our website.