Privacy Notice

This Privacy Notice explains how Help Musicians processes your personal data in connection with your use of https://​www​.help​musi​cians​.org​.uk/ and https://​www​.music​minds​mat​ter​.org​.uk/(the ​“Websites”), and the provision of our services to you, including those we make available via the Websites or otherwise in connection with our business.

At Help Musicians we are committed to protecting any personal data you share with us and will only ever use it in a legal and responsible way. We recognise the trust you place in us when you share your personal data, and we are committed to operating with openness, honesty and transparency.

This Privacy Notice will detail how we use and look after your personal data, your data privacy rights and how the law protects you.

In this notice ​‘you’ and ​‘your’ means you, the individual whose personal data we collect and process, including musicians, supporters and volunteers. For the purpose of this Privacy Notice we refer to all our beneficiaries as ​“musicians”, including beneficiaries who may be music industry professionals. ​‘We’, ​‘Us’ and ​‘Our’ refers to the charity Help Musicians and Music Minds Matter — a separate charity legally managed by Help Musicians. 

Please note that this page does contain detailed information about our use of cookies. For more information on that please read our Cookie Policy.

Help Musicians is the working name of the Musicians Benevolent Fund, a registered charity in England and Wales (charity number: 228089). We are also a registered company limited in England and Wales, with registration number 252783, incorporating the Scottish Musicians Benevolent Fund, and a wholly owned subsidiary MBF Trading Limited (3053538).

Help Musicians also runs a separate mental health charity called Music Minds Matter; Help Musicians legally controls the activities of Music Minds Matter and manages that charity. 

This Privacy Notice applies to the activities of both Help Musicians and Music Minds Matter.

Help Musicians is the Data Controller for personal data collected and processed about you under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA18) as part of your engagement with Help Musicians. Our Registration Number in the Data Protection Public Register is Z5889840. 

We collect and receive personal data through the following methods:

Personal data you provide to us. You may give us your personal data directly, for example, when you apply for our services or support, make a donation, contact us with enquiries, subscribe to receive our marketing communications or provide feedback to us.

Personal data we collect automatically, including through cookies and other similar technologies. When you access and use our Websites, we may collect technical data, such as your IP address, automatically, including through our use of cookies and other similar technologies. For more information about our use of cookies, please see our Cookies Policy.

Personal data we receive from third parties. We may receive personal data from third parties. Such third parties may include contracted partners who deliver services on our behalf, healthcare providers, event organisers, and other organisations we work with to support musicians.

Personal data that is publicly available. We may collect personal data that is available from public sources (including media publications) or that you or a third party may otherwise publish (for example on websites, posts on social media platforms, or speeches at events).

The following sections outline: the different purposes we process data for; what data we process for each purpose and the legal basis on which we process data for that purpose. 

a) Musicians’ Services 

Help Musicians delivers a range of services to musicians (“Musicians’ Services”). This includes financial support, support to access health care, and career development support. Through the charity Music Minds Matter, we provide mental health support to anyone working in the music industry. This section applies to services delivered by Help Musicians and Music Minds Matter.

Purposes of data processing in Musicians’ Services

We process personal data about musicians applying to and accessing our services to:

• assess your eligibility for services to ensure we are using our resources in line with our charitable objects;
• provide feedback about the outcome of your application and signpost you to relevant external support;
• manage our relationship and communications with musicians we are supporting and to provide you with support you have asked for;
• monitor and improve musicians’ services: we may use your data to help us understand who accesses our services and what impact our services have;
• contact you with any important information about the services you are accessing from us;
• provide reports to funders and supporters: we may use your data to show our funders and supporters our charitable impact by generating reports containing anonymous and aggregate information. Information in these reports will be anonymous and aggregate and will not identify you individually (for example, comparing the number of musicians supported across different regions);
• enable you to engage with the service you have requested: for example to send you joining instructions for workshops, schedule and deliver advice sessions, provide you with information resources or other activities that are part of the service you have requested;
• make referrals to contracted partners: this means sharing information with our contracted partners to help you access a service they deliver on our behalf. Where a service is provided by a contracted partner we will provide a service specific Privacy Notice at the point of access so you can see clearly how your data is used when you access that service; and
• make referrals to third parties: sometimes your needs may be best met by a third party without a formal contractual relationship with Help Musicians, such as another charity or statutory service like the NHS. In these cases, we will only make a referral with your consent. However, in exceptional circumstances where we believe you or others may be at significant risk of harm and we are unable to obtain your consent, we may make a referral to protect your vital interests or those of another person.

What personal data we collect and use in Musicians’ Services

To provide you with Musicians’ Services, personal data we may collect from you and use includes: Full name; any professional name; pronouns; email address; postal address; phone number; any demographic data you are willing to provide including your ethnicity, gender and details of any disabilities you wish to disclose; date of birth; promotional photos you share; records of correspondence between you and us; records of correspondence with any contracted partners or third party agencies we have made on your behalf; information about your music career and income from music.

