Transparency in Protecting Your Trust and Personal Information.

This Privacy Policy details the commitment of Friends of Dane Arts (FoDA) to protecting the personal information gathered from our dedicated community members, including donors, volunteers, event attendees, grant applicants, and visitors to our official website (www.frsda.site). We recognize and respect the vital importance of data privacy and are dedicated to managing your information with the highest degree of care, transparency, and compliance with applicable legal standards. This policy serves as a comprehensive explanation of our practices, outlining precisely what information we collect, the specific methods we employ for its collection, the legitimate purposes for which we utilize this data, the limited circumstances under which it might be shared with third parties, and, crucially, the rights you possess regarding your own personal information. As an organization dedicated to fostering cultural vitality in Dane County, Wisconsin, the trust placed in us by our community is our most valuable asset, and this policy is designed to clearly articulate our commitment to safeguarding that trust in the digital and administrative spaces we operate within. This Policy applies to all interactions with FoDA, whether they occur through our digital channels, at physical events, or via traditional forms of communication such as postal mail or telephone. We urge you to read this document in its entirety, as its exhaustive detail is designed to provide you with complete clarity on our data stewardship practices, which are continually assessed and updated to reflect best practices and evolving legal requirements, ensuring your confidence in supporting our transformative mission.

The Information We Collect and Its Source

Tagline: Detail on Data Points Collected to Support Our Mission.

To effectively execute our mission—which involves strategic grantmaking, robust community outreach, and critical fundraising to sustain the arts in Dane County—Friends of Dane Arts collects various categories of personal information. The first and most significant category is Information You Directly Provide to Us, which is volunteered when you engage with us through specific actions. This typically includes Identification and Contact Data gathered when you sign up for our e-newsletter, register for an event, or fill out a volunteer application. This data encompasses your full legal name, residential address, preferred mailing address, telephone number, and primary and secondary email addresses. If you choose to become a donor or financial patron, we collect additional Financial and Transactional Data, including credit card or bank details required for processing single or recurring donations, though this sensitive payment information is never stored directly on our servers and is securely handled by PCI-compliant third-party payment processors like Stripe or PayPal. When you submit a grant application or a request for support, we collect extensive Professional and Artistic Data, which may include your curriculum vitae (CV), artistic portfolio samples, project budget breakdowns, organizational tax identification numbers, and demographic information related to your artistic practice or organizational leadership, which is used strictly for eligibility and reporting purposes. The second primary category is Automatically Collected Data resulting from your interaction with our website, which is collected via common web technologies such as cookies, web beacons, and analytical software. This includes your Internet Protocol (IP) address, geographical location derived from the IP address, the type of web browser and operating system you use, the specific pages and content you view on our site, the date and time of your visit, and the referral source that brought you to our platform, all of which helps us understand traffic patterns and optimize user experience. This category also includes advanced Tracking Data from cookies (session, persistent, and third-party) that allow us to remember your preferences, manage login sessions for restricted portal access, and measure the effectiveness of our online campaigns. The final category is Information Collected from Third Parties, which primarily involves public data sources, such as publicly available information on grant-funded projects or organizations, or aggregate data from reputable third-party services that help us segment our mailing list, allowing us to send more relevant communications and fundraising appeals to different donor segments without accessing sensitive individual data. The explicit depth of data collected is always proportionate to your level of engagement with FoDA; for instance, a simple newsletter subscriber provides far less information than a large-scale event sponsor or an active grant recipient, ensuring our collection practices remain responsible and minimized.

How We Use Your Information for Our Mission

Tagline: Processing Data to Deliver Programs, Services, and Cultural Impact.

The personal information collected by Friends of Dane Arts is utilized for several distinct, mission-critical purposes, all of which serve to enhance the cultural community of Dane County and ensure the sustainable operation of our organization. The fundamental use is Fulfilling Donor and Transactional Obligations, which involves processing and acknowledging your generous financial contributions, issuing official tax receipts promptly, and managing recurring donation schedules, all of which are essential for maintaining the financial integrity and charitable status of FoDA. Another core function is Direct Communication and Outreach, where we use your contact information to deliver our monthly e-newsletter containing updates on funded projects, artist spotlights, and upcoming cultural events, and to send targeted fundraising appeals and stewardship materials that explain the direct impact of your support on the community. We also utilize data for Internal Analytics and Program Improvement, analyzing aggregate data on website usage and user engagement to identify areas for technological improvement, ensuring our website is intuitive and accessible, and employing sophisticated analytics on donor patterns to better understand funding trends, allowing us to forecast resource needs and strategically plan future grant cycles. A major area of data usage is Grant Compliance and Reporting, as we are often required by major foundation grantors and government entities to report on the demographic reach, geographic distribution, and artistic discipline supported by our programs; this reporting utilizes aggregated and anonymized data derived from grant applications and program registrations, and personal identifying information is only used with explicit consent or as legally mandated to fulfill contractual obligations. Furthermore, we use collected data for Personalized Stewardship and Relationship Management, allowing our development team to appropriately recognize donors, such as listing names (with prior consent) in annual reports or on digital donor walls, and to tailor communications to reflect your specific interests—for example, ensuring a patron primarily interested in visual arts receives more specialized communications regarding gallery exhibitions than one focused solely on performance art. Finally, data is used for Security and Fraud Prevention, where transaction details and IP addresses are monitored to detect and prevent fraudulent donations or malicious activity against our digital infrastructure, thereby protecting both our organization and our legitimate supporters. Every processing activity is carefully considered to align with the core mission of arts enablement and community enrichment, ensuring that data usage is always responsible, strictly necessary, and directly contributes to our charitable purpose within the Dane County community.

