The Masonic Charitable Foundation (MCF), 60 Great Queen Street, London, WC2B 5AZ is a Data Controller and in the execution of our legitimate business interests we may hold and process personal information about you or from which we can identify you.  We strive to be transparent about how we collect and use your information, to keep your information secure and to provide you with meaningful choices.  This Privacy Policy is intended to help you understand what information we hold, why we collect it and what we do with it.

MCF is a registered charity (No. 1164703).  We are one of the largest grant-making charities in the country.  Most of the assistance we provide takes the form of financial grants to individuals (who are Freemasons or are related to Freemasons under the United Grand Lodge of England) to assist with daily living expenses, although grants can also be provided to supply specific items or services. A range of health and care needs including medical and dental treatment; counselling and mobility aids or home adaptations are also supported. In addition, we contribute significant sums each year to support services such as hospices, local and national charities and respond to natural disasters. We provide the Relief Chest Scheme (a donor advised fund) which is a simple and free service for managing charitable giving.

Funds are also available for respite, residential, nursing and dementia care.  We work closely in the delivery of these particular services with the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution Care Company (RMBICC, Registered Charity No. 1163245) of which MCF is the sole Corporate member.

Data Processing agreements are in place between MCF, RMBICC and the United Grand Lodge of England.

Our Data Protection Lead can be contacted at any time, including if you have questions about this Privacy Notice, or wish to exercise any rights contained in it.

Les Hutchinson (COO)
Data Protection Lead
Masonic Charitable Foundation
Freemasons’ Hall
60 Great Queen Street
London, WC2B 5AZ

Telephone number: 020 3146 3333 / Email address: info@mcf.org.uk

Data protection laws require us to explain what legal grounds justify us possessing your information (this includes sharing it with other organisations).  For some, processing on more than one legal ground may be relevant, these include:

For the administration of donations.For the management of Honorific awards.To update beneficiaries and future beneficiaries on services and support available.To answer enquiries, determine eligibility on applications for support and administer grant payments.For the governance of the MCF, i.e., details of Trustees etc.

To comply with any statutory obligation laid down by UK (and at the moment EU) law. Typical examples would be the processing required to deal with payroll and the payment of taxes to HMRC, statutory returns to Charity Commission, Companies House and the Pensions Regulator.

Please note that in all areas where personal information is processed (i.e., honorifics and donations management, Relief Chest Scheme, grant making and general communications) separate privacy statements are available.  Visit our website at www.mcf.org.uk/privacy for further details.

This will depend on the nature of your relationship with the MCF but this could include: –your title and full nameyour contact details, including your email address and telephone number(s)your home or correspondence addressdetails of family membersdetails relating to your personal and financial circumstancesyour bank account details

We will generally collect your personal information from you directly

Depending upon the nature of your business with the MCF, without your personal information we may be unable to action your request.  In cases where providing some personal information is optional we will make it clear.  Likewise, we will always explain why your personal information is required and how it will be used.

In some instances for example, in the preparation or verification of applications for charitable support, it may be necessary for telephone calls, meetings etc., to be recorded, to ensure that we have a proper record of what has been discussed.  We may also record calls for quality control and staff training purposes.  You will always be informed if we intend to record your communications with the MCF.

We will only retain your data for as long as absolutely necessary.  In some instances this will be to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We will only share your personal information with third parties for legitimate business reasons.  As Data Controllers in their own right all third parties used by MCF are required to adhere to the provisions set out in the Data Protection legislation.

Our websites may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. Our websites may include social media features, such as Facebook ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ buttons and widgets, and interactive mini-programs that run on our websites. These features may collect information about you, including but not limited, to, your IP address, which webpages you are visiting on our site and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policies of the companies providing them. We do not control these third-party elements and are not responsible for their privacy statements. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit or every third party feature that you access to understand their personal data handling practices.

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data, such as:

You have the right to:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with law. Please note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.

Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we have used the information to perform a contract with you.

Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

More detailed privacy notices covering specific aspects of MCF activities can be found here >>

In the unlikely event that the MCF uses your data in a way which you believe is inconsistent with the terms set out in this privacy notice please contact the MCF Data Protection Lead without delay, alternatively you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office which enforces data protection laws.

We may change our Privacy Notice from time to time (by updating our website) to reflect changes in law or our privacy practices.  We encourage you to check our Privacy Notice for changes whenever you visit our website.