Additionally for some specific services, other information is required to deliver the service, including for wellbeing services, information about your financial status and needs; bank account details and bank statements; information about your past and current health needs; records of health care funded through Help Musicians.

Legal Basis for processing personal data in Musicians’ Services

In the delivery of Musicians’ Services, our legal basis for processing your personal data under the UK GDPR is 

• Legitimate Interests: the processing is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party, unless there is a good reason to protect the individual’s personal data which overrides those legitimate interests;
• Performance of a contract: where we need to process your personal data to provide Musicians’ Services to you pursuant to our terms of service, or to take steps at your request prior to entering into an arrangement for services;
• Vital Interests: in exceptional circumstances where we believe you or others may be at significant risk of harm and we are unable to obtain your consent, we may process your personal data to protect your vital interests or those of another person, for example when making a referral to a third party to prevent harm to yourself or others;
• Compliance with a legal obligation: where we are required by law to process your personal data, for example in relation to safeguarding obligations or regulatory requirements.

Additionally, there are specific situations where the following legal basis applies: 

• Consent: the data subject has given consent to the processing of their personal data for one or more specific purposes. In Musicians’ Services, the specific processing activities that we seek consent for are:
  • sharing personal data with third parties (except where required to prevent significant harm as outlined above);
  • sharing special category data with any third party;
  • sending you marketing communications (where consent is required); and
  • using any information you have shared with us, your name or images of you in any public materials to raise awareness or funds for Help Musicians work.

b) Fundraising 

Help Musicians are supported in our charitable objectives by individuals who make donations of money or in-kind goods (‘supporters’) and/​or time (‘volunteers’) and other individuals interested in our work who may reach out to us by phone, email, letter or social media. 

Purposes of data processing in Fundraising

We hold and process data on supporters and volunteers to: 

• process donations (including gift aid where applicable), undertake any anti-fraud security checks that may be required, acknowledge receipt of your payment and where relevant allocate your payment to specific charitable activities as part of our fulfilment of any agreement with you; 
• communicate with volunteers and community fundraisers to support you in your chosen role and activities;
• provide practical information to you if you are taking part in a fundraising event on our behalf;
• communicate effectively with you by keeping a record of any communication you have entered into with us by any channel;
• fulfil contractual obligations entered into with supporters e.g. online purchases;
• comply with legal obligations for example, where we are required by law to share your personal details with HMRC or financial regulatory bodies;
• monitor the effectiveness of our activities by generating reports containing anonymous and aggregate information;
• keep you updated on our work, impact, fundraising activities, appeals and volunteering activities where we reasonably believe this will be of interest to you (you can opt out at any time);
• invite you to participate in research activities about Help Musicians or our work. Participation is always voluntary and you can opt out at any time; and
• carry out prospect research and wealth screening to ensure that you are contacted with the most appropriate communication. We may do this ourselves or work with a contracted third party to carry out wealth screening or gather information about our supporters from publicly available sources. If you do not wish your data to be processed in this way for profiling purposes, please contact data@​helpmusicians.​org.​uk to opt out.

What personal data we collect and use in Fundraising 

To undertake the above purposes, personal data we may collect and process about you includes: Full name, email, postal address, telephone number, records of correspondence with you, and event attendance and participation.

In the case of supporters, we will collect and process your bank account details and keep records of your previous donations, purchases and communications, including tax status for Gift Aid claim purposes. 

In the above cases, this personal data is directly collected from you. 

In some limited instances we may collect and use personal data about you which is in the public domain. In the case of supporters this may include your name, contact details, views and positions you have expressed, and details regarding your circumstances and interests.

Additionally, to help identify businesses who may wish to support the charity, we use information in the public domain to identify and contact individuals where relevant to their job, for instance people working in Corporate Social Responsibility or Communications teams.

Legal Basis for processing personal data in Fundraising 

Our legal basis for processing your personal data for fundraising and volunteering purposes under the UK GDPR is: 

• Legitimate Interests: the processing is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party, unless there is a good reason to protect the individual’s personal data which overrides those legitimate interests.

Additionally, there are specific situations where the following legal basis applies: 

• Consent: the data subject has given consent to the processing of their personal data for one or more specific purposes. In Fundraising, the specific processing activities that we seek consent for are:
  • sending you marketing communications that pertain to fundraising activities and events. There will always be an opt-out option included with any marketing communications related to fundraising activities; 
  • using any information you have shared with us, including your name, quotes and testimonials, or images of you, in any public materials to raise awareness of or funds for Help Musicians work; and
  • using any images of you from Help Musicians events or from any interviews you may participate in during your engagement with Help Musicians. 

c) Providing our Websites

This section explains how we process your personal data in connection with your use of our Websites, including when you browse our Websites.

