Last updated: October 9, 2025
The University of Maryland Foundation, Inc. d/b/a the University System of Maryland Foundation, Inc. (“we” or “us”) is committed to the lawful, fair, and transparent processing of personal data.
This Privacy Policy (or notice) is intended to help you understand what personal data we collect, why, when we share it, and how we store and protect it, as well as how to manage communications from us and exercise other rights you may have to your personal data in connection with your use of our website, www.usmf.org, including its domains and subdomains, as well as through our other online channels (collectively referred to as our “Service”). We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our practices and applicable law. If we make a substantial or material update, we will post an updated version on our Service.
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please email us at info@usmd.edu, or write to us at 3300 Metzerott Road, Adelphi, MD 20783.
This notice applies to personal data we collect through our Service. With respect to personal data processed through our Service, we are the controller responsible for your personal data.
This notice may be supplemented by a supplemental privacy notice applicable to a particular interaction with us, which may be either embedded in this notice or made available to you separately. We will tell you when a supplemental privacy notice applies.
This notice does not apply to any third-party applications, integrations, or websites that may link to, or be accessible from, our Service. We are not responsible for any of the content, features, functionality, or privacy practices of such linked third-party applications, integrations, or websites. The data collection and use practices of any linked third-party application, integration, or website will be governed by that third party’s applicable privacy notice, statement, or policy, and its terms of use. We encourage you to read them.
We collect your personal data when you voluntarily provide it to us. For example, you may give us: your email address, country of residence, and areas of interest if you choose to receive updates or other information from us; your contact information, and any other personal data you choose to include, if you email, text, instant message us, engage at events or other engagements, or contact us through our Service; and any personal data contained in, or included with, any gift or donation submissions, feedback, comments, responses, messages, or other data or content you submit via our Service. Please do not disclose more personal data than is necessary.
It is always your choice whether to provide this personal data. However, some personal data must be provided to enable certain functions of our Service or enable you to participate in certain programs, activities, or events (such as to sign up for an account, to make a gift or donation submission, or register to participate in one of our events), so the decision not to provide such personal data might limit or eliminate such functions or your ability to participate in those accounts, programs, activities, or events.
Do not provide personal data about others unless you are authorized or required to do so by contract or applicable law. You may provide personal data on behalf of another person if you have provided them with a copy of this notice, and any applicable supplemental privacy notice, and obtained their explicit or express consent. We may ask you to provide evidence of that notice and consent.
We may obtain personal data about you from other sources, including universities within the University System of Maryland, your company/organization, professional references, publicly available sources, third-party analytics providers, our service providers, and other third parties. For example, we may obtain your personal data if: you are an alum of a university within the University System of Maryland, or if you make a gift or a donation through our Service, or if another person designates you as a contact person for your company/organization or includes information about you in any communications, emails, photos or other data or content submitted through our Service; or one of our employees or service providers or a third party acting on apparent authority provides it to us (for example, when registering you to access one of our Service, access our facilities, apply for a job, or participate in one of our activities or events).
We may engage third parties to process donations or other payments you make to us or to others as gifts or donations (“Payment Processors”). We do not collect or process cardholder data or other financial account information. You will be redirected to third party sites, or the Payment Processor’s site, to make your donation or other payment. If so, the data collection and use practices of third parties, or of the Payment Processor’s site, will be governed by those other parties’ privacy notices, statements, or policies, and their terms of use. We encourage you to read them.
We do not engage in targeted or interest-based advertising.
We may collect some personal data automatically. For example, when you visit our Service, we may collect your internet protocol (“IP”) address, internet service provider (“ISP”) information, and browser type and language. We also may use cookies, pixels, beacons, and other tracking technologies to collect data about your interaction with our Service, including, for example, referring webpage, pages visited on our Service, and crash data. In addition, we may link the information we collect automatically or the information from any cookie, pixel, beacon or other tracking technology with the information you provide in other contexts on our Service to personalize, connect and streamline your experience when visiting our Service. For example, this may include connecting your use of our Service from your desktop, mobile, or other device. Please see our Cookies Policy for more information, including how to manage cookies, pixels, and similar technologies.
Certain mechanisms may allow you to send web browser signals, known as “Do Not Track” signals, indicating your choice to disable tracking on the Service. There is no industry standard for how Do Not Track consumer browser settings should work on commercial websites. Due to the lack of such standards our websites do not respond to browser do not track signals at this time.
Third parties, other than our service providers, do not have our permission to track which website or service you visited prior to and after using the Service. However, we cannot control third-party tracking and there may be some third-party tracking that occurs without our knowledge or consent.
