Privacy Policy

Your confidence in us is essential to the work we do in behalf of the university. We take your right to privacy very seriously and understand that your providing personal information to us is an act of trust.

We recognize that, to merit your continued trust, we must be transparent and accountable in preserving the confidentiality of the personal information we collect and maintain. This Privacy Policy protects your personal information and supplements the donor-privacy protections provided by Kansas law.

We define “personal information” as information that can be used to distinguish, identify or contact a specific individual. It does not include publicly available information such as business contact information, names, addresses, and telephone numbers as published in public sources, such as telephone directories. Our collection, use or disclosure of personal information is limited to purposes related to the business of KU Endowment.

We do not sell personal information concerning donors, employees, volunteers, or those with whom we have a business relationship. We share updated alumni contact information with the KU Alumni Association, and share relevant donor information with representatives of KU academic units charged with fundraising and donor stewardship duties. Otherwise, we do not share any of our donor or alumni information.

We honor any donor’s request for anonymity. Donors may choose to opt out of mail, email and/or telephone contact with KU Endowment.

We collect, use and disclose personal information concerning our donors for the following reasons:

• to establish a relationship and to communicate with donors
• to understand who our donors are and how we may improve our services to meet their preferences and expectations
• to process a donation, for example, to process a credit card transaction
• to issue a tax receipt
• to recognize contributions
• to meet requirements imposed by law

We collect, use and disclose personal information concerning our employees and/or volunteers for the following reasons:

• to recruit, train, recognize and retain highly qualified and motivated employees and volunteers
• to establish and maintain harmonious employer-employee relations
• to administer KU Endowment policies and procedures
• to administer compensation and benefits
• to meet requirements imposed by law.

We collect, use and disclose personal information concerning our payees and other individuals with whom we have a business relationship for the following reasons:

• to reimburse University clients
• to process payments of invoices
• to meet requirements imposed by law

We continually monitor our practices and procedures to ensure compliance with the principles set out in this policy. We use contractual or other means to provide a comparable level of protection when information has been transferred to a third party for processing, for example a mail processing company or payroll vendor.

Our internal processes protect personal information with safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information. Our safeguards protect against loss or theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification, regardless of the format in which the information is held. Our employees are required to sign a confidentiality agreement and are repeatedly reminded of the importance of maintaining the confidentiality of personal information. We take great care in the disposal or destruction of documents containing personal information to prevent access by unauthorized parties.

Our methods of protection include physical measures (e.g., shredding, locked file cabinets, restricted access to offices), organizational measures (e.g., background checks on prospective employees, access allowed on a need-to-know basis), and technological measures (e.g., passwords, data encryption, network firewalls).

Typically, KU Endowment will seek consent for any use or disclosure of information for any purposes outside of this policy. For example, interviewed applicants will be required to sign consent forms to release information for purposes of a pre-employment background check; current employees sign a consent form to verify employment to outside organizations; and students, faculty and staff who apply for loans are required to sign a form agreeing to the release of some information under defined circumstances.