Purposes of data processing in Providing our Websites

We process personal data about visitors to our Websites to:

• deliver our Websites, including ensuring that we are showing you the correct notices and information, and recording your preferences in relation to our Cookies;
• support, maintenance and security: to administer and protect our Websites and users (including troubleshooting, fixing errors, analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, and security, including for fraud monitoring and prevention);
• respond to user enquiries and offer support to users. We may use your information to respond to your enquiries and solve any potential issues you might have with the use of our Websites; and
• to request feedback and to contact you about your use of our Websites.

What personal data we collect and use in Providing our Websites

To provide you with our Websites, personal data we may collect from you and use includes: Technical data such as IP address, browser type, device type and operating system, location data derived from IP address, and unique identifiers assigned to your device or browser (including cookie identifiers); and contact data such as your name, email address and any information you provide when you contact us through our Websites.

Legal basis for processing personal data in Providing our Websites

Our legal basis for processing your personal data for providing our Websites under the UK GDPR is: 

• Legitimate Interests: the processing is necessary for our legitimate interests in providing our Websites effectively, running our business and protecting us and our users from harm, unless there is a good reason to protect your personal data which overrides those legitimate interests;
• Compliance with a legal obligation: where we are required by law to process your personal data.

d) Marketing Communications

Any marketing communications we send will generally include updates about our work and information on how to support that work. This section explains how we process your personal data in connection with marketing communications we send to you. 

Purposes of data processing in Marketing Communications

We process personal data for marketing purposes, including to:

• send you marketing communications: to keep you updated on our charitable work, services, events, fundraising appeals and how you can support Help Musicians and Music Minds Matter, via email telephone, and post.

What personal data we collect and use in Marketing Communications

For marketing communications purposes, personal data we may collect and process about you includes: Full name; email address; postal address, and your marketing and communication preferences.

Legal Basis for processing personal data in Marketing Communications

Our legal basis for processing your personal data for marketing communications purposes under the UK GDPR is:

• Consent: where we send you marketing communications by email, we will only do so with your consent. You can withdraw your consent and unsubscribe from our email marketing at any time by clicking the ​‘unsubscribe’ link in our emails or by contacting us using the details set out in the Contact Us section;
• Legitimate Interests: where you are a supporter or service user, we may send you communications about our work, impact, and opportunities where we believe this will be of interest to you based on your existing relationship with us. We rely on our legitimate interests to grow our charity and keep our supporters and service users informed, unless there is a good reason to protect your personal data which overrides those legitimate interests. You can opt out of these communications at any time by contacting us or clicking the ​‘unsubscribe’ link in our emails.

e) Recruitment

As part of any recruitment process, Help Musicians collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants. We need to process your data to enter into a contract with you. 

Purposes of data processing in Recruitment

We process personal data about job applicants to:

• enable us to enter into a contract with you: we need to process your data prior to and to enable us to enter a contract with you;
• comply with our legal obligations: for example, we are required to check a successful applicant’s eligibility to work in the UK before employment starts;
• manage the recruitment process: to assess and confirm a candidate’s suitability for employment and decide to whom to offer a job;
• respond to and defend against legal claims: we may need to process data from job applicants for this purpose;
• make reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability: we process health information to carry out our legal obligations and protect your rights in relation to employment; and
• carry out criminal record checks: for some roles, we are obliged to seek information about criminal convictions and offences because it is necessary to enable us to carry out our obligations and exercise specific rights in relation to employment, or to comply with a regulatory requirement to establish whether or not an individual has committed an unlawful act or been involved in dishonesty or other improper conduct.

We will not use your data for any purpose other than the recruitment exercise for which you have applied.

What personal data we collect and use for Recruitment

To undertake our recruitment processes, the personal data we may collect and process about you includes: your name, address and contact details, including email address and telephone number; details of your qualifications, skills, experience and employment history; whether or not you have a disability for which we need to make reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process; information about your eligibility to work in the UK; equal opportunities monitoring information, including information about your age, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, and religion or belief.

Help Musicians collects this information in a variety of ways. For example, data might be contained in application forms, CVs or resumes, obtained from your passport or other identity documents, or collected through interviews or other forms of assessment, including online tests.

We may also collect personal data about you from third parties, including references supplied by former employers, information from employment background check providers and criminal records checks from the Disclosure and Barring Service where we require such a check for the role you have been offered. We will seek information from third parties only once a job offer to you has been made and will inform you that we are doing so.

Your information will be shared internally for the purposes of the recruitment exercise. This includes members of the HR and recruitment team, interviewers involved in the recruitment process, managers in the business area with a vacancy and IT staff if access to the data is necessary for the performance of their roles.

Legal basis for processing personal data in Recruitment

Our legal basis for processing your personal data for recruitment purposes under the UK GDPR is: 

• Legitimate Interests: the processing is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party, unless there is a good reason to protect the individual’s personal data which overrides those legitimate interests.

f) Insight and Analysis

This section explains how we process personal data for insight, analytics, data improvement and personalisation purposes.

