Privacy Policy

Last Revised: August 8, 2025

Effective Date: January 1, 2025

We, the Aim Higher Foundation, a Minnesota nonprofit corporation (collectively “we,” “us,” or “our”), are committed to protecting the privacy and security of information that relates to an identified or identifiable person and to transparency in how we collect and use such information. This Privacy Policy will refer to this kind of information as “personal information,” but in many jurisdictions, it is referred to as personal data. This Privacy Policy describes our practices for collecting and using personal information, including through our website, other online services, administration of our scholarship programs, and any other program or activity that references or links to this Privacy Policy (“Services”). This Privacy Policy also explains how you can control certain uses and disclosures of your personal information.

We will update this Privacy Policy periodically, or as our privacy practices change, to ensure it accurately describes how we use your information. When we do so, we will update the dates above. We recommend that you review this Privacy Policy periodically for the latest information. If we materially change our practices, we will provide you with appropriate notice, typically via an email message or a notification within our Services.

This Privacy Policy does not address our use of personal information outside the context of these Services, and, in particular, does not address our use of personal information in the context of employees, former employees, and applicants for employment.

If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy or our use of your information, please contact us using one of the methods detailed below.

1.             How we use and share personal information

We limit the collection and processing of personal information to that which is necessary for our business purposes, as outlined in the following table and the text that follows it.

Categories of individuals

Categories of personal information

Purposes

Methods of collection

Categories of third-party recipients (see below)

Users of any of our website or online Services (“Users”)

· Device, usage, network, and activity information, including IP addresses and online identifiers

· Interest and demographic information

· Non-precise location information

· Service analysis, security, and administration

· Indirectly by observing individuals’ activities or behavior

· From analytics providers

· Analytics providers

Newsletter and mailing list subscribers

· Contact information

· To provide the newsletter

· Fundraising

· Service analysis, security, and administration

· Directly from individual

· None

Donors

· Contact information

· Payment method information

· To process tendered payments

· To store payment information for convenience

· Donor recognition

· Fundraising

· Service analysis, security, and administration

· Directly from individual

· Payment processors

Applicants for Aim Higher Foundation Scholarships and Catholic Services Appeal/Aim Higher Scholarships

· Contact information for applicant student and parents

· Birthdate

· Financial need information

· Documents accompanying application or substantiating application information

· To select scholarship recipients and administer scholarship programs

· From the applicant via the TADS system, which administers our application process in connection with the financial aid application for specified K-8 Catholic grade schools

· None

Reserve fund applicants

· School name

· School leader name

· Student applicant name

· Name and contact information for student applicant’s parent/guardian

· TADS Financial Aid reference number

· Tuition obligation information

· Information about the need for a reserve fund scholarship

· To select scholarship recipients and administer scholarship programs

· From applicant’s school leader

· School leader

· Applicant

Individuals who send us feedback, testimonials, or other correspondence

· Sender name and address or other sender identifiers

· Contents of feedback or other correspondence

· To review and respond to the feedback or other correspondence

· Service analysis, security, and administration

· Fundraising

· Directly from individual

· None

 

In the above table, the term “Service analysis, security, and administration” includes the following:

  • To facilitate account management. We process your information to enable you to create, use, and manage your account.
  • For information security. We process personal information to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the Services and the data available through the Services.
  • To deliver and facilitate delivery of Services to Users. We process your information to provide you with the requested Services.
  • To respond to user inquiries/offer support to Users. We may process your information to respond to your inquiries and solve any potential issues you might have with the requested Services.
  • To send administrative information to Users. We may process your information to send you information about the Services or our programs, changes to our terms and policies, and other similar information.
  • To evaluate and improve our Services and your experience. We may process your information to identify usage trends, determine the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns, and evaluate and improve our Services. We may also process your information in connection with the training of our personnel.
  • To comply with our legal obligations. We may process your information to comply with our legal obligations, respond to legal requests, and exercise, establish, or defend our legal rights.

Please be aware that we use tracking technologies that share information with third parties for analytics purposes, as described in the table above.

