Privacy Policy

Last updated: 7 July 2026

Oxfordshire Animal Sanctuary (“we”, “us”, “our”) is committed to protecting your personal data. This policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, and how we use it, in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who we are

Oxfordshire Animal Sanctuary is the working name of the Oxfordshire Animal Sanctuary Society, a registered charity in England and Wales (charity number 254642). Our address is The Village Green, Watlington Road, Stadhampton, Oxfordshire, OX44 7UB. We are the data controller for the personal data described in this policy.

If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data, contact us at info@oascharity.org.uk or by post at the address above.

2. What personal data we collect

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect:

  • Contact details: name, postal address, email address, telephone number
  • Donation and payment information: donation amounts, payment history, Gift Aid declarations. We do not store full card details; payments are processed by our payment providers (see section 6)
  • Adoption and rehoming information: details you provide in our pre-adoption questionnaire, including information about your home, household, other pets, and the ages of any children living with you
  • Sponsorship, membership and fundraising information: records relating to animal sponsorship, our 100 Club, raffles, and event participation
  • Volunteer applications: information you provide when applying to volunteer in our charity shop, including your contact details, availability and relevant experience
  • Legacy administration: where we are left a gift in a will, contact details of executors, solicitors and family members, and correspondence relating to the administration of the gift. If you enquire about legacy giving or tell us you intend to leave us a gift in your will, we keep a record of that so we can thank you and keep in touch appropriately
  • Communication preferences: your marketing consent status and contact preferences
  • Website usage data: technical data collected through cookies and similar technologies (see section 8)
  • Correspondence: records of your communications with us by email, post, telephone or social media

3. How we collect your data

We collect personal data when you:

  • Make a donation, either online, by post, by telephone or in person
  • Set up a regular gift by Direct Debit
  • Complete a Gift Aid declaration
  • Enquire about or apply to adopt an animal
  • Sponsor an animal or join the 100 Club
  • Buy from our online shop or take part in a raffle or fundraising event
  • Sign up to our email newsletter
  • Apply to volunteer in our charity shop
  • Enquire about leaving us a gift in your will, or tell us you have done so
  • Contact us with an enquiry
  • Visit our website (via cookies and analytics)

4. How we use your data and our lawful bases

Under UK GDPR, we must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data. We rely on the following:

Contract – to process your donations, adoptions, sponsorships, shop orders and event bookings, and to administer Direct Debit payments.

Legal obligation – to process Gift Aid declarations and maintain records required by HMRC, to meet our accounting and regulatory obligations as a registered charity, and to comply with our obligations as a registered small society lottery, including verifying that raffle entrants are aged 16 or over and keeping records of entries and winners.

Legitimate interests – to administer and improve our services, keep records of our supporters, administer gifts left to us in wills (including corresponding with executors and solicitors), analyse how our website is used, and contact previous supporters about our work where it is reasonable to do so. Where we rely on legitimate interests, we balance our interests against your rights, and you have the right to object (see section 12).

Consent – to send you email marketing and fundraising communications, and where otherwise required by law. You can withdraw consent at any time.

5. Gift Aid

If you complete a Gift Aid declaration, we are required by HMRC to keep a record of your name, address and declaration for at least six years after the last donation to which it relates. This processing is necessary to comply with our legal obligations.

6. Payment processing

We use third-party payment providers to process payments securely. Which provider handles your payment depends on the type of payment you make:

We do not see or store your full card or bank details. Our payment providers process your data in accordance with their own privacy policies and applicable payment industry standards (PCI DSS).

7. Email marketing

We use ActiveCampaign to manage our email newsletter and supporter communications. If you sign up to our mailing list, your name and email address are stored on ActiveCampaign’s platform. See the ActiveCampaign privacy policy.

Every marketing email we send includes an unsubscribe link. You can also opt out at any time by contacting us at info@oascharity.org.uk.

8. Cookies and website analytics

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies. Cookies are small text files placed on your device that help the website function and provide us with information about how the site is used.

We use the following:

  • Essential cookies – required for the website to function, including the shopping basket and checkout
  • Analytics – we use Google Analytics (GA4) to understand how visitors use our website. See how Google uses data
  • Advertising – we use the Meta (Facebook) pixel and Google Ads tags to measure the effectiveness of our advertising and to reach supporters and potential adopters with relevant content on those platforms. See the Meta privacy policy and Google’s privacy policy

You can control and delete cookies through your browser settings. You can also:

Blocking some cookies may affect how parts of the website work.

9. Who we share your data with

We never sell your personal data. We share it only with:

  • Service providers who process data on our behalf, including our payment providers (Braintree, GoCardless), our email platform (ActiveCampaign), our website hosting provider, and analytics and advertising platforms (Google, Meta)
  • HMRC, in connection with Gift Aid claims
  • Professional advisers such as our accountants and auditors, where necessary
  • Regulators and law enforcement, where we are required to do so by law

All service providers acting on our behalf are required to process your data securely and only on our instructions.

10. International transfers

Some of our service providers (including Braintree, ActiveCampaign, Google and Meta) may process data in the United States or other countries outside the UK. Where this happens, transfers are protected by appropriate safeguards recognised under UK law, such as the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (the UK-US Data Bridge) or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement.

11. Children

Our website and fundraising activities are not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 13 through our website.

As part of our rehoming process, our pre-adoption questionnaire asks about the ages of children living in your household. We use this information solely to assess the suitability of a home for a particular animal, and we do not use it for any other purpose.

12. How long we keep your data

We keep personal data only as long as necessary for the purposes described in this policy:

  • Financial and Gift Aid records are kept for at least six years, in line with HMRC and accounting requirements
  • Raffle and lottery records, including entries and winners, are kept as required by our small society lottery registration
  • Adoption records are kept for the lifetime of the animal in its new home, so that we can assist if the animal ever needs to be returned to us
  • Volunteer applications are kept for the duration of your volunteering with us; unsuccessful applications are deleted within six months
  • Marketing data is kept while you remain subscribed; if you unsubscribe, we keep a minimal suppression record so that we do not contact you again
  • Other records are reviewed periodically and deleted when no longer needed

13. Your rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:

  • Access – request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
  • Rectification – ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data
  • Erasure – ask us to delete your data in certain circumstances
  • Restriction – ask us to limit how we use your data in certain circumstances
  • Object – object to processing based on legitimate interests, and object at any time to direct marketing
  • Portability – receive certain data in a machine-readable format
  • Withdraw consent – where processing is based on consent, withdraw it at any time

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at info@oascharity.org.uk. We will respond within one month.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113. We would appreciate the chance to resolve your concern first, so please contact us before approaching the ICO.

14. CCTV

We operate CCTV at the Sanctuary, covering the entrance and driveway only, for the security of the site, our staff, volunteers and animals, and for the prevention and detection of crime. We rely on our legitimate interests for this. Footage is recorded automatically and overwritten after a maximum of 30 days unless it is needed in connection with an incident, in which case it may be retained and shared with the police or our insurers. There is no CCTV in our charity shops.

15. Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data, including secure hosting, encrypted connections (HTTPS), access controls, and the use of reputable third-party providers for payment processing.

16. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated revision date. Significant changes may also be communicated by email where appropriate.

17. Contact us

Oxfordshire Animal Sanctuary The Village Green Watlington Road Stadhampton Oxfordshire OX44 7UB

Email: info@oascharity.org.uk Telephone: 0300 102 0077 Registered charity in England and Wales, number 254642