Privacy policy

Wellbeing of Women are the only UK charity funding pioneering medical research to find better treatments and cures across all of women’s reproductive and gynaecological health. Our supporters are vital to Wellbeing of Women and without you, we could not have funded so much of our groundbreaking research that has led to the treatments we take for granted today, or reached so many women with health education. Our supporters take important actions, whether that’s donating, volunteering, sharing a campaign, taking action in their workplace or finding and sharing valuable health information that improves women’s lives.

We collect and use data to provide the best service we can to our supporters and women who benefit from our work, and to help us raise funds to support our work. We also collect data on researchers who we fund.

We are committed to protecting your personal data and being transparent about how we collect, use, and securely store your information.

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time and, if we do, we will update it on our website, so please check this page occasionally to make sure you are happy with any changes.

If you have any questions about this policy or concerning your personal information please contact hello@wellbeingofwomen.org.uk.

Information we collect

We collect personal information in the following categories:

Personal identity information: e.g., name, postal address, email address, phone number, taxpayer status (for Gift Aid) and any other personal identifiers needed to communicate effectively.
Professional information: e.g., job title, institution, department, educational and professional qualifications, career history, or other professional identifiers.
Financial information: When you donate or purchase tickets, we process payment information securely and never store card details.
Digital interaction and technical information: Data on how you interact with our website, including anonymised IP address, device and browser type, cookies (based on your consent), general website usage patterns, and interaction data such as page scroll depth and time spent on pages.
Special category data: Health information, where applicable and with explicit consent, for example via our Period Symptom Checker, to enable us to provide the service. We also collect equal opportunities and monitoring information, for example ethnicity, gender, age, disability when there is a clear reason to do so.
Relationship history: e.g., events attended, actions you’ve taken, special areas of interest
Application content: e.g., research proposal or project description, budget and financial plans, supporting documents (e.g., CVs, references, ethics approvals), declaration of other funding sources.

We might create a profile of you to tailor our contact and approaches.

Some types of information are in a special category under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. These are considered more sensitive. Examples are racial or ethnic origin, data concerning health, data revealing religious or philosophical beliefs. We only collect this type of information when there is a clear reason to do so.

How we collect your data

We collect information when you:

Register your interest, make a donation, or attend events;
Contact us via our website, email, phone, social media or other methods;
Subscribe to our newsletters, sign up for events or volunteer with us;
Fundraise for us or engage with our campaigns through third-party platforms (e.g., JustGiving, Care2), which have their own privacy policies and set out ways in which they may share your information with us;
Participate in research, surveys, or feedback initiatives
Apply for research funding or apply for a job at Wellbeing of Women
Sign up to our elearning platform. If you access the Menopause Awareness Workplace Training course on learn.wellbeingofwomen.org.uk you also agree to adhere to the NHS elfh terms and conditions outlined at https://portal.e-lfh.org.uk/terms.
Use our Period Symptom Checker
Visit our websites, where we will gather general information on your engagement with the site, for example pages you visit or events and information you are interested in
Engage with our social media channels, where we might track how you engaged with our posts, or what engagements you take on our website.

Where possible we use anonymous data which doesn’t identify you individually as a visitor. We use “cookies” to help track how supporters engage with our website, more details below. We also use social media tracking pixels to track how users have engaged with our websites. This is used to ensure our advertisements reach the right people in the most cost-effective way to encourage supporters to engage with our campaigns and work.

In addition, sometimes we may look at publicly available information on websites such as Linkedin, Companies House or in newspapers and via third party databases who bring together publicly available data.

When you contact us via social media and messaging services you use, like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, you might give us permission to access information from those accounts or services. If you engage with our posts or publish content that is related to us, we might engage with your posts. We also use social media platforms to identify key themes and ideas in the women’s health space.

How we use your information

We will use your personal information for a number of processes. For example:

Services and support: To respond to enquiries, register your interest, process donations, including for Gift Aid purposes, and support fundraising.
Marketing and engagement: To provide you with updates on our research, health information, events, campaigns, volunteering opportunities and fundraising appeals, tailored based on your interests and engagement with Wellbeing of Women.
Remarketing and audience insights: We may use platforms like Facebook and Google Ads to reach individuals who have visited key areas of our website, such as the donation page. This helps us retarget and engage potential supporters who have shown an interest in our mission, improving the effectiveness of our campaigns and ensuring we reach the right people with relevant messaging.
Profiling and personalisation: Using your support history, interests, and engagement data, we personalise our communications and engagement approach, including maintaining records on how you would like to be contacted.
Compliance and legal obligations: To fulfil legal obligations, including data retention for financial transactions and to carry out due diligence, fraud prevention and credit risk reduction activities.
Improving our services: Using your views and feedback and engagement with our websites, social media and email content, to ensure we can make improvements to our services and websites.
Manage our events: To help manage our events, both online and offline.