We use Google Analytics. Google Analytics uses cookies and other similar technologies, to collect information about use of the Service anonymously and report website trends, without identifying individual visitors. To learn more, including how to opt out, visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. We also use Google Tag Manager (“GTM”) to manage and deploy tags on the Service, which helps us measure usage, improve performance, and deliver relevant content. GTM itself does not collect or use personal data beyond what is necessary to operate the tag management service; however, it enables tags that may collect information such as device identifiers, IP address, browser type, referring/exit pages, and interactions with the Service, and may rely on cookies or similar technologies. Data processed through Google Analytics and GTM is handled in accordance with Google’s policies and may be transferred to and stored on servers outside your country of residence.
We will not intentionally collect any sensitive personal data (or equivalent concept under applicable law) without your explicit or express consent for one or more specified purposes unless otherwise permitted or required by applicable law. We do not share or sell any sensitive personal data.
Our Service is not intended for minors (individuals under the age of 13, or equivalent minimum age depending on jurisdiction), and we do not knowingly collect personal data from minors through our Service. If you become aware of any personal data we have collected from a minor through our Service, please use the information in Contact Us above. If we learn that we have collected personal data from a minor through our Service, we will take steps to delete the data without notice as soon as possible.
Generally, we may use your personal data to:
Additional purposes for using your personal data are, or will be, described in a supplemental privacy notice applicable to our engagement with you.
We may collect and use your personal data only if we have one or more legal bases for doing so under applicable law. The legal basis or bases will depend on your relationship to us and/or your interaction with our Service. Examples of legal bases on which we rely include where processing is necessary to:
If the legal basis is consent, we will notify you in clear and plain language. We will seek additional consent before using your personal data for a new purpose that is inconsistent with the purpose for which it was collected. Your consent is voluntary and may be withdrawn at any time.
Employees, agents, affiliates, service providers, and partners
We may share your personal data with our: (a) board members, officers, employees, agents, and affiliates who have a business need to know (including legal services providers and auditors); (b) our services providers (including supplemental staff, project workers) to process it for us based on our instructions and for no other purpose; and (c) with third-party partners that are collaborating with us to fund or conduct projects or host events. We do not share your personal data with any third party (including our service providers) for marketing purposes unless you have provided consent for us to do so. If you believe personal data you provided to us is being misused by a third party, please use the information in Contact Us above.
We may share your personal data with a university within the University System of Maryland.
We may share your personal data with law enforcement, other government agencies or authorities, or third parties as required by applicable law, court order, subpoena, or legal process served on us.
We will not transfer control over personal data to any third party unless such transfer is expressly consented to by you or required to comply with applicable law, court order, subpoena, or legal process served on us, or in the event of a merger or acquisition or another specific event permitted by applicable law that would allow us to transfer control without your consent.
We will store your personal data in the United States until it is no longer needed to fulfill the purpose(s) for which it was collected or as otherwise required or permitted by law. After such time, we will either delete or anonymize your personal data or, if this is not possible, we will securely store your personal data and isolate it from any further use until deletion is possible. We may dispose of any data at our discretion without notice, subject to applicable law. Please use the information in Contact Us above if you would like more details regarding our retention periods for different categories of personal data.
As the transmission of data via the internet is not completely secure, we cannot guarantee the security of your information transmitted to our Service and any such transmission is at your own risk. However, we maintain appropriate technical and organizational measures, including performing regular self-assessments, to prevent unauthorized disclosure of, or access to, personal data. We limit access to personal data and require that employees authorized to access personal data maintain the confidentiality of that data. We hold our service providers to at least the same data privacy and security standards to which we hold ourselves.
If you are accessing the Services from outside the United States, please be aware that your information will be transferred to, stored, and processed in the United States. The data protection laws of the United States may not be equivalent or as comprehensive as the data protection laws as those in your country.
In order to protect your personal information when it is transferred to the United States, we have taken appropriate safeguards to ensure that your personal information will remain protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy. By visiting or continuing to use the Services, you understand that your information will be transferred to our facilities and to those third parties with whom we share it as described in this Privacy Policy.
You can opt out of any promotional communications from us, and you can do so at any time by following the instructions contained in the communications themselves. If you opt out of receiving these promotional communications, please note that we reserve the right to send you certain communications relating to our Service, including administrative messages. Unless otherwise required by applicable laws, we do not offer you the opportunity to opt out of receiving those communications.
To the extent provided by applicable laws, you may have the right to obtain confirmation that we hold personal data about you; access, correct, or delete your personal data; withdraw any consent you previously provided to us; object to or restrict our processing of your personal data in any other context; deactivate, block, anonymize, or delete personal data as appropriate; or request and receive a copy of the personal data you have provided us and to transmit this data to a third party. To exercise any of these rights that you are not able to do directly, please use the information in Contact Us above.
You may also have the right to lodge a complaint with the applicable data protection authority or consumer protection or privacy protection agency in your jurisdiction.
