Privacy policy

Christmas Appeal 2026

This section applies when you use the Bfriends Christmas Appeal 2026 pages to give, to offer gifts or items, to ask for a place at the Christmas Day meal or to offer to volunteer. It adds to the rest of this policy.

Giving to the appeal

• Stripe takes your payment on its own secure checkout page. Your card details go to Stripe and never reach Bfriends or this website. Stripe also asks for your email address. Bfriends can see some of what you give Stripe, such as your name and email address, in its Stripe account, for example to answer a question or process a refund.
• This website keeps a record of each gift: the amount, the date and Stripe's references for the payment. We use it to show the total raised, to add one ornament to the Christmas tree for every gift and to match refunds. It does not hold your name, email address or message.

Your name and message on the tree

• Your gift is anonymous unless you choose otherwise. If you tick the box, you can add a name and a short message, either when you give or afterwards on the thank-you page. For gifts of £500 or more you can also list the names of people who share the star when you give, once you confirm that each of them has agreed.
• Your name and message are shown on the tree shortly after your gift is confirmed, and nobody at Bfriends reads them first. Automatic checks hold back anything that contains a web address, an email address or a phone number, or that looks unsuitable, and the names of people who share the star, so that someone at Bfriends can check them before they are shown. We may make small changes, such as shortening a message or removing a surname, or decide not to publish it. Your gift still appears on the tree either way.
• Once published, your name and message can be seen by anyone. You can ask us to take them down at any time by emailing bfriends@birminghamchildrenstrust.co.uk. We remove the public copy when we act on your request, and a saved copy can take a few minutes to disappear.
• Stripe also keeps a copy of the name, message and co-supporter names you enter when you give, as part of the payment record. Taking your words off the tree does not remove that copy.

Offering gifts or items

If you use the gift form we ask for your name, your company or organisation if you are donating on its behalf (optional), your email address and your phone number. We also ask what you would like to donate, whether you can deliver it to us or would need it collected, when it might be ready, and anything else you would like us to know (optional). We ask whether you would like Bfriends to keep your details for future contact, and we record your answer. We use your answers to contact you and arrange your donation. They are stored privately and are not shown on the website.

Asking for a place at the Christmas Day meal

A young person can ask for a place themselves, someone can help them complete the application, or someone can refer them in a professional or support role. We ask about the young person: their name, age, gender if they choose to give it, mobile number, email address and home address; whether they would like help with transport and, if so, a pick-up address; anything that would make the day more comfortable or accessible; the name of their Personal Adviser or Social Worker; any presents, activities or wishes they would like to tell us about, and anything they would change from last year; dietary requirements and who they are for; whether they are happy for photographs of them to be used; and anything else they want us to know. They can also bring a guest, and we ask for the guest's name, age, phone number and email address, and for the names and ages of any of their children who will come. If someone else fills in the form we also ask for their name, organisation or relationship, email address and phone number, whether the young person has been told about the request, and for them to confirm they have a genuine reason to share the young person's information with Bfriends.

Some of this is sensitive, such as support needs and dietary requirements. Please share only what you are comfortable sharing and what helps us plan the day. It is stored privately, is never shown on the website and is used to organise the Christmas Day meal. Where it is needed to run the event, details may be shared with delivery partners such as taxi or catering providers, subject to Bfriends' arrangements.

Volunteering

The volunteer form asks for your name, email address and/or mobile number, your age group (18 or over, or under 18), whether you have volunteered with Bfriends before, relevant experience, the ways you would like to help, when you are available, any accessibility or extra support needs, whether you would like to help with transport or deliveries, and anything else you choose to tell us. If you offer to drive, we also ask which driving you could help with (for example, bringing guests to or from the Christmas Day meal, or collecting donated gifts), whether you hold a full driving licence that is valid in the UK, whether you have a current DBS check or are willing to have one, whether the vehicle you would use has a valid MOT and is covered by motor insurance, and, if you choose to tell us, some details about your vehicle and where you could drive. These are your own answers: we do not ask for licence, DBS, MOT or insurance numbers, certificates, photographs or your vehicle registration through the form. We use it to get in touch about volunteering opportunities, including whether you could help with pick-ups and collections. It is stored privately and is not shown on the website.

Security checks

The gift, meal and volunteer forms use Cloudflare Turnstile to tell people from automated programs. It runs in your browser, and Cloudflare may use information about your browser and device to do this. We do not store the result with your answers. The one exception is that if the check cannot run in your browser, your form can still be sent, and we keep a note with it saying that the check was not completed. To limit misuse we also keep a short-lived count of requests from each internet address, in memory only, and we do not store addresses with your answers.

Who handles your information

• We use Stripe for payments, Vercel to run this website and to store form answers and messages, and Cloudflare for the security check. Form answers, and a private record of each name and message shared, are held in a private store at Vercel, set up in London, that cannot be opened from a web address. Some of these providers are international companies and may handle information outside the UK. Read Stripe's privacy policy, Vercel's privacy notice and Cloudflare's privacy policy.
• Form answers are available only to people at Bfriends who need them to run the appeal. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share form answers except as described above.

How long we keep it

We keep this information only for as long as we need it for the Christmas Appeal and our records. Once the appeal has finished we review what we hold and delete what we no longer need. You can ask us to delete your form answers, or to take your name and message off the tree, at any time by emailing bfriends@birminghamchildrenstrust.co.uk. Stripe keeps payment records under its own policies.