How We Share and Disclose Your Personal Data

Tagline: Limited Sharing, Primarily with Vetted Partners to Deliver Services.

Friends of Dane Arts is steadfast in its commitment to minimizing the sharing of your personal information; however, to operate efficiently, process transactions, and communicate effectively, limited disclosure to specific, trusted third parties is essential for our modern organizational structure. The most frequent sharing occurs with our Essential Service Providers, which are external companies that perform necessary functions on our behalf under strict contractual agreements that prohibit them from using your personal data for their own independent purposes. This crucial category includes: Payment Processors (e.g., platforms handling credit card transactions for donations), who securely process financial data without FoDA ever storing the full card details; Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems (e.g., Salesforce or specialized donor databases), which securely host and organize contact and donation history to enable our stewardship and outreach efforts; and Email Service Providers (e.g., Mailchimp or similar platforms), who manage the technical infrastructure for sending our large-scale e-newsletters and marketing communications, ensuring you receive timely and relevant updates. We also share limited, relevant data with Event Management Platforms when you register for a specific FoDA event, allowing for ticket issuance, confirmation, and logistical planning for that singular event. Secondly, disclosure may occur due to Legal and Compliance Requirements; we may share information when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, legal process served on us, or governmental request, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of FoDA, our employees, or our community members. Thirdly, for specific, Opt-In Partner Initiatives, we may offer joint programs or events with specific, highly reputable arts organizations within Dane County; in these instances, we will explicitly seek your consent on the registration form to share your contact information with that single partner organization for communications related solely to that collaborative project, and you are always free to decline this consent without impacting your ability to register for the FoDA event. Finally, we must mention Public Recognition and Transparency; as part of our donor stewardship and commitment to public accountability, we often publish the names of donors in our annual reports, event programs, and on our website’s donor recognition page, but this practice is always undertaken with your prior, explicit consent or based on your indicated preference during the donation process, ensuring your privacy regarding financial support is respected if you prefer anonymity. Under no circumstances does Friends of Dane Arts sell, rent, or lease your personal information to third-party marketers or other unaffiliated entities for their own direct commercial use; our limited data sharing is strictly constrained to activities that directly support and enhance our non-profit mission.

Data Retention, Security Measures, and Protections

Tagline: Commitment to Secure Storage and Responsible Data Lifecycles.

Our dedication to data security is comprehensive, utilizing a multi-layered approach involving technical, administrative, and physical safeguards to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, destruction, misuse, or alteration throughout its lifecycle, from initial collection to eventual secure destruction. Technically, our website and data transmission systems employ industry-standard Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption technology to encrypt all data transmitted between your web browser and our servers, including information submitted via contact forms or donation pages, making it unreadable during transit. Access to internal databases and our CRM is protected by strong, multi-factor authentication (MFA) and restrictive access controls, ensuring that only authorized personnel whose job duties strictly require it can view sensitive donor or applicant data. We utilize firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and regular vulnerability scanning to proactively protect our network infrastructure from external threats. Administratively, FoDA mandates rigorous staff training on data privacy protocols and legal obligations, ensuring all employees understand the necessity of safeguarding personal information and adhering to our policy regarding data handling and access; internal policies are in place to govern the use of organizational devices and access to cloud services, and we perform regular internal audits of our data access logs. Physically, any collected paper-based forms containing sensitive data are secured in locked filing cabinets within restricted-access areas of our office facility. Regarding Data Retention, we only retain personal information for as long as is strictly necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this policy, including satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Financial and Transactional Records (e.g., donation history and associated contact details) are maintained for a minimum of seven (7) years to comply with U.S. federal and state tax laws and auditing requirements, ensuring proper financial transparency and regulatory adherence. General Correspondence and Newsletter Subscriber Data is typically retained until an individual unsubscribes or requests removal, at which point the data is securely suppressed or deleted. Grant Application Data is retained for the duration of the grant cycle plus a subsequent period of three (3) years to satisfy reporting and evaluation mandates, after which non-essential identifying details are often removed or anonymized to preserve only statistical and historical data on arts trends. When data is no longer necessary, it is securely destroyed or irreversibly anonymized using industry-approved methods, whether through secure electronic deletion or cross-shredding of physical documents, ensuring no residual information remains vulnerable.