Purposes of data processing in Insight and Analysis

We process personal data for insight and analysis purposes, including to:

• carry out insight and analytics in relation to our Websites, including counting user visits, understanding browsing habits and learning which content and features are most popular so that we can develop and improve our Websites;
• measure the effectiveness of our marketing emails, including counting open rates and click-through rates;
• personalise your experience on our Websites and in our marketing communications so that they are more likely to be of interest and relevance to you; and
• measure the effectiveness of our online advertising, including to generate aggregate statistics that do not identify individuals (for example, counting how many people viewed or clicked on our ads and were redirected to our Websites through one of our ads); and
• manage and gain insights from our social media pages, including understanding how users interact with our content on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and other social media networks, and using aggregated insights (such as page views, engagement metrics and demographic information about our audience) to improve our content and communications.

What personal data we collect and use for Insight and Analysis

For insight and analysis purposes, personal data we may collect and process about you includes technical data such as IP address, browser type, device type and operating system, location data derived from IP address, and unique identifiers assigned to your device or browser (including cookie identifiers); usage data such as information about pageviews and browsing activity on our Websites, information about when a browsing session started and ended, and interaction with our marketing emails.

We collect this data automatically when you use our Websites through cookies and similar technologies. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our Cookie Policies. 

• https://​www​.help​musi​cians​.org​.uk/​c​o​o​k​i​e​-​p​olicy
• https://​www​.music​minds​mat​ter​.org​.uk/​c​o​o​k​i​e​-​p​olicy

Legal basis for processing personal data in Insight and Analysis

Our legal basis for processing your personal data for insight and analysis purposes under the UK GDPR is:

• Consent: where we use non-essential cookies on our Websites (including analytics and marketing cookies), we will only do so with your consent. You can manage your cookie preferences at any time using the settings on our Websites;
• Legitimate Interests: where non-essential cookies are not used, the processing is necessary for our legitimate interests in developing and improving our Websites, understanding the effectiveness of our marketing, and promoting our charitable work, unless there is a good reason to protect your personal data which overrides those legitimate interests.

Some of the insight and analysis activities we carry out may support personalisation of your experience on our Websites and in our marketing communications. For more information about our use of cookies, please see our Cookies Policy.

g) Online Advertising Activities

We may share your personal data with, or otherwise use the services of, third-party social media and advertising technology companies (​“Advertising Partners”), so that we can advertise our charitable work, services and campaigns on websites, apps, and other digital platforms, including social media, that are operated by third parties (​“Third-party Sites”). Our online advertising activities are explained in more detail below. If you see one of our advertisements, this may be the result of one or a combination of these activities.

Purposes of data processing in Online Advertising

We process personal data for online advertising purposes, including to:

• ‘Custom Audience’ advertising: to enable our Advertising Partners to match identifiers which we have obtained (for example, your email address or your device’s advertising identifier) with identifiers available to our Advertising Partners, including those relating to registered users of Third-party Sites. The matched identifiers are known as a ​‘custom audience’. We and our Advertising Partners create this custom audience so that our advertisements will be displayed to individuals whose identifiers are included in the custom audience when those individuals use the relevant Third-party Site. Our custom audience may also be used to exclude individuals from seeing our advertisements;
• ‘Lookalike Audience’ advertising: to ask our Advertising Partners to find other people that share similar interests and characteristics to the individuals who are in our custom audience, so that we can show our advertisements to those other individuals when they use Third-party Sites. This activity is known as ​‘lookalike audience’ advertising because the individuals who see our advertisements ​‘look like’ the individuals who form part of our custom audience;
• Advertising on Third-party Sites using Cookies and our Advertising Partners’ tools: to display advertisements that promote our charitable work when you visit Third-party Sites, including to recognise you as a user of our Websites and to reach users of Third-party Sites who meet certain criteria determined by us or our Advertising Partners; and
• Measuring the effectiveness of our advertising: to determine how successful our other advertising activities have been, and to understand who has viewed or interacted with our advertisements.

What personal data we collect and use for Online Advertising

For online advertising purposes, personal data we may collect and process about you includes: Contact data such as email address (which may be shared with Advertising Partners to create custom audiences); technical data such as IP address, browser type, device type and operating system, location data derived from IP address, and unique identifiers assigned to your device or browser (including cookie identifiers and advertising identifiers such as a device’s IDFA (iOS) or AAID (Android)); usage data such as information about views of and clicks on our advertisements, together with advertising identifiers associated with a user or their device; and Advertising Partner Data, being information obtained independently by our Advertising Partners, which may include unique identifiers and a profile of your possible interests and characteristics built by observing your activity on websites, apps and other digital properties.