Our legal basis for processing your data

Our lawful basis for processing your data include:

Consent: For marketing communications, profiling, and where sensitive data is involved.
Legitimate interests: For data analysis, reporting, and profiling, as it helps us understand and engage with our audience more effectively.
Contractual and legal obligations: For processing donations, event registrations, and financial record-keeping.

When you have provided information about yourself you are consenting to us to use it to liaise with you again about our events, campaigns, research news or marketing activity. You may update your preferences or withdraw consent at any time by:

Emailing us at hello@wellbeingofwomen.org.uk.

Phoning us on 020 3697 7000

Writing to us at Wellbeing of Women, 10-18 Union St, London, SE1 1SZ

This will not affect the lawfulness of processing of your information prior to your withdrawal of consent being received and actioned. You may also ask to see any information that we hold about you. Our relationship with you is vital to the pioneering work of the charity.

If you have subscribed to any of our newsletters, you can unsubscribe at any time via the email footer.

Data retention and security

We retain financial transaction information for six years, as required by law. Where taken directly by us, we will delete credit card details as soon as they have been processed.

We will hold other personal data for as long as necessary to support ongoing communication with you, unless otherwise requested.

We take data protection seriously and use a variety of security measures, including encrypted forms, secure databases and controlled access.

Grant applicants and jobseekers

Funded grant applications are kept forever. Unsuccessful grant applications are kept for 6 years and are then deleted.

Unsuccessful grant applications are kept for this time to allow:

For feedback or appeals processes.
To streamline resubmissions or track applications e.g. where applicants may reapply or build on earlier submissions.
To maintain records for audits or evaluation of the scheme

Beyond the six years, applications are deleted but summary information (e.g., name, institution, title, score) is kept for trend analysis or reporting.

If you apply for a job, we will retain your data for 6 months and then delete it.

We will tell you how we keep your personal data when you apply job or volunteer position.

Your rights and keeping your information up to date

We really appreciate you letting us know if your contact details change or you no longer want to hear from us. If you no longer wish to hear from us or want to change the way we contact you please contact us at hello@wellbeingofwomen.org.uk or phone us. Please be aware we may need to keep some of your details on file so we can note your preference not to be contacted.

Sharing your data

We may share your data with trusted third parties, including:

Service providers: We use secure third-party systems to manage supporter information and send email newsletters via Mailchimp. These tools ensure we communicate with you effectively while following strict data protection regulations and GDPR guidelines.
Event and campaign partners: When necessary, we may share attendee lists with event planners or caterers to facilitate logistics
Legal and compliance: When legally required to comply with regulatory obligations or to protect ours or others’ rights, property or safety.
Digital marketing platforms: We use platforms such as Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Google Ads for remarketing and audience building.
- Meta (Facebook and Instagram): For some campaigns, we securely share hashed supporter data, such as email addresses, to match with Meta’s users. Meta uses this hashed data to create Custom Audiences, allowing us to engage with supporters effectively. Once the matching process is complete, Meta deletes or anonymises the data to ensure no identifiable information is retained.
- Google Ads: We use tracking technologies, such as cookies or pixels, to create remarketing audiences based on website behaviour. For example, if you visit our donation page, Google Ads may show you relevant ads on other websites or YouTube to keep you informed about our work. Unlike Meta, we do not upload data to Google Ads for this purpose. Instead, it uses the information collected via its tracking systems, in compliance with user consent preferences.

For more information, please see the following:

Meta Custom audiences and Meta Lookalike audiences
LinkedIn
Google
Twitter
TikTok

Donation processing: To process donations securely and efficiently, we work with trusted third-party payment providers who adhere to the highest standards of data protection and GDPR compliance. These providers ensure your payment information is handled securely and is not stored beyond what is necessary for the processing of your transaction. We only share the minimum data required to complete the donation, such as your name, contact information, and payment details. Any third-party provider we work with is contractually obligated to protect your data and use it solely for the purposes of processing your donation. We use different providers depending on where you donate.

You can read their privacy policies:

Stripe
Enthuse
JustGiving
BigGive

International transfers of your data outside the EEA are conducted only with trusted partners who meet UK and EU data protection standards.

Other than this, we will not share your information with other organisations without your explicit consent.

Wellbeing of Women does NOT buy or swap lists with other organisations.

How we keep your information safe and who has access

We understand the importance of security of your personal information and take steps to safeguard it. We ensure that there are appropriate technical controls in place to protect your personal details. For example, our online forms are always encrypted and our network is protected and routinely monitored.

We undertake regular reviews of who has access to information that we hold to ensure that it is only accessible to appropriately trained staff, volunteers and contractors. All information is password protected

Payment card information

If you make a donation or pay for an event or product online or over the phone, we will ensure this is done securely. Card details given to us over the telephone, online or on paper forms are destroyed or deleted as soon as the payment has been processed. Where payments are processed online or via bank transfer they are processed by our partner companies and the data is encrypted and we will never receive those account or card details.

