Privacy statement

Coming on retreat

In order to complete your retreat booking we ask for the following information from you:

• Name
• Address
• Date of birth
• Phone number
• Email address
• Gender identity
• Whether you have any specific needs relating to a disability or health condition
• Your previous retreat experience
• Contact details for someone we can get in touch with in the event of an emergency

We need this information in order to communicate with you about your booking and to help with room allocation. We do not collect sensitive information about you unless there is a clear reason for doing so, such as ensuring we meet specific needs you may have.

When you arrive at Gaia House for a group retreat you will be asked to fill in a registration form where we ask for some additional information relating to your practice and your physical and psychological health, as well as contact details for your next of kin. We need this information to ensure that we can fulfil our duty of care to you. This information is recorded in paper form and is securely disposed of at the end of the retreat. From 2023, this information will be requested via our website.  Your responses will be encrypted when sending to us.

Please ensure that the emergency contact person you declare on your booking form is aware that you are attending a retreat with us and have given us their contact details.

If you are booking a personal or work retreat we ask for some additional information relating to your practice and your physical and psychological health. We need this information to ensure that we can fulfil our duty of care to you. Your application form is printed and kept in a secure file up to and during your retreat. At the end of your retreat your application form is securely disposed of.

Using the Lift Share Messaging Board

This is a forum facility offered by Gaia House to help retreatants reduce their carbon footprint when coming on retreat.  The information collected is name, town or city, email address and the message text that you leave which may contain a contact phone number.

Access to the Lift Share pages is provided to Gaia House retreatants only and is password protected.
However, please take steps to ensure that you are safe and that people are genuine before meeting or giving out personal information.

The Lift Share Board is used at your own risk, and Gaia House cannot verify or take responsibility for messages or identities.

Joining an online programme or retreat

The information we collect at the time of registration is needed to fulfil your booking and support you during your retreat, course or event.  This information can differ depending on the event and its content.  The default information collected is:

• Name*
• Email address*
• Your past relationship with Gaia House†
• Whether you are a member of the Dānanandi Sangha†
• Whether you have read the wellbeing guidelines‡
• Billing address*
• Whether you would like to be contacted in the future regarding events led by the teachers holding the retreat you are currently registering for*

* This information is kept on our database along with the event you registered for.

† This information is anonymised and used for analytic purposes

‡ This information and any additional information or application form requested is kept for the duration of the retreat and accessed on a need to know basis (normally the teachers and event admin) and deleted at the end of the retreat

Making a donation

In order to process your donation we ask for the following information from you:

• Name
• Address
• Phone number
• Email address
• Whether we can apply for Gift Aid on your behalf

We need this information in order to communicate with you about your donation and for financial auditing purposes.

Retreat booking information

The information we store on our booking system is accessed by our Reception and Household Coordinators, the Admin Manager, the Retreat Manager and the Finance Department, as required as part of their duties.

The information you provide regarding your previous retreat experience and any other practice-related needs is accessed by the teachers and occasionally the Retreat Manager.

Other members of staff may retrieve information from the booking system as part of their duties, for example to access numbers of bookings, for future programme planning, or in the event of an emergency when next-of-kin contact details may be needed.

In addition, our IT Consultants have access to our systems in order to provide us with the support we need.

We ensure that any third party we employ has a robust privacy policy and that appropriate compliance contracts are in place.

All of our staff – residential, non-residential and our IT Consultants – are aware of the importance of confidentiality and your right to privacy, and receive appropriate training on this issue.

Donation information

Donation information is accessed by our Finance team as required as part of their duties, and our Fundraising team for the purposes of issuing thank you communications.

From May 2018, in line with our commitment to best practice around data protection, we will only contact you about our news, activities and fundraising appeals if you have specifically said you agree to us doing this, and we will only contact you in the way(s) you have agreed to.

Our communications consist of our annual newsletter and programme which we send by post, our bi-monthly e-news, our twice-yearly Friends e-newsletter, our Sitting Group Facilitators’ e-newsletter and any other ad hoc communications via post, email or telephone.

As of May 2018, you will only receive these communications if you have opted in. When opting in you can choose how you want to be contacted – whether by post, email, phone, or a combination of all three. It’s entirely up to you.

If you want us to keep you updated on our news, activities and fundraising appeals but haven’t yet opted in, you can do so here: Opt-in form.

Alternatively you can call 01626 333613 and we will send you a form that you can post back to us.

What if I want to change my communications preferences at a later date?

Every email message we send includes a link to opt out of receiving future emails.

You can also let us know of any changes to your communications preferences by calling 01626 333613, emailing info@gaiahouse.co.uk or writing to us: Gaia House Trust, West Ogwell, Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 6EW.

Each year we will remind you to let us know if there are any changes to your contact details.

However, you can contact us at any time to notify us of changes such as a new address or email address.

If you opt out of receiving our communications at any point, we will record this request on our database. This will ensure that you do not receive any further communications from us, unless in relation to any retreat bookings or donations.

