Seva Canada Society's Privacy Policy

Introduction and general terms

Seva Canada Society, and those people we seek to help, are dependent on the generosity of our supporters as well as the goodwill and trust of the public. We know that you care how information about you is used and shared and we appreciate you trusting that we will do so carefully and sensibly. To better protect your privacy, we provide this Privacy Policy explaining our practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used by Seva Canada. The information below explains our policy regarding your privacy, both online and offline. By visiting www.seva.ca or sharing personal information with Seva Canada you are accepting the practices described in the Privacy Notice.

Who we are

Seva Canada Society is an international development organization and registered charity (#13072 4941 RR0001). Seva Canada is located at 100-2000 W.12th Avenue, Vancouver, BC Canada. Telephone: (604)713-6622 or 1-877-460-6622.

What information is collected by Seva Canada about me?

When you visit our website or make a donation online or offline, you may provide us with personal information (such as name, address, email address, telephone numbers and/or credit/debit card information) that you knowingly choose to disclose, which is collected on an individual basis for various purposes. These purposes include registering to receive email newsletters or other materials, requesting further information from us about projects and services, donating to us, ordering merchandise, making requests, submitting a form on our website, or simply asking a question. We receive and store the information you enter on our website or give us in any other way, whether it is online or offline. We ask for personal information so that we can fulfill your request and return your message. We do not store credit card numbers. Information is retained and used in accordance with existing laws, rules, regulations, and other policies. Seva Canada Society does not collect personal information from you unless you provide it to us. If you choose not to provide any of that information, we may not be able to fulfill your request or complete your order, but you will still be free to browse the other sections of the websites owned and administered by Seva Canada Society. This means that you can visit our site without telling us who you are or revealing any personally identifiable information about yourself.

How Does Seva Canada respect donor anonymity?

Seva Canada respects a donor’s right to anonymity. We will maintain a record of each charitable donation and limit access to these records to appropriate staff and senior administration.

All donors will have the opportunity to indicate they wish their charitable donation be considered anonymous. This information will be recorded and adhered to by all parties with access to donor records as mentioned above. A donor must request anonymity if they do not want their name to potentially appear in public as a Seva Canada supporter.

How Does Seva Canada Society use the information collected about me?

When you supply information about yourself for a specific purpose, we use the information for only that purpose (such as to provide the service or information you have requested). For example, you may be asked to give us individual information to receive information, to make a donation, to purchase merchandise, or to apply for a job. Similarly, we use information you provide about yourself or someone else when placing a merchandise order only to ship the merchandise and to confirm delivery. We do not share this information with outside parties except to the extent necessary to complete that order. We do not store credit card information.

You can register with our website if you would like to receive updates on our new projects and services or on our merchandise. Information you submit on our website or over the phone will not be used for this purpose unless a registration form is filled out.

We use return email addresses to answer the email we receive. Such addresses are not used for any other purpose and are not shared with outside parties. We use the information provided in your email to respond to your questions or comments. We may also store your comments for future reference.

Emails from www.seva.ca are through contact forms which are protected by Mollom, a web service that tries to determine whether the quality of messages posted to a site are to be considered as unsolicited messages (also called “spam”). Mollom screens messages before they are posted to our site.

Will Seva Canada Society share my personal information with anyone else?

Seva Canada Society does not sell, rent, give away or share its email addresses or other personal contact information with outside sources. Seva Canada Society also does not send mailings on behalf of other organizations.

Our commitment to data security

Personally identifiable information is stored on our server and is not publicly accessible. Further, personally identifiable information is only accessed by Seva Canada Society personnel on a "need to know" basis.

We take appropriate physical, electronic and managerial measures, such as utilizing Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption, to ensure that we keep your information secure, accurate and up to date, and that we only keep it as long as is reasonable and necessary.

Seva Canada’s policy allowing me to update, correct, delete my personal information or opt-out of communications.

Donors cannot remove themselves from our database, but can restrict certain types of communication. They may opt out of Seva Canada communication lists by contacting the office.

If you have registered to receive communications from us and later change your mind, you may contact us to have your name and contact information removed from our distribution lists.

If you would like to verify the data we have received from you or to make corrections to it, you may contact us directly.

You have the following options to do this:

You can call us at 1-877-460-6622, send an email to: admin@seva.ca ​or you can mail us at the following address:

Seva Canada Society
100-2000 W.12th Avenue,
Vancouver, BC V6J 2G2

What anonymous information is collected by Seva Canada?

Anonymous information is collected for every donor and visitor to this site. This includes pages viewed, date and time, IP numbers and browser type. We do not make any association between this information and a donor or visitor's identity.

