Privacy Policy

The Hospital For Sick Children Foundation (the "Foundation", “we”, or “us”) is committed to protecting your privacy. We value your trust and recognize that maintaining this trust requires us to be open and accountable in our treatment of the Personal Information you choose to share with us. We do not trade, rent or sell the names of our valued supporters.

This Privacy Policy serves to inform you of the various Personal Information we collect via our websites and through your interactions with us. The following principles reflect our pledge to safeguard your Personal Information pursuant to this Privacy Policy.

1. We are accountable for your Personal Information.
   "Personal Information" is any information about an identifiable individual. Business contact information (such as name and title, business phone number and business address) and certain publicly available information are not considered Personal Information.  The types of Personal Information that we may collect from you includes the following:

   • Contact information, including name, address, phone number, and email address;

   • Financial information, including credit card information (number, expiration date, billing address), and pre-authorized debit information (financial institution, transit and account number);

   • Background information and donation history, including how a person has engaged with us, connection to us, areas of interest, whether an individual has donated to SickKids Foundation in the past, and how much has been donated;

   • Participant information, for certain fundraising events, including age, photos, videos and your motivation for participating in the event;

   • Device Information, when you use our website, such as your user device’s Internet Protocol (IP) address and browser agent.  See the Foundation’s Terms of Use for more details; and

   • Professional Information, if you provide a resume to us, we may collect information including academic history, work experience, personal interests and any other information you choose to provide.

    

   We may collect Personal Information from you in the following ways:

   • Personal Information that you provide to us;

   • Personal Information we or our service providers collect about you from our interactions with you (for example, when you use our websites or other technology); and

   • Personal Information we obtain from third-party sources.

   
   

   We keep the Personal Information that you provide to us in strict confidence.

   
   

    

2. Purposes for collecting, using and disclosing Personal Information.
   When the Foundation collects Personal Information directly from individuals, the Foundation identifies the purposes for which Personal Information is collected at or before the time of collection. These purposes include:
   

   • To promote and market the Foundation, its activities and events;

   • To raise funds and administer donations to support our mission to improve children's health;

   • To promote, organize and administer fundraising events;

   • To inform you about the activities of the Foundation and The Hospital for Sick Children;

   • To interact with you on social media; and

   • To comply with legal and regulatory requirements.

   
   
   
3. We obtain your consent to collect, use or disclose your Personal Information.
   

   We collect, use or disclose your Personal Information with your permission. Your permission may be expressed orally, in writing or may be implied, and you may provide it to us or a third party orally, electronically or in writing. You may limit or opt-out of future contact from the Foundation by contacting us as described in the "Contacting our Privacy Officer" section below.

   
   

   3.1 Information concerning minors

   If you are a minor under the age of 13 (or, in the case of Quebec residents, under the age of 14), you must not provide us with your Personal Information without the consent of your parent or guardian.
   If you are a parent or guardian and become aware that your minor child has provided us with Personal Information without your consent, please contact us as described in the "Contacting our Privacy Officer" section below to provide your consent or request that we delete that child's Personal Information from our systems.
   
   
4. Collection of Personal Information and use of cookies.
   

   4.1 Personal Information.

   We limit the collection of Personal Information to that which is necessary for the purposes identified. Personal Information will be collected only by fair and lawful means.

   
   

   4.2 Cookies

   We use cookies and similar technologies (collectively, "cookies") to help us operate, protect and optimize our websites. Below are the following types of cookies we use:

   Types of Cookies	Description
   Strictly Necessary Cookies	These cookies are essential to enable the user to navigate around our websites securely and to provide the user with services they have specifically requested.
   Functional Cookie	These cookies enhance the functionality of our websites by storing user preferences. For instance, they can remember your name and location, if you provide this information and the types of content you are interested in.
   Performance Cookies	These cookies improve the performance of our websites. For instance, they help pages load quicker.
   Advertising Cookies	We may use third party analytics services such as Google Analytics and others. Your IP address and other information will be collected by automated means to report on your use of the services.

   
   

   We use Google Analytics to help us measure the ways in which you interact with the content of our websites, and to generate visit statistics. These statistics enable us to continually improve our websites and offer users relevant content. We use Google Analytics to gain an overview of website traffic, the origin of this traffic and the pages visited. The information collected by Google Analytics is generated as anonymously as possible. For example, it is not possible to identify individual visitors to our websites. For further information, we invite you to consult Google's privacy policy.

   You can manage or disable cookies by adjusting your browser settings.

   You can opt-out of Google Analytics with the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On.
   
   If you deactivate certain cookies, it is possible that some parts of our websites may not be available for consultation and/or use or may only be partially available.
   
   Please refer to the Foundation’s Terms of Use for further information on our use of cookies.
   