Non-essential Cookies are used on our Websites for these purposes. In addition, our Advertising Partners may use non-essential Cookies on Third-party Sites, as well as Advertising Partner Data that they have independently collected. We are not responsible for these technologies and you should separately review the information provided to you on the Third-party Site about these technologies. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our Cookie Policies. 

• https://​www​.help​musi​cians​.org​.uk/​c​o​o​k​i​e​-​p​olicy
• https://​www​.music​minds​mat​ter​.org​.uk/​c​o​o​k​i​e​-​p​olicy

Legal Basis for processing personal data in Online Advertising

Our legal basis for processing your personal data for online advertising purposes under the UK GDPR is:

• Consent: where we share your personal data with our Advertising Partners for custom audience advertising, or where we use non-essential cookies on our Websites (including advertising cookies), we will only do so with your consent. You can manage your cookie preferences at any time using the settings on our Websites;
• Legitimate Interests: where non-essential cookies are not used, or to the extent we are a controller of Advertising Partner Data, the processing is necessary for our legitimate interests in increasing the effectiveness of our advertising by displaying our advertisements to individuals who have previously shown an interest in our charitable work, or are most likely interested in our advertisements based on criteria determined by us and our Advertising Partners, unless there is a good reason to protect your personal data which overrides those legitimate interests.

Some of the advertising that you see based on these activities may be personalised to you. Please see the Insight and Analysis section for further information about personalisation. We may be joint controllers with our Advertising Partners, or our Advertising Partners may be independent controllers, in relation to the activities described in this section. For more information, please see the Advertising and Social Media Partners section.

h) Events

Help Musicians hosts and participates in various events to support musicians and promote our charitable work. This section explains how we process your personal data in connection with events.

Purposes of data processing in Events

We process personal data about event attendees, speakers and participants to:

• register you as an attendee, speaker or participant at one of our events. If you are a speaker at our event, we may publish your name in association with the event;
• provide you with important information about our events, including joining instructions, schedules and any updates;
• make logistical arrangements with you in connection with your attendance at the event, such as travel arrangements for speakers or accessibility requirements;
• conduct filming, photography and audio recording at our events. Where filming, photography or audio recording is conducted with a deliberate focus on a particular individual, we will request that this individual signs a consent form releasing the use of the content captured. The materials collected may be shared in external communications including emails, press releases, social media, adverts, on our Websites and in printed materials. This is done to increase the reach of services for musicians in line with our charitable objects, and to support our fundraising activities. You reserve the right to be excluded from any form of content capture by contacting communications@​helpmusicians.​org.​uk. You can also request that any materials featuring you are removed from our channels; where possible we will do so, except in cases where materials have already been used in shared or third-party communications. You may also request that materials featuring you are not used in future communications;
• manage health, safety and incidents at our events, including reporting or managing any incidents that may occur.

What personal data we collect and use in Events

For events, personal data we may collect and process about you includes:

Full name; email address; telephone number; postal address; job title and organisation (where relevant); dietary requirements and accessibility needs; photographs and video footage featuring you; information about sessions attended and interactions at our events; and any other information you provide in connection with your attendance at an event.

Legal Basis for processing personal data in Events

Our legal basis for processing your personal data for events purposes under the UK GDPR is:

• Performance of a contract: where we need to process your personal data to register you for an event and provide the event services to you;
• Legitimate Interests: the processing is necessary for our legitimate interests in promoting our events, providing information about speakers, improving our events based on attendance insights, ensuring the health and safety of attendees, and capturing and using photographs or video footage featuring you for promotional purposes (including raising awareness of our charitable work and supporting our fundraising activities), unless there is a good reason to protect your personal data which overrides those legitimate interests. If you do not wish to be featured in photographs or video footage, you can opt out by contacting us at communications@​helpmusicians.​org.​uk before or during the event, or request that materials featuring you are removed from our channels. We will use reasonable efforts to accommodate such requests, except where materials have already been used in shared or third-party communications;
• Consent: where we process any special category data (such as dietary requirements relating to health or religious beliefs, or accessibility needs), we will only do so with your consent;
• Compliance with a legal obligation: where we are required by law to process your personal data, for example in relation to health and safety reporting.

i) Business Operations and Organisational Relationships

This section explains how we process your personal data in connection with our general business operations, legal and compliance activities, and in managing our relationships with individuals and organisations we work with.

