Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

HungerPods Foundation(“HungerPods,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is a California nonprofit public benefit corporation recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, EIN 41-5379406, located at 1 Technology Drive, Building J, Suite 703, Irvine, CA 92618.

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use and share it, how long we keep it, and the choices you have — when you visit our website, donate, request food assistance, volunteer, attend our events, or otherwise interact with us (collectively, the “Services”).

It applies to everyone who interacts with us: visitors, donors, volunteers, community partners, and neighbors who request food assistance.

2. Our Privacy Commitments

Because our work involves people in vulnerable moments, we hold ourselves to commitments that go beyond legal minimums.

• We do not sell personal information. We do not sell, rent, trade, or exchange the personal information of donors, neighbors, volunteers, or visitors. We do not share donor lists with other charities.
• Donors never see who receives help. The identity of households receiving assistance is never disclosed to donors or to the public.
• No public story or photo is ever required to receive help.
• Volunteers receive only the minimum. A delivery volunteer receives only what is needed for one safe drop-off — never hardship notes, verification details, or documents.
• No fundraising appeals to neighbors. We do not send donation appeals or public-sharing prompts to households through the assistance experience.
• We collect only what we need.

3. The Two Kinds of Information We Hold

We collect two very different kinds of information, and we treat them very differently.

If you donate, we collect what we need to process your gift, send you a receipt, and stay in touch if you want us to.

If you ask us for food, we collect the least we can, share almost none of it, and delete it on a schedule.

4. Information You Give Us

4.1: If you donate

Your name, email address, phone number, mailing address if you provide it, donation and pledge history, receipt and giving records, employer information if you tell us, communication preferences, and the contents of any messages you send us.

4.2: Payment information

Donations are processed by Stripe, Inc., a PCI-DSS Level 1 certified payment processor. Your full card number is transmitted directly to Stripe over an encrypted (TLS) connection and is never received or stored on HungerPods’ servers.We receive only transaction confirmations and limited details such as the amount, date, payment method type, card brand, and last four digits. Stripe’s own handling of your information is described in its privacy policy at https://stripe.com/privacy.

4.3: If you request food assistance

• Your ZIP code
• Your household size
• A safe and private way to contact you
• Your preferred verification pathway — a partner referral, or a brief private review
• The timeframe in which you need help
• Delivery or pickup details, only after your request is approved
• Optionally: dietary restrictions, mobility or transportation needs, and preferred language

Please do not send us government identification, benefit letters, medical records, or financial documents. We do not need them and we do not want to be holding them.

We do not record the names, ages, or any details of children in your household. We record only how many people live there.

4.4: If you volunteer

Your name, contact details, availability, interests and skills, and any screening information reasonably required for a specific role. Where a role involves driving or delivering, we may require a background check, and we will tell you before any check is run.

4.5: If you contact us

The contents of your emails, calls, and form submissions.

5. Information Collected Automatically

When you use our Site, we and our service providers automatically collect certain technical information: device and browser type, operating system, IP address and approximate location, pages viewed, links clicked, referring pages, and the dates and times of visits.

6. Information From Other Sources

We may receive information from our payment processor; from community partners who refer or help verify a request with your knowledge; from employers or workplace-giving platforms; and from social media platforms when you interact with our public pages.

7. Cookies and Tracking

We use Google Tag Manager (container GTM-T3LVGLP7) to manage the measurement tools on our Site.

Essential cookiesare what make the Site work — loading pages correctly and keeping the site secure.

Analytics help us understand how visitors find and use the Site so we can improve it. These tools record the kind of technical information described in Section 5.

Advertising and social media tools. We do not currently use our Site to build advertising audiences or to retarget visitors with ads.

Your controls. Most browsers let you block or delete cookies through their settings. Google offers an analytics opt-out browser add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Do Not Track. Because there is still no common standard for interpreting Do Not Track signals, our Site does not currently respond to them. You can still limit tracking using the controls above.

If we add advertising or social media tracking tools in future, we will update this Policy before we do.