When you visit our website, our servers make a log of basic information corresponding to the sites and pages you have visited. This information is stored primarily to track the effectiveness of our website and individual sections and pages within them.

How does www.seva.ca use cookies?

Cookies are simple text files stored by your web browser that provide a method of distinguishing among donors and visitors to the website. Seva Canada uses cookies to identify your browser as you visit pages on the Seva Canada website or sites in the Seva Canada Society media network. Cookies may also be used to track how you use the site to target ads to you on other websites.

Cookies created on your computer by using our website do not contain personally identifiable information and do not compromise your privacy or security. Cookies allow Seva Canada to gather anonymous information and also allow Seva Canada to provide more relevant, targeted content as you travel through sites in the Seva Canada media network as appropriate and are used on our ordering website to keep track of the items in your shopping cart.

Links to other sites

This website may contain links to other websites. Please note that when you click on one of these links, you are entering another site. We encourage you to read the privacy statements of these linked websites as their privacy policy may differ from ours.

Changes to Seva Canada’s privacy policy

Should any material changes be made to the ways in which we use personally identifiable information, Seva Canada Society will take commercially reasonable measures to obtain written or email consent from you. We will also post the changes to our use of personally identifiable information on our website at least 30 days prior to a change.

Legal disclaimer

We may disclose personal information when required by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary in order to conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on Seva Canada.

For more information

If you have any questions, concerns or comments about your privacy, please send us a description of your concern via email to admin@seva.ca or call the main telephone number at (604) 713-6622 or 1-877-460-6622.

This privacy policy was updated and approved by Seva Canada Board of Directors on September 11, 2017.

Seva Canada Society's Complaints Policy and Procedure

This policy and procedure applies to complaints received by Seva Canada about our activities, programs, services, staff or volunteers.

A) Guiding Principles

It is in the interest of all parties that complaints are dealt with promptly and resolved as quickly as possible. Review of complaints is fair, impartial and respectful to all parties. Complainants are advised of their options to escalate their complaint to a more senior staff person if they are dissatisfied with treatment or outcome.

Complainants are provided clear and understandable reasons for decisions relating to complaints. Updates are provided to complainants during review processes. Complaints are used to assist in improving services, policies and procedures.

B) Types of Complaints

Definition: A complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction about the service, actions, or lack of action by Seva Canada as an organization or a staff member or volunteer acting on behalf of Seva Canada.

Examples include but are not limited to:

  • perceived failure to do something agreed upon;
  • failure to observe policy or procedures;
  • error made by a staff member/volunteer;
  • unfair or discourteous actions/statements by staff member/volunteer;

Anyone personally affected can complain and their complaint will be reviewed in accordance with this procedure.

C) Complaint Receipt and Handling

A complaint may be received verbally (by phone or in person) or in writing (by mail, fax, email). An employee or volunteer who receives a complaint should first determine the proper person to handle it. This will generally be the person who has the primary relationship with the complainant or has the specific knowledge that is needed to resolve the problem.

It is the responsibility of the person who receives the complaint to either resolve it or transfer it to another person who can resolve it. If the complaint is transferred, the recipient must acknowledge to the transferor that he/she has received it and will act on it.

The person who initially receives the complaint should acknowledge to the complainant that the complaint has been received and will be acted on either by him/herself or another employee.

If a timeframe for action can be determined, that should be included in the acknowledgement. Basic contact information including name, phone number and email address should immediately be recorded.

D) Resolving the Complaint

Every effort should be made to resolve complaints received in a timely fashion. When receiving a verbal complaint, staff should listen and seek to understand the complaint, and may attempt to resolve it immediately. Complaints received in writing should be acknowledged within 2 business days and staff should attempt to resolve the matter within 10 business days.

Where a complaint cannot be easily resolved, it should be escalated to the appropriate director (Marketing, Development or Program). If the appropriate director cannot resolve the complaint, it will be escalated to the Executive Director.

If the complaint is about the Executive Director, it will be handled by the Chair of the Governance Committee.

Complainants should be kept informed of the status of their complaint. Every attempt should be made to resolve escalated complaints within an additional 10 business days so that all complaints are resolved within a month of having been received.

E) Documenting the Complaint

It is necessary to keep a record of any complaint that involves a dispute over money as well as any complaint that cannot be resolved immediately (on the same day it is received).

Information about such complaints must be recorded on the complaints tracking worksheet. Information recorded on the worksheet includes a description of the complaint, who handled it, what was done to resolve the complaint, timeframe, and a description of the resolution.

A summary of the complaints received including number and type will be reported to the Seva Canada’s Board of Directors annually.

Approved by Seva Board of Directors, September 11, 2017