Purposes of data processing in Business Operations and Organisational Relationships

We process personal data for business administration, compliance and legal purposes, and to manage our organisational relationships, including to:

• manage our relationship with you or the organisation you work for: where your organisation is a supplier, partner or other organisation we work with, we may process your personal data to manage that relationship, to contact you about goods or services we have purchased or may purchase, and to provide you with important information (including about changes to our terms and conditions or this Privacy Notice);
• comply with our legal obligations: to fulfil any legal or regulatory requirements that apply to us, including in relation to charity law, financial reporting, tax, and health and safety;
• enforce our legal rights or defend against legal claims: to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights, including in connection with any disputes or legal proceedings;
• facilitate business transitions: in connection with any reorganisation, merger, or if Help Musicians or substantially all of our assets are acquired by another organisation;
• implement and manage security measures: to protect our premises, systems and personnel, including through the use of CCTV and building access controls at our premises. There are signs in place showing that CCTV is in operation. The images captured are securely stored and only accessed on a need-to-know basis. Visitors to our premises may be required to sign in on arrival.

What personal data we collect and use in Business Operations and Organisational Relationships

For business operations and organisational relationship purposes, personal data we may collect and process about you includes:

Full name; email address; telephone number; postal address; job title and organisation you represent; records of correspondence with you; details of any goods or services purchased from you or your organisation; CCTV footage (if you visit our premises); visitor records; and any other personal data relevant to legal proceedings or regulatory compliance.

Legal Basis for processing personal data in Business Operations and Organisational Relationships

Our legal basis for processing your personal data for business operations and organisational relationship purposes under the UK GDPR is:

• Performance of a contract: where we need to process your personal data to perform a contract with you or your organisation, or to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract;
• Legitimate Interests: the processing is necessary for our legitimate interests in operating our charity effectively, managing our supply chains and relationships with partner organisations, protecting our premises and personnel, and exercising or defending our legal rights, unless there is a good reason to protect your personal data which overrides those legitimate interests;
• Compliance with a legal obligation: where we are required by law to process your personal data, for example in relation to charity law, financial reporting, tax, or health and safety requirements. 

This section provides information about Advertising Partners that may be a controller of your personal data in relation to certain activities described in this Privacy Notice, meaning that the third party may (alone or jointly with us) determine how and why they will use your personal data.

Meta (Facebook and Instagram)

We are joint controllers with Meta in respect of online advertising activities, where those activities involve advertising to you on platforms owned and operated by Meta (including Facebook and Instagram). When we refer to Meta, we mean Meta Platforms, Inc. if you are a UK resident, and Meta Platforms Ireland Limited if you are an EU resident.

We and Meta have entered into Meta’s Controller Addendums (available here (EU) and here (UK)) to determine our and Meta’s responsibilities for compliance with data protection obligations in relation to our online advertising activities. We and Meta are each responsible for providing information about how your data might be processed in connection with these activities in our privacy notices. Meta has primary responsibility for giving effect to your data subject rights (see the Your rights section of this Privacy Notice) in respect of these activities.

In addition, where we receive insights from Meta for the purposes described in the Social media pages and insights section, we are joint controllers with Meta in relation to Meta’s processing of their Social Media Data to provide those insights to us. For more information, please see Meta’s Information about Page Insights Data here.

For further information about how Meta uses your personal data in connection with these activities, including the legal basis Meta relies on and the ways to exercise your data subject rights in respect of Meta’s processing, please see Meta’s Privacy Policy at https://​www​.face​book​.com/​a​b​o​u​t​/​p​r​ivacy.

Google

Google has published information about how it uses personal data in connection with its advertising services here. In addition, Google provides further information about how it uses personal data in connection with online advertising in its Privacy Policy and here. You can also use Google’s Ad Settings to manage your online advertising preferences.

Google (YouTube)

We receive YouTube insights from Google for the purposes described in the Insight and Analysis section. Google processes Social Media Data to provide those insights to us. For information about how Google uses your personal data to provide insights, including the legal basis Google relies on and the ways to exercise your data subject rights in respect of Google’s processing, please see Google’s Privacy Policy here. 

LinkedIn

LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company (LinkedIn) is a controller of your personal data when our online advertising activities involve advertising to you on LinkedIn. LinkedIn has published information about how it uses your personal data in connection with its advertising services, including how you can opt-out of LinkedIn’s interest-based advertising, here and here.

In addition, where we receive insights from LinkedIn for the purposes described in the Insight and Analysis section, we are joint controllers with LinkedIn in relation to LinkedIn’s processing of their Social Media Data to provide those insights to us.

For further information about how LinkedIn uses your personal data in connection with these activities, including the legal basis LinkedIn relies on and the ways to exercise your data subject rights in respect of LinkedIn’s processing, please see LinkedIn’s Privacy Policy at https://​www​.linked​in​.com/​l​e​g​a​l​/​p​r​i​v​a​c​y​-​p​olicy. 

Special category data is more private personal data which is subject to extra legal protections. Special category data which we may collect from you includes your ethnicity and information about your health.

Our legal basis for processing the information you provide us about your health and ethnicity under UK GDPR is Article 9 (2) (d) Not-for-profit bodies.