Use of the Period Symptom Checker

The Period Symptom Checker can be used anonymously - you do not need to provide any personal data to receive a result. Or, you can provide your email and we will send you follow up emails related to your results - and if you subscribe to our newsletter - further information about our work and campaigns. The tool is hosted on Typeform, a GDPR-compliant third-party platform embedded on our website.

What data do we collect?

User answers - Which the checker collects in order to provide a results page with answers
Anonymous usage data – We collect aggregated data on how the tool is used, including response patterns, to improve its functionality.
User feedback – If you choose to provide feedback, we may use it to enhance the tool and our services.
Email addresses (optional) – If you enter your email address, we will use it to:
- Send your results and follow-up surveys.
- If you opt in, send updates about our work and campaigns, which you can unsubscribe from at any time.

How is your data stored and used?

Your responses are securely stored within Typeform and are deleted periodically. If you provide an email address, it will be stored securely in Mailchimp and our supporter database, alongside tags related to your answers, to allow us to send you follow up content. While we do not collect names through the checker, if your email is already in our database or provided later, this information may be linked to your profile alongside any further information you give us.

We may use anonymised data for research, analysis, targeted advertising, and reporting, ensuring that no personally identifiable information is shared. Any statistics published will remain anonymous.

How long do we keep your data?

Symptom checker responses – Stored in Typeform and deleted every six months. We will anonymously keep responses for longer, removing them from identifiable information such as email address if needed.
Email addresses – Retained in Mailchimp and our CRM, unless you request deletion.
Feedback – Kept as long as necessary to improve our services.

Where is your data stored and shared?

The Period Symptom Checker is hosted on Typeform, whose main servers are located in Virginia, USA, with backups in Germany. Typeform is GDPR-compliant and has implemented Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) to safeguard data transfers outside the UK/EEA. View Typeform's security information.

Children’s Information

We appreciate that our supporters are of all ages and sometimes children will feature in stories on our website or in our newsletters. Where appropriate we will ask for consent from a parent or guardian before using that information.

Sharing your story

Some people choose to tell us about their health-related experiences and stories. They may take on a role as an Ambassador or attend our patient focused events. If we have the consent of the individuals, or their parent or guardian if they are under 18, this information may be made public by us at events, in materials promoting our campaigning and fundraising work, on our website or in documents such as our annual report. We may, at times, repost relevant public postings people have chosen to share on social media.

Changes to this privacy policy

This Policy may be changed from time to time. If we make any significant changes we will advertise this on our website.

Do please check this Policy each time you consider giving your personal information to us.

Cookies and digital data collection

Our cookies statement

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files stored on your computer or device when you visit our website.

Cookies set by us (Wellbeing of Women) are known as "first-party cookies," while those set by other parties are called "third-party cookies." Alongside similar technologies like pixels, cookies help websites function effectively and provide valuable insights to their owners. We refer to these collectively as "cookies."

Your cookie preferences

Some cookies are essential for our website's basic functions, while others enhance your experience or provide insights to help us improve.

When you visit our website for the first time, you will see a message about cookies. You can accept all cookies or manage your preferences.

You can also disable cookies in your browser settings, but this may affect how our website functions. For more information about cookies and how to manage them, visit www.aboutcookies.org.

What cookies can you select?

We categorise the cookies we use as follows:

Necessary cookies

These cookies are essential for the website's core functionality, such as setting your privacy preferences or filling out forms. While you can disable these cookies in your privacy settings, doing so may affect the way the website functions. They do not collect personal information.

Performance cookies

These cookies help us collect event-based data to analyse how visitors interact with our website, such as clicks, page scroll depth, and time spent on specific sections. This information enables us to improve your experience and understand trends in website performance. You can choose whether to allow these cookies.

Functional cookies

Functional cookies enhance your experience by remembering preferences, like accessibility settings and enabling embedded content such as videos, maps or forms.. You can choose whether to allow these cookies.

Targeting cookies

These cookies are used to personalise advertising and show you relevant content based on how you use our website. They do not store personal data directly but analyse website usage patterns to personalise advertising and provide tailored content. You can choose whether to allow these cookies.

Your data rights

Under GDPR, you have rights to:

Access: Request a copy of your personal data.

Correction: Rectify inaccuracies in your information.

Deletion: Request deletion where appropriate, subject to legal requirements.

Restriction: Limit how we process your data under certain circumstances.

Objection: Opt out of data processing for marketing or profiling.

Data portability: Receive your data in a commonly used format.

To exercise these rights or update your information, please email hello@wellbeingofwomen.org.uk or call 020 3697 7000.

Updates to this policy

This policy is periodically reviewed to ensure compliance with data protection laws and best practices. Any significant updates will be highlighted on our website.

This policy was last updated on 10/02/2025