8. How We Use Information

9. How We Share Information

We share information only with the people and organizations who need it, and only the part they need.

• Service providers who perform services on our behalf — payment processing (Stripe), website hosting, analytics, and email delivery — under obligations to protect the information and use it only to provide services to us.
• Delivery volunteers, who receive only the minimum needed to complete one safe drop-off, and never hardship notes, verification information, or documents.
• Community partners, limited to what is reasonably necessary to coordinate the assistance you requested, and with your knowledge.
• Legal and safety, where we reasonably believe disclosure is required by law, subpoena, or legal process, or is necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of HungerPods, our users, our volunteers, or the public. Where we are legally permitted to tell you, we will.
• Aggregated or de-identified data that cannot reasonably be used to identify you.

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with third parties for their own advertising or direct-marketing purposes.

10. A Special Note for Neighbors Seeking Assistance

Asking for help should never cost you your privacy or dignity.

• Your request is anonymous to the community. Donors and the public never see your name, your address, or your story.
• Hardship information shared during a private review goes only to the trained members of our care team who need it to confirm eligibility. It is never shared with donors, volunteers, or the public.
• Your preferences are used only to serve your household well — never for marketing, never for profiling for unrelated purposes, and never resold.
• You can ask us to delete your request information at any time by emailing hello@hungerpods.org.
• Optional links we share to other community resources are for your convenience only. We do not pass your information to them.

11. Your Choices and Rights

You can ask us to:

• See what information we hold about you
• Correct anything that is wrong
• Delete your information, except what we are legally required to keep
• Stop emailing you— use the unsubscribe link in any message, or simply tell us
• Cancel a monthly gift — see our Donation and Refund Policy

Email hello@hungerpods.org or call +1 (949) 969-8390with the subject line “Privacy Request.” We will respond within thirty (30) days, and we will not treat you any differently for making a request.

A note on the law.California’s CCPA and CPRA generally apply to for-profit businesses and generally do not apply to nonprofit organizations such as HungerPods Foundation. Most other state privacy laws either exempt nonprofits or apply only to organizations far larger than we are. We give you these rights because we think you should have them, not because a law compels us to. If that changes as we grow, we will update this Policy.

12. Children

The Services are intended for adults. You must be 18 or over to donate, to request food assistance, or to volunteer. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18 through the Services.

When a household asks for food, we record how many people live there. We do not record children’s names, ages, or any details about them.

If you believe someone under 18 has provided personal information to us, please email hello@hungerpods.org and we will delete it.

13. How Long We Keep Information

After these periods we keep only anonymous totals — such as how many bags went to a ZIP code — that cannot be traced back to any person.

14. Data Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect personal information against unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. These include TLS/SSL encryption in transit, access controls that limit sensitive information to trained team members, confidentiality obligations on anyone who handles assistance requests, vendor due diligence, and PCI-DSS Level 1 certified payment processing through Stripe — so card data never touches our servers.

We are not going to tell you your data is completely secure, because no organization can honestly promise that. What we can promise is that we collect as little as possible and delete it as soon as we can, which is the only real protection there is.

15. If There Is a Breach

If we discover a breach of security affecting your personal information, we will notify you, and any regulator we are required to notify, within the timeframes required by California law.

16. Where Information Is Processed

HungerPods operates in the United States, and the Services are intended for people in the United States — primarily Southern California. Information we collect is processed and stored in the United States.

17. Third-Party Links and Social Media

The Services link to third-party websites and platforms, including social media pages, our payment processor Stripe, mapping services, and government resources. This Policy does not apply to them. Each maintains its own terms and privacy practices.

18. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will post the updated Policy with a new Effective Date. If the changes are material, we will provide additional reasonable notice before they take effect.

19. Contact Us

• Email: hello@hungerpods.org
• Phone: +1 (949) 969-8390
• Address: HungerPods Foundation, 1 Technology Drive, Building J, Suite 703, Irvine, CA 92618
• EIN: 41-5379406

We aim to respond to all privacy inquiries within two (2) business days.