We will not at any time sell or exchange your information. We may use other companies to provide services on our behalf. These are trusted partner organisations that work with us in connection with our charitable purposes. We only provide these partners with the information they need to deliver the required service. We ensure that any third party we employ has a robust privacy policy and that appropriate compliance contracts are in place. The third parties that we currently use are:

• Torbay Mailing – for distribution of our yearly postal mailings.
• MailChimp – to distribute our e-newsletters. MailChimp’s Privacy Policy.

We do not share your information for any other purposes.

Online transactions

If your booking, donation or cookbook payment is processed through the Gaia House website we do not have access to your payment card details. These are processed by Sage Pay. Sage Pay Security Policy

If you give consent for us to apply for Gift Aid, this is recorded on our database.

Transactions made over the phone or via a Dana form following your retreat

If you use your credit or debit card to pay for a retreat/course, donate to us or buy a book by phone or via a Dana form, we will ensure that this is done securely and in accordance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. Only staff authorised to process payments are able to see your card details.

After your transaction has gone through, your payment details are detached from the form and securely disposed of. We keep a paper record of your name, address and consent for Gift Aid (if applicable) for 7 years for financial auditing purposes. This information is stored with our accounts in locked locations.

Standing Order forms

If you send us a Standing Order form by post, your form is stored by our Finance Department in a secure location for as long as your payments are active, after which point your form is securely disposed of.

Gaia House takes the care of your data seriously and undertakes to protect your personal information by putting in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the data we collect.

In today’s cyber environment it is unfortunately not possible to completely guarantee against loss, misuse or alteration of data, for example in the event of a successful cyber-attack. However, should this scenario arise, we have a robust data breach notification procedure in place and will contact you as soon as possible giving full details of any data that has been compromised.

Retreat booking information

The information you disclose in relation to your booking is held on our database to assist with your current booking and any future bookings. Building up historic information on the retreats you have attended helps us fulfil our duty of care to you and make your stay more enjoyable.

Online bookings are downloaded to our database and are stored within the backend of our website for up to two months.

Donation information

Your donation information is held on our database for financial auditing purposes and so that we can keep a record of your support for us.

Online donations are downloaded to our database and are stored within the backend of our website for up to two months.

If you have used the Lift Share Messaging Board;  this information will stay on our website from the time of posting to the end of your retreat.

You have the right to be ‘forgotten’, which means that if you request us to, we will remove all the data that we hold on you from our systems. Complete removal of information from our systems will result in the loss of all historic retreat data. If you decide to come back to Gaia House at a later date, we will re-start the booking process and, if necessary, ask you to provide us with your previous retreat experience again.

If you have made a booking or donation within the last 12 months we are required to retain your details for two years for administrative purposes.  Records of financial transactions will need to be held for seven years for accountancy and audit purposes.

If you wish to be forgotten by our organisation please contact us in anyway convenient to you, suggested methods are:

In writing:  FAO Communications Manager, Gaia House, West Ogwell, Newton Abbot, TQ12 6EW

By Telephone:  01626 335256

By Email:  comms@gaiahouse.co.uk

Via our website:  gaiahouse.co.uk/contact

Or in person:  by asking any member of staff

Under the General Data Protection Regulation you can request a report detailing the information we hold about you. You are welcome to contact us in anyway convenient to you, suggested methods are:

In writing :  Communications Manager, Gaia House, West Ogwell, Newton Abbot, TQ12 6EW

Telephone :  01626 335256

Email :  comms@gaiahouse.co.uk

Website  : https://gaiahouse.co.uk/contact/

Or in person:  by asking any member of staff

We aim to issue an initial response to all enquiries within five working days, and will offer a full response to all information access requests within a month.  If we require additional time we will keep you informed.

The following information will be required before access is granted:

• Full name and contact details of the person making the request
• Your relationship with the organisation
• Copy of passport or national ID card

We reserve the right to charge a reasonable admin fee for additional copies of the same information.

This website uses cookies – small text files that are placed on your device to help the site provide a better user experience. In general, cookies are used to retain user preferences, store information for things like shopping carts, and provide anonymous tracking data to third party applications such as Google Analytics. As a rule, cookies will make your browsing experience better.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. YouTube videos etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Disabling Cookies

If you prefer to disable cookies on this site and on others, the most effective way to do this is to disable cookies in your browser. Consult the Help section of your browser or take a look at the All about Cookies website which offers guidance for managing cookies.

Our processing of data is overseen by the Trustees of Gaia House (Data Controller). The person to contact regarding day-to-day data protection issues is the Communications Manager.

The Trustees
Gaia House Trust
West Ogwell
Newton Abbot
Devon
TQ12 6EW

Communications Manager
Gaia House Trust
West Ogwell
Newton Abbot
Devon
TQ12 6EW

Email: comms@gaiahouse.co.uk
Tel: 01626 333 613

If you are unhappy with our organisation’s data practices and do not feel that we have addressed your concerns, please contact the Information Commissioner’s Office or call the helpline on 0303 123 1113.