Privacy Policy Statement

This Privacy Policy Statement explains the policies of The Washington Scholarship Coalition, a public/private partnership that includes nonprofit organizations, private foundations and state agencies, (altogether, the "Companies" or "us," "We," "we," "Our," or "our") with respect to any personal identifying information you might supply to us or use in connection with this product or site on the Internet (the "Site") as a service for scholarship seekers (students, parents and financial aid professionals) ("Seekers") and scholarship intermediaries or providers ("Providers") in the State of Washington. The Companies respect the privacy of all participants on the Site, and we are committed to protecting user privacy on the Internet.

We may include Provider information in analytical reporting in connection with the Site, but we will not report on a segment that has less than five Providers in it. Participation in the Site by Providers is for the sole purpose of gathering and analyzing information leading to the successful award of scholarship funds to eligible Seekers. Providers will only receive access to a specific Seeker profile when the Seeker submits his/her application. Providers will retain and share with their representatives or agents (e.g., selection committees) only the Seeker's information that is necessary to fulfill their selection, disbursement and record-keeping obligations.

Providers will not use the Site to assemble a prospect list for alternative uses not connected with the Site nor for marketing any services/products/ideas of Provider or others in their regular course of business. Providers will not distribute or otherwise share with any other entity, for financial gain or for free, the names or other personal information about Seekers or Providers. Providers will have access to aggregated data about participants on the Site, both Seekers and Providers. We can immediately de-activate your access to and participation in the Site for misuse of Seeker or Provider information.

Providers may use the name, photo or other personal information about an award recipient in their marketing materials. Providers will disclose their intent to use award recipient information and photos in the scholarship profile or attached guidelines included in the Site that is provided to Seekers.

We may access and use Provider and Seeker information to provide technical or other customer support in connection with the Site. We may include Provider and Seeker information for analytical purposes and in reports, both published and internally used. We will use our best efforts to present such information in a non-attributable form, unless a specific release has been provided to us by the Provider or Seeker. We may collect e-mail addresses through various features on the Site, including the "Refer a Friend" functionality. These e-mail addresses will be used only for purposes in connection with the Site and will not be used for marketing purposes by us, by Providers, or by any other third party.

We may use and analyze Provider and Seeker information in order to study and present findings based on the information to educate and advocate on behalf of scholarship philanthropy and access to higher education. We will access and use Provider and Seeker information in order to deliver services in connection with the Site. For more information on how we may use Provider and Seeker data, please see our Data Usage Policy.

We may use "cookies" to enhance your online experience. Cookies are pieces of data that we place on your computer's hard drive to help us identify you. The cookies that we place on your hard drive allow us to immediately tell us who you are when you return to the Site. They are not used to collect any nonpublic personal information. Our Web server automatically recognizes your domain name, but not your e-mail address. We do not collect nonpublic personal information from visitors to our Site unless you expressly provide it to us. The information we do collect from this Site (such as domain name, number of hits, pages visited and length of user session) may be combined to analyze how our Site is used. This information is then used to improve the usefulness of the Site.

We collect only limited "personally identifiable information" on the Site. Personally identifiable information is information about you, such as your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address. We gather this information so we can administer the Site and so scholarships can be awarded by Providers to Seekers.

The types of personally identifiable information about you that we collect on this Site and the ways in which we use such information include the following:

  • Contact information, such as your name, address, e-mail address or telephone number (land-line or cellular).  Both the Companies and Providers may use this information, for example, to send you information that you request or to contact you about your scholarship applications.

  • Identification information, such as a password or password challenge question/answer. This information helps us, for example, identify you as a Site participant and prevent unauthorized use or unauthorized disclosure of your information.

  • Financial information, such as your or your family's income, assets or liabilities. The Companies and Providers may use this information, for example, to evaluate scholarship applications.

The Companies carefully limit and control how we share personally identifiable information that we collect on this Site. We may share this information with the following types of entities:

  • With an affiliated organization. We may share your nonpublic personal information with our affiliates as permitted by federal law, specifically the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999.

  • With other companies. To improve efficiency with which we provide you service, the Companies have contracted with other companies to perform various technical services in connection with the Site. These contracted vendors are not affiliated with the Companies. As part of these business relationships, the Companies may share your personal information with these contracted vendors to solve a technical Site issue or problem. We require these contracted vendors to comply with strict standards of security and confidentiality, and they are not permitted to release, use or transfer any personal information to any other party for their own use.

  • In general. The Companies and Providers do not sell Seeker lists or individual Seeker information. We will, however, exchange personal information about you with each other and with Providers in connection with the services provided on the Site, with the goal of matching scholarship Providers and Seekers. The Companies also will exchange certain personal information about you when we are legally required, such as in response to a subpoena and to prevent fraud or to comply with a legally permitted inquiry by a government agency or regulator.

Unless prohibited by law, you have the right, upon reasonable notice, to view any personally identifiable information collected from you through your visits to or use of this Site, to make corrections to such information, if necessary, or to request that such information be removed from our systems. You may do so by contacting us at the address indicated at the end of this Privacy Policy Statement.

Our Site may also permit you to access non-affiliated Sites directly from our Site to provide you with value-added information, functionality or services. If you provide personal information via these Sites, your information may be shared with these third-party entities. It is also important to remember that, if you link to a non-affiliated Site from our Site, that party's privacy policy and its terms and conditions will apply to you. We encourage you to learn about each third party's privacy policy before sharing personal information with them.

The Companies do not knowingly collect, maintain or use personal information from this Site about children under age 13. If a child whom we know to be under age 13 sends personal information to us online, we will use that information only to respond directly to that child, notify parents or seek parental consent. We are not, however, responsible for the collection and use of information by non-affiliated companies and organizations that may be linked to this Site.

Please remember that this Privacy Policy Statement applies only to the Companies and this Site. It does not apply to Sites that may be linked to or from our Site or any other company or organization. If you link to a non-affiliated Site from our Site, that party's privacy policy and its terms and conditions may apply to you. We encourage you to learn about each third party's privacy policy before giving personal information to them.

The effective date of this Privacy Statement is July 13, 2012. It replaces all prior Privacy Policy Statements issued by us. We reserve the right to change our Privacy Policy Statement. Any such changes will be reflected in the updated version displayed on this Site.

For additional information about this Privacy Policy Statement, please write: Washington Scholarship Coalition c/o Danette Knudson, NELA Director, External Relations and Outreach, 309 23rd Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98144