We collect and process special category data to:

• Monitor who accesses our services to ensure it is accessible to all musicians. Your data is used anonymously for this purpose;
• Assess applications to ensure that the delivery of our services fulfils our charitable objects;
• Enable the provision of health services by contracted partners as described under ​‘Musicians Services’ above;
• Where requested by you to provide you with a service tailored to your needs and experiences;
• Appropriately support volunteers and community fundraisers who disclose health-related information in connection with their volunteering or fundraising activities; and
• Undertake equal opportunities monitoring purposes within recruitment.

With regards to recruitment, you are under no obligation to provide information for equal opportunities monitoring purposes and there are no consequences for your application if you choose not to provide such information. 

Help Musicians will not, under any circumstances, share or sell your personal data with any third party for their own marketing purposes. 

We only share personal data with third parties when we are legally permitted to do so. When we share personal data with others, we put contractual arrangements and security mechanisms in place to protect the personal data and to maintain the confidentiality and security of it.

The circumstances where we may typically share personal data are set out below, though there may be other circumstances where we need to share personal data that are not set out below. 

Information sharing with our partners 

In order to deliver our charitable objectives, we may need to share your personal data with other organisations and individuals, including contracted partners who deliver services on our behalf. Where a service is provided by a contracted partner, we will provide a service-specific Privacy Notice at the point of access so you can see clearly how your data is used. If you access a service which requires that we share your personal data with a partner, this will always be made clear to you at the point of accessing the service.

Information sharing with third parties 

To enable musicians to access the right support, Help Musicians may make referrals to third party agencies with whom it has no existing contractual relationship on behalf of a musician. In these instances, referrals will only be made with your consent. 

We are required to share Gift Aid claim information with HMRC and information is shared securely. 

Suppliers and service providers 

We may need to share your information with service providers who assist with our operations (e.g. fundraising appeal mailouts, IT services, website hosting, data storage, and payment processing for donations). We have a contractual agreement in place for all such service providers and we do not allow these parties to use your data for their own purposes. 

We may also work with third-party venues that host events for us and where our supporters are directed to purchase tickets through their website and not ours. In this case, supporters will be clearly made aware of this process in all communications. When we run events in partnership with other organisations, we may share personal data with such organisations for use in relation to the event.

We may share personal data with our Advertising Partners to provide you with, and measure the effectiveness of, online advertising. For more information about these activities, please see the Online Advertising Activities and Advertising and Social Media Partners sections of this Privacy Notice.

Professional advisers

Legal and regulatory compliance

We may share personal data with law enforcement or other government and regulatory agencies as required by, and in accordance with, applicable law or regulation. We will only fulfil requests for personal data where we are permitted to do so in accordance with applicable law.

Business transitions

If Help Musicians or substantially all of its assets are acquired by another organisation, or if we merge with another organisation, personal data held by us may be transferred to that organisation as part of the transition. 

We will hold your personal data on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity:

Recruitment: if your application for employment is unsuccessful, we will hold your data on file for 12 months after the end of the relevant recruitment process. At the end of that period, your data is deleted or destroyed. If your application for employment is successful, personal data gathered during the recruitment process will be transferred to your personnel file and retained during your employment. 

Services: If you access one of our services or receive any financial grant from us in relation to Career Development, Music Education or Wellbeing, we will retain your personal data for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected. This includes administering support and ensuring that lifetime limits on charitable spend per person are applied fairly and consistently to all applicants. This processing is necessary to support the fair allocation of our charitable resources.

In some cases, this will require us to retain a limited amount of personal data for an extended period in order to identify previous support provided to you. 

Where we retain data for this purpose, we will limit the information held to what is necessary; any data that is not required for this purpose will be deleted or turned into aggregate anonymised information for reports 6 years from the end of the financial year (31 December) after the last payment made to you.

Supporters: If you make a financial gift to the charities or give consent for us to contact you about fundraising activities, we will retain your personal data for as long as it is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected. Please note that we are legally required to keep financial information related to donations for 6 years from the end of the financial year they relate to (31 December is the year end date) which includes gift aid declarations, name, address, donation date, donation amount and payment method information. In some instances, we may keep information indefinitely or until you ask us to delete this data, for example so we can maintain a record of your relationship with the charities, manage this with you effectively and provide you with information about your donation history on request. 

If you have shared your personal details to subscribe to receive fundraising marketing communications from us, we will only use that data in line with the consent you have given. If you withdraw your consent to receive fundraising communications or other marketing materials or unsubscribe from such communications, we will keep a record of your personal details so that we can comply with your request but marked with clear guidance to no longer contact you. This ensures the supporter is not accidentally contacted again in the future. You can additionally ask us to delete your personal details under your data subject rights.

Marketing: If you have opted out of receiving marketing communications from us, we will need to retain certain personal data on a suppression list indefinitely so that we know not to send you further marketing communications in the future. However, we will not use this personal data to send you further marketing unless you subsequently opt back in to receive such marketing.

