Privacy Policy

The Ralph M. Barford Foundation is committed to protecting the privacy of personal information shared with us. We collect, use, disclose, retain, and protect personal information in a manner consistent with Canadian privacy principles and applicable law.

This policy explains how we handle personal information collected through our website, grant application process, correspondence, and related Foundation activities.

We collect only the information reasonably needed to carry out our charitable and grant-making activities. This may include names, titles, email addresses, phone numbers, organization names, charity or qualified donee information, application responses, funding request details, correspondence, and information you choose to provide to us.

When you use our website, basic technical information may also be collected automatically, such as your browser type, device information, IP address, pages visited, and similar information used to operate, secure, and improve the website.

Business contact information, such as an employee's name, title, business email address, or business address when used for business purposes, may not be treated as personal information under some Canadian privacy laws, but we still handle it with care.

We use personal information to administer our grant application process, assess eligibility and project fit, communicate with applicants, manage relationships with grantees and partners, maintain records, improve our website and processes, meet legal and regulatory obligations, and protect against error, misuse, or unauthorized activity.

We do not sell, rent, or trade personal information.

By providing information to us, including by submitting a Letter of Intent or contacting the Foundation, you consent to our collection, use, and disclosure of that information for the purposes described in this policy or otherwise identified at the time of collection.

By submitting the online Letter of Intent form, you also consent to the transmission and storage of your information through Google Forms, including storage outside Canada, and to the temporary backup of your submission in Cloudflare R2, as described in the Disclosure and Service Providers section of this policy. If you do not wish to submit your information through Google Forms, you may contact us to request an alternative method of submission.

You may withdraw consent where permitted by law, subject to legal, contractual, record-keeping, or grant administration requirements. Withdrawal of consent may affect our ability to consider your application.

We may share application information with Foundation staff, directors, committee members, advisors, and service providers who need the information to support Foundation operations or grant review. These individuals and organizations are expected to handle information appropriately and only for authorized purposes.

At present, the online Letter of Intent form is powered by Google Forms, a service operated by Google LLC. When you submit the form, the personal information you provide — including names, titles, email addresses, phone numbers, organization details, and application responses — is transmitted directly to and stored by Google. This information may be processed or stored on servers located outside Canada, including in the United States, and may therefore be subject to the laws of the jurisdiction where it is stored or processed. Google's handling of this information is governed by its own privacy policy, which we encourage you to review at Google Privacy Policy.

To help ensure that no Letter of Intent is lost, your submission is also temporarily backed up to a private Cloudflare R2 storage bucket operated by Cloudflare, Inc. This backup is used solely as a contingency copy: the Google Form remains the operational record of your submission. Backup copies are retained for no more than 30 days, after which they are automatically deleted. They may be stored on Cloudflare's servers, which can be located outside Canada and may therefore be subject to the laws of the jurisdiction where they are stored. Cloudflare's handling of this information is governed by its own privacy policy.

We may also disclose personal information where required or permitted by law, including to comply with legal obligations, respond to lawful requests, protect the Foundation, or investigate misuse of our website or application process.

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, administer grant-making activities, maintain appropriate records, and meet legal, accounting, reporting, or governance obligations.

When information is no longer required, we take reasonable steps to delete, anonymize, or securely dispose of it.

We use reasonable physical, organizational, and technical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information in our custody or control. Access to personal information is limited to those who need it for authorized Foundation purposes.

No method of electronic transmission or storage is completely secure. If you believe information you provided to us may no longer be secure, please contact us promptly.

You may request access to personal information we hold about you, or ask us to correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete. We may need to verify your identity before responding to a request.

In some cases, access or correction may be limited by legal, confidentiality, governance, or record-keeping requirements.

Our website may use cookies or similar technologies to support basic site functionality, understand site usage, improve performance, and protect the website. You can adjust your browser settings to refuse or delete cookies, though some features may not work as intended.

Our website may include links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those websites and encourage you to review their privacy policies.

We may update this policy from time to time. The updated version will be posted on this page with a revised effective date.

If you have questions, concerns, or complaints about this policy or our handling of personal information, please contact our Executive Director.