A.    Disclosure and sharing

In addition to the sharing with the third parties listed in the table above, we may also share your personal information with:  

  • Affiliates. We may share your information with other organizations that are under common ownership or control with us.
  • Service providers. We share your personal information with third-party service providers who assist us. We engage these kinds of third parties with contracts that require them to use your personal information only for the purpose of delivering the services for which we have engaged the third party and as required by law. These kinds of third parties provide business, professional, administrative, or technical support functions for us, such as payment processing, billing, data storage, quality assurance, and fundraising.
  • Legal compliance recipients. We disclose personal information to the courts, the government, law enforcement agencies, litigants, and similar recipients when required by law, to comply with our legal obligations, or to advance or defend legal claims.
  • We may disclose personal information associated with all or part of our organization to a successor entity.

We also may disclose personal information to third parties with your consent or at your direction.

Because there is no consensus on how to process a web browser’s “do not track” signal, we do not currently take any action in response to it. Because we do not sell personal information or use it for targeted advertising purposes, our Services do not process in response to the Global Privacy Control signal or other universal opt-out mechanism.

B.    Security, quality, and retention of personal information

We employ reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect personal information in our possession from unauthorized access, modification, or disclosure. While we make every reasonable effort to help ensure the integrity and security of our network and systems, please be aware that no data storage system or transmission of data over the internet or any other public network can be guaranteed to be completely secure, accurate, complete, or current. 

We also take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect is sufficiently accurate, up-to-date, and complete for the purposes for which we process or disclose it.

We retain personal information for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which we use it, or for so long as required by law. What is necessary depends on the context and purpose of processing. We generally consider the following factors when we determine how long to retain personal information:

  • retention periods established under applicable law;
  • industry best practices;
  • whether the purpose of processing is reasonably likely to justify further processing;
  • risks to individual privacy in continued processing;
  • applicable data protection impact assessment;
  • information systems design considerations/limitations; and
  • the costs associated with continued processing, retention, and deletion.

C.    Cross-border Transfers

We process personal information only in the United States. If we transfer personal information from one jurisdiction to another, we will do so in a way that we believe complies with applicable legal requirements.

D.   Children’s privacy

We are committed to protecting the privacy and safety of children using the internet. Our Services, including our website, are designed and intended only for adult parents and donors rather than children. Accordingly, we do not knowingly collect any personal information from those under the age of 13. If we discover (or are informed) that we have collected personal information from a visitor under the age of 13, we will promptly delete such information.

2.             Your privacy rights

This section provides information on the rights you have with respect to your personal information. Depending on the laws of the jurisdiction where you live and their applicability to us, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information. To request to exercise your rights, please submit a request by contacting us through any of the means outlined in Section 3, at the bottom of this Privacy Policy.

Your rights may include the following:

  • the right to confirm whether we process your personal information and to access a copy (from which we may, for security purposes, exclude certain personal information), including a copy that is in a portable data format, and for such access to be provided in a reasonable, practicable, and cost-effective way;
  • the right to the correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal information;
  • the right to the deletion of your personal information;
  • the right to appeal the action we take in response to any request to exercise these rights;
  • the right to learn how we obtained your personal information and how we have disclosed it;
  • the right to opt-out of the use of personal information for targeted advertising, personal information sales, or profiling resulting in significant consequences;
  • the right to be free of discrimination based on your exercise of your privacy rights; and
  • the right to opt out of certain uses of your sensitive personal information.

Only you or someone legally authorized to act on your behalf may make a request to exercise rights related to your personal information. We will verify that any requests from persons other than you have your legal authorization. You may also make a request on behalf of your child.

Your request must:

  • Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or a legally authorized representative; and
  • Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to understand, evaluate, and respond to it appropriately.

We will respond to your request in accordance with the timelines established by applicable law.

You may also appeal the decision we make on your request by using the contact information below. When you contact us to appeal, please tell us why you believe we erred in responding to your request. We will respond to your appeal in accordance with the timelines established by applicable law. We do not discriminate against any person based on their requests to exercise their legal rights.

California’s “Shine the Light” law, Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.83, entitles California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. We do not presently make any such disclosures. Any other inquiries regarding the sharing of personal information with third parties may be directed to us at the contact information provided in Section 3, below.

3.             Contacting us

To request to exercise your other rights or for other privacy-related inquiries, comments, or concerns, please contact us at:

  • By e-mail: [email protected]
  • By phone: +1 612-819-6711
  • By postal mail at: Aim Higher Foundation, 2610 University Ave W, Suite 525, Saint Paul, MN 55114.