   

5. We limit the use, disclosure and retention of Personal Information.
   

   Personal Information will not be used or disclosed for purposes other than those for which it was collected, except with consent or as required by law. Personal Information will be retained only as long as necessary for the fulfillment of those purposes. The Foundation does not trade, rent or sell any Personal Information to third parties.
   
   

   We disclose your information to the following persons:

   • the Hospital For Sick Children, on an as needed basis;

   • certain service providers or third parties that conduct activities on our behalf (as described below);

   • other registered charities when we conduct joint fundraising activities with them;

   • law enforcement or Canada Revenue Agency officials if it relates to a criminal investigation, alleged illegal activity, or as required by law; and

   • other persons, with your consent.

   When we choose to have service providers conduct activities on our behalf (such as some fundraising and payment processing services), we select the service providers carefully and take all reasonable precautions to ensure that the service provider protects your Personal Information.
   
   For example, the Foundation's web pages contain online forms that allow visitors to make a donation, which may be processed through a third-party payment processor, such as Google Pay or PayPal. The personal and credit card information provided on these forms is used only to process these donations. For the most up to date version of the security and privacy policies of these third parties, we encourage you to visit their websites.
   
   Some of our service providers are located outside of Canada. As a result, your Personal Information may be stored or processed outside of Canada and your Personal Information may be accessible to law enforcement and/or regulatory authorities in accordance with the laws of these jurisdictions.
   
   If you reside in Quebec, please be advised that any donation or data we collect from you will be communicated outside the province of Quebec. We have agreements with all third-party processors that your Personal Information will remain protected throughout any processing activity required to complete your donation or other request.
   
   

6. Accuracy of Personal Information.
   

   We rely on you to provide us with accurate Personal Information. To make a request to change or modify any Personal Information previously provided to the Foundation, please contact us as described in the "Contacting our Privacy Officer" section below.



7. We safeguard your Personal Information.
   

   We have implemented physical, technological and organizational security measures to adequately protect the confidentiality and security of your Personal Information against loss, theft or any unauthorized access, disclosure, reproduction, communication, use or modification. These measures include controlling access to our offices and equipment, providing secure connections between your device and our systems on our websites, making our employees and volunteers aware of this Policy and obtaining their commitment to comply with it, and adopting appropriate governance measures aimed at protecting your Personal Information.
   
   Our employees sign confidentiality agreements and only access Personal Information on a need-to-know basis in order to perform their job function. Safeguards are in place to ensure that Personal Information is not accessed, disclosed or shared more widely than is necessary to achieve the purpose for which it was gathered.
   
   We undertake to use all reasonable measures to ensure a level of confidentiality and security of Personal Information in accordance with technological standards appropriate to the sensitivity of the data collected. Notwithstanding the foregoing, you acknowledge that no computer system offers absolute security and that there is always a degree of risk involved in transmitting Personal Information. If you have reason to believe that your Personal Information is no longer secure, please contact us as described in the "Contacting our Privacy Officer" section below.
   
   



8. We are open about our privacy practices.
   

   We make our practices relating to the management of Personal Information available to you by posting the Foundation's Privacy Policy on our websites. For any questions about our privacy practices, please contact us as described in the "Contacting our Privacy Officer" section below.



9. Your rights regarding your Personal Information.
   

   You have several rights regarding the Personal Information you provide to us. They include the following:

   • Right to Access: You have the right to know what Personal Information we hold about you and to access this information to determine its accuracy;

   • Right to Rectify: You have the right to request to change or modify any Personal Information previously provided to us as appropriate;

   • Right to Withdraw Consent: At all times, you reserve the right to withdraw any consent you have given us regarding the collection, use and communication of your Personal Information. Please note that withdrawing your consent does not operate retroactively; and

   • Right to File a Complaint: If you are concerned about the Foundation's compliance with our Privacy Policy, please contact us as described in the "Contacting our Privacy Officer" section below. For Quebec residents, you also reserve the right to file a complaint with the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec should your issue remain unresolved



10. Contacting our Privacy Officer.
    

    If you are concerned about the Foundation's compliance with this Privacy Policy, to exercise your rights, ask questions or to provide comments and concerns regarding the handling of Personal Information by the Foundation, you may contact our Privacy Officer at the following email address privacy.officer@sickkidsfoundation.com or by mail at SickKids Foundation, 525 University Avenue, Suite 1400, Toronto, ON M5G 2L3, attention: Privacy Officer.
    
    If you wish to limit or opt-out of future contact by the Foundation, please contact our Privacy Officer at the addresses specified above.



11. Updating our Privacy Policy.
    

    We reserve the right to modify this Policy at any time. In the event of a change, we will post the revised version of the Privacy Policy on our websites and update its effective date.
    
    We encourage you to review this Policy whenever you access our websites to stay informed about our safeguards and practices for handling your Personal Information.
    
    This Policy was last updated June 10, 2025