Your Privacy Rights and Choices

Tagline: Exercising Control Over Your Information and Communications.

As a dedicated member of the Friends of Dane Arts community, you are entitled to exercise significant control over the personal information we hold about you, and we are committed to facilitating the exercise of these rights transparently and without undue delay, regardless of your geographic location, although certain rights may be subject to specific legal exceptions. You have the Right to Access your personal information, which means you can request a copy of the data we maintain about you, including the categories of information we have collected, the purposes for which we use it, and the parties with whom it has been shared, allowing you to verify the accuracy of our records. You possess the Right to Rectification (Correction), enabling you to request that FoDA correct any incomplete, inaccurate, or outdated personal information we may hold, such as an updated mailing address or corrected name spelling, ensuring our communications always reach you reliably. Furthermore, you have the powerful Right to Erasure (Right to be Forgotten), allowing you to request the deletion or removal of your personal data when there is no compelling reason for its continued processing, such as if you withdraw consent for marketing or if the data is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it was originally collected, though we must emphasize that this right is subject to exceptions, particularly for data we are legally required to retain for tax or compliance purposes (e.g., donation records). You also maintain the Right to Object to or Restrict Processing in certain circumstances, such as objecting to the use of your data for direct marketing purposes, which will result in your information being immediately suppressed from all future outreach campaigns. Regarding our communications, all our digital newsletters and mass emails include an easily accessible unsubscribe link at the bottom, which provides an immediate and automatic mechanism for opting out of future marketing emails, allowing you to manage your communication preferences effortlessly. If you have previously consented to have your name included in our public donor recognition materials, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time, in which case your name will be removed from future publications and digital listings as soon as is technically and practically feasible. To exercise any of these rights, including making an access or deletion request, we ask that you formally submit your request in writing via email to our designated contact address, providing sufficient detail to allow us to verify your identity and accurately locate the specific information requested within our records, ensuring that we only respond to legitimate requests made by the data subject themselves. We will process all verifiable requests in accordance with applicable legal timeframes, typically within thirty (30) days of receipt.

Children’s Privacy, External Links, and Policy Changes

Tagline: Policy Details Regarding Youth, Third Parties, and Updates.

Friends of Dane Arts takes specific precautions regarding the privacy of younger members of the Dane County community, particularly with respect to children under the age of thirteen (13), and we are fully committed to compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). We do not knowingly collect, solicit, or maintain personal information online from anyone under the age of 13 without obtaining verifiable parental consent prior to any collection. While our programs are often open to youth participants, any information collected for program registration, such as a minor’s name and age, is submitted by and collected directly from the parent or legal guardian, and if we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under 13 without verifiable parental consent, we will take immediate and prompt steps to securely delete that information from our records. The FoDA website may contain External Links to the websites of our grant recipients, partner organizations, sponsors, and other resources that we believe are valuable to the arts community; however, please be advised that this Privacy Policy applies solely to the information collected by Friends of Dane Arts, and we are not responsible for the content, security, or privacy practices employed by any external website, entity, or third party linked from our site, and we encourage you to review the privacy policy of any external site you visit before submitting personal information. Furthermore, to ensure that this policy accurately reflects our data practices and remains compliant with evolving legal and operational requirements, Friends of Dane Arts reserves the right to make Policy Changes and Updates periodically and without prior notice. Any revisions to this policy will be immediately posted on this page with an updated effective date noted at the beginning of the document, and we encourage all community members to review this page regularly to stay informed about how we are protecting your information; your continued use of our website or participation in our activities following the posting of changes constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy.

Contact Information

Tagline: Reach Out to Our Dedicated Data Privacy Contact.

We are always available to address any questions, concerns, or requests you may have regarding this comprehensive Privacy Policy, our data handling practices, or your specific privacy rights. Please direct all correspondence, inquiries, or formal data access and correction requests to our designated Data Privacy Contact for the most efficient response.

Data Privacy Contact: Executive Director, Friends of Dane Arts

Mailing Address: Friends of Dane Arts 6006 Hempstead Rd Madison, WI 53711

Email for Privacy Concerns: info@frsda.site

We commit to working with you to obtain a fair resolution of any complaint or concern regarding your privacy.

Effective Date: November 4, 2025