Legacy income: Legacy income is vital to Help Musicians. So that we can manage legacy gifts effectively and stay in touch with legacy pledgers or the families of legacy donors, we may keep information you provide to us about legacy income indefinitely and in line with the information necessary to administer the gift. Please note that records regarding a finalised legacy gift are typically kept for a minimum of 7 to 10 years after the estate is closed to protect against any future legal claims. 

We are committed to keeping personal data secure and we have implemented technical and organisational measures to protect personal data under our control from unauthorised access, improper use or disclosure, unauthorised modification and unlawful destruction or accidental loss. We ensure your personal data is stored securely at all times. Personal data is stored on secure databases and only shared outside of these through encrypted files. Access to personal data information is controlled through user security profiles and password protections.

Our personnel receive mandatory cyber-security and data protection training, and we also ensure that our personnel are obliged to respect the confidentiality of personal data under our control.

Where we use external companies to collect or process personal data on our behalf, we undertake checks on these companies before we work with them, and put contractual arrangements in place that set out our requirements regarding how they manage the personal data they collect or have access to on our behalf. 

You have a number of rights regarding the personal data that we hold about you, these are:

• The right to be informed that we are processing your personal data;
• The right to access your personal data;
• The right to correct the personal data we hold on you if it is incomplete or inaccurate;
• The right to have your personal data deleted where we have no other legal basis for processing it (there may be exceptions to this right, and if this is the case we will explain this in our response to your request);
• The right to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances (there may be exceptions to this right, and if this is the case we will explain this in our response to your request);
• The right to object to certain processing, including the right to object where we are processing your data on the basis of our legitimate interest;
• Where you have provided your consent to the processing, you have the right to withdraw consent at any time. You can exercise your right of withdrawal by contacting us using our contact details below or by using any other opt-out mechanism we may provide, such as an unsubscribe link in an email;
• Your rights in relation to automated decision-making and profiling. Where we make a decision about you based solely on automated processing, including profiling, that has a legal or other similarly significant effect on you, we will provide you with meaningful information about how any such decision is reached and what it means for you. We will only make such decisions where we are permitted by law to do so. Where we do, you will have the right to obtain meaningful human involvement, to express your point of view, and to contest the decision. We do not currently carry out any automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects;
• The right to complain to us if you believe our processing of your personal data does not comply with applicable privacy laws or you otherwise have a concern about the way we have handled your personal data;
• The right to complain to a supervisory authority. In the United Kingdom, the relevant supervisory authority is the Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”). You can complain to the ICO by visiting https://​ico​.org​.uk/​m​a​k​e​-​a​-​c​o​m​p​l​aint/ or by calling 0303 123 1113.

If you wish to exercise any of your data privacy rights, please contact us via email: data@​helpmusicians.​org.​uk.

For more information on your personal data rights please visit the Information Commissioner’s website. 

Where indicated in this Privacy Notice, cookies, web beacons, pixel tags and other similar technologies (“Cookies”) may be used for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice. In addition to the information set out in this Privacy Notice, you can find out further information about the Cookies that we use on our Websites, and learn how you can manage your consent to the use of non-essential Cookies, by visiting our Cookie Policies. 

• https://​www​.help​musi​cians​.org​.uk/​c​o​o​k​i​e​-​p​olicy
• https://​www​.music​minds​mat​ter​.org​.uk/​c​o​o​k​i​e​-​p​olicy 

This Privacy Notice only applies to personal data processed by us. Our Websites may contain links to third-party websites, apps or services. We have no control over these third-party websites, apps or services and this Privacy Notice does not apply to your interaction with the relevant third parties. 

Our Websites are not intended for use by, or targeted at, minors (individuals under the age of 18). However, this does not prevent minors from providing personal data to us. Where we do process personal data of minors, we will comply with all applicable laws and regulations relating to that processing. 

Where we are required by law to collect personal data, or we need to collect personal data under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you fail to provide that personal data, we may not be able to fulfil any obligations that we owe to you, and we may not be able to enter into or perform a contract with you. This may apply where you do not provide personal data that we need to provide our services to you or to process an application for support. In these circumstances, we may have to cancel the provision of the relevant services to you, in which case we will notify you. 

If your personal details change, please help us to keep your information up to date by notifying your Help Musicians contact or emailing data@​helpmusicians.​org.​uk. 

We keep our Privacy Notice under regular review. Any changes to this notice will be reflected on this page and we recommend that you check back throughout your engagement with Help Musicians to see the latest version. Where we make any significant changes we will also endeavour to inform you about this by email, if we have this on record. 

This Privacy notice was last updated on 10th June 2026. 

If you have any questions which you feel have not been covered by this Privacy Notice or concerns about how we process your personal data, please do not hesitate to contact us:

data@​helpmusicians.​org.​uk

Data Protection Officer, 
Help Musicians, 
7 – 11 Britannia Street, 
London, WC1X 9JS