Privacy Policy

Effective Date: December 1, 2025

This Privacy Policy describes how Birmingham Methodist Church ("the Church," "we," "us," or "our") — a nonprofit religious organization located at 15018 South St, Wakeman, OH 44889 — collects, uses, discloses, and protects personal information obtained through this website. It applies to all visitors and users.

Birmingham Methodist Church operates exclusively for religious, charitable, and educational purposes and is a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. As a nonprofit religious organization, we may be exempt from certain state consumer privacy laws that apply primarily to for-profit entities. Nonetheless, we are committed to responsible data stewardship, transparency, and the protection of your personal information.

1. Information We Collect

Information you provide directly:

Contact Form: When you submit our contact form, we collect your name, email address, and the content of your message.
Online Giving: When you make a donation through our Ministry Brands Amplify Giving portal, your payment and donor information are collected and processed directly by Ministry Brands, LLC — not by Birmingham Methodist Church. We do not store or have access to your payment card details. Please review the Ministry Brands Privacy Policy for details on how this information is handled.

Information collected automatically:

Usage Data: Google Analytics collects information such as pages visited, time spent on pages, referring URLs, browser type, device type, and approximate geographic location derived from your IP address. Google may also use IP address data to help measure website usage and improve its analytics services.
Bot Detection Data: Google reCAPTCHA v3 operates invisibly in the background of our contact form and may collect information about browsing behavior and device characteristics — such as mouse movements, browser settings, and cookies — in order to generate a spam-risk score.
Map Interaction Data: When you interact with our embedded Google Maps widget, Google may collect your IP address and related usage data.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect solely for the following purposes:

To respond to messages and inquiries submitted through our contact form.
To facilitate and record donations made through our online giving portal.
To analyze aggregated website usage in order to improve our content and functionality.
To protect our contact form from spam, bots, and fraudulent activity.

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to any third party, and we do not use your information for targeted or behavioral advertising.

3. Third-Party Services

This website integrates third-party services that support its functionality. These providers operate under their own independent privacy policies, and Birmingham Methodist Church is not responsible for their data practices.

Google Analytics, Google Maps, and Google reCAPTCHA v3 — All Google services on this website are governed by the Google Privacy Policy. Google Analytics collects website usage data; Google Maps displays our church location and may collect your IP address when you interact with the map; and Google reCAPTCHA v3 provides invisible spam and bot protection on our contact form by analyzing user behavior and device signals.
Ministry Brands Amplify Giving — Processes online donations on behalf of the Church. All payment card data, donor information, and transaction records submitted through the giving portal are governed exclusively by Ministry Brands, LLC. See the Ministry Brands Privacy Policy.

This website may also contain links to external sites operated by third parties. We are not responsible for the privacy practices, content, or policies of those sites, and we encourage you to review their privacy policies before submitting any personal information.

4. Cookies

This website uses cookies — small text files stored on your device — primarily through Google Analytics and Google reCAPTCHA. These cookies help us understand website traffic and protect against automated abuse. You may disable or delete cookies through your browser settings at any time, though doing so may affect certain website functionality. We do not use cookies for advertising or cross-site tracking.

5. Sharing of Information

We do not sell your personal information. We may disclose information only in the following limited circumstances:

Third-Party Service Providers: Information may be shared with the providers listed in Section 3 solely to the extent necessary to operate this website and our online giving functionality.
Church Staff and Volunteers: Contact form submissions may be accessed by authorized church staff or volunteers for the sole purpose of responding to your inquiry.
Legal Obligations: We may disclose information if required to do so by applicable law, court order, subpoena, or other lawful request from a governmental authority.

6. Data Retention

We retain contact form submissions for a reasonable period necessary to respond to your inquiry and for standard administrative recordkeeping, after which they may be deleted. Donation records are retained in accordance with applicable nonprofit financial recordkeeping requirements and Ministry Brands' data retention policies. Usage data collected by Google Analytics is retained according to Google's configured retention settings.

7. Data Security

This website uses HTTPS (SSL/TLS) encryption to protect data transmitted between your browser and our web server. We implement reasonable administrative and technical safeguards to protect the personal information we maintain. However, no method of electronic transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. Children's Privacy

This website is not directed toward children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has submitted personal information through this website, please contact us using the information in Section 11 and we will promptly delete it.

9. Your Rights & Choices

We respect your privacy and will make reasonable efforts to honor requests to:

Know what personal information we hold about you.
Correct inaccurate information in our records.
Delete personal information you have provided directly to us, subject to applicable legal or recordkeeping obligations.

To submit a request, please contact us using the information in Section 11. Note that as a nonprofit religious organization, the Church may be exempt from certain state consumer privacy statutes, but we will do our best to accommodate reasonable requests regardless.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or operational needs. When updates are made, the "Effective Date" at the top of this page will be revised accordingly. Your continued use of this website after updates are posted constitutes your acknowledgment and acceptance of the revised Policy.