Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Cars Helping Kids is a vehicle-donation program of Fainting Goat Foundation, a Georgia 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation based in Gainesville, Georgia. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect when you visit carshelpingkids.org, donate a vehicle, request a tax receipt, or contact us by phone or text — and what we do (and do not do) with that information.

Throughout this policy, "we," "us," and "our" mean Cars Helping Kids / Fainting Goat Foundation. "You" means anyone who interacts with our website, forms, phone line, or text line.

2. What information we collect

Information you give us directly

When you fill out a donation form, request a tax receipt, contact us about consignment, or call/text us, you may share:

• Contact details: your name, phone number, email address, ZIP code or pickup address.
• Vehicle details: year, make, model, condition, title status, and any notes you add (e.g., where the keys are, when the vehicle is accessible).
• Reference information: when you look up a tax receipt, you provide the reference number we issued you and your name to verify your identity.
• Anything else you tell us: messages you send by email, text, voicemail, or call.

Information we collect automatically

When you visit our website, our hosting provider (Cloudflare) and our analytics tools (Google Analytics 4 and Google Ads) automatically collect:

• Your IP address, approximate location (city/region from IP), device type, operating system, and browser.
• The page you came from (referrer), pages you viewed on our site, time on each page, and the actions you took.
• A pseudonymous identifier stored in a cookie or in your browser's local storage so we can recognize a returning visit.
• If you arrived from a Google Ads click, a gclid click identifier so we can measure whether the ad worked.

Information from third parties

If our towing partner provides updates on a scheduled pickup (e.g., "tow completed," "title received"), we record that with your donation record. If we sell your donated vehicle at auction, we record the sale price so we can issue your IRS Form 1098-C.

3. How we use your information

We use the information you give us to:

• Process your donation: schedule a free pickup, transfer the title, sell or recycle the vehicle, and issue your tax receipt.
• Communicate with you: confirm your pickup, answer your questions, send you the IRS Form 1098-C when your vehicle sells, and follow up if we need additional information.
• Run our nonprofit: understand what kinds of donations we receive, measure our impact, and improve our process.
• Measure our advertising: if you arrived through a Google Ads campaign, we count your donation toward that ad campaign's results so we can spend our advertising grant wisely.
• Comply with the law: IRS reporting for tax-deductible vehicle donations, state title-transfer paperwork, and responses to lawful legal requests.

We do not sell your personal information. We do not rent it. We do not share it with unaffiliated marketers.

4. Who we share it with

We share your information only with the people and services we need to deliver the donation experience you signed up for:

• Our towing partner — your name, phone, pickup address, and vehicle details so they can schedule and complete the tow.
• Our auction partner — title and vehicle details to sell or recycle the vehicle.
• Our email provider (Resend) — your email address so we can send you the donation confirmation and tax receipt.
• Our hosting and form storage (Cloudflare) — all donation form submissions are stored in Cloudflare's encrypted storage (Workers KV).
• Google (Google Ads and Google Analytics 4) — see Section 6 below.
• Government agencies — title transfer paperwork to your state's DMV, and IRS Form 1098-C for donations that qualify.
• Law enforcement or courts — only when legally required (e.g., valid subpoena).

5. Phone calls and text messages

Call recording disclosure

When you call 770-871-9422 from a Google Ads link or a Google search-result ad, your call may be routed through a Google call-forwarding number that records the call duration and connects you to us. Calls may be recorded for quality assurance and to confirm what was discussed about your donation. If you do not consent to recording, please tell us at the start of the call and we will discontinue the call or take notes without recording.

Text messages

You can text the same number, 770-871-9422, to start or follow up on a donation. Standard message and data rates from your carrier apply. We may reply by text. If you text us outside our hours (Mon–Fri 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM ET), we will reply on the next business day unless an automated acknowledgment is in place. You can stop receiving texts from us at any time by replying STOP.

6. Cookies, advertising, and analytics

What's installed on our site

• Google Analytics 4 (GA4) — to understand how people use our site and which pages help them complete a donation. GA4 uses cookies and similar storage to recognize returning visits in a pseudonymous way.
• Google Ads conversion measurement — to count donations that came from a Google ad and improve our ad spending. This includes the gclid click identifier described above.
• Enhanced Conversions — when you submit our donation form, your email and phone may be hashed in your browser (using a one-way cryptographic hash) and sent to Google so it can match your conversion to your ad click. The unhashed values never leave your device.

How to opt out

You can opt out of Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-on, or by enabling "Do Not Track" / "Global Privacy Control" in your browser. You can also block cookies entirely through your browser settings, although some features of our donation form may not work without them. To opt out of personalized Google Ads, visit adssettings.google.com.

7. How long we keep your information

• Donation records: seven (7) years, to satisfy IRS recordkeeping rules for tax-deductible donations.
• Tax receipts (IRS Form 1098-C): seven (7) years.
• Website analytics (GA4): default retention is 14 months; aggregate anonymous data may be kept longer.
• Call recordings: up to twelve (12) months, then deleted unless we need to keep them longer (e.g., resolving a dispute).
• Text messages: up to twelve (12) months in our records, longer if part of a donation record.

8. Your rights

Wherever you live, you can:

• Ask what we have on file about you. We'll send you a copy.
• Correct it if anything is wrong.
• Delete it, except records we are legally required to keep (donation records subject to IRS rules).
• Opt out of marketing communications by replying STOP to texts, unsubscribing from emails, or asking us directly.

If you live in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Utah, or another state with a privacy law, you have additional rights including the right to opt out of "sale" or "sharing" and the right to appeal a denial. If you live in the EU/EEA or UK, you have rights under the GDPR, including the right to data portability and the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

To exercise any right, email [email protected] with "Privacy request" in the subject line, or call us at 770-871-9422. We will respond within 30 days (45 days for complex requests, with notice).

9. Children

Our website and donation process are intended for adults (age 18+) who own the vehicle they are donating, or who are legally authorized to dispose of it. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13. If you believe we have collected information from a child under 13, contact us and we will delete it.

10. Security

We protect your information with TLS encryption in transit (HTTPS), encrypted storage at rest (Cloudflare Workers KV), and access controls limiting who can read submissions. No method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure, but we use industry-standard protections appropriate to a small-nonprofit donation workflow.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time as our practices change or the law changes. We will update the "Last updated" date at the top. If we make a material change that affects how we use information we already collected from you, we will notify you by email if we have your address.

12. How to contact us

Cars Helping Kids — a program of Fainting Goat Foundation
Gainesville, GA
Phone & Text: 770-871-9422 (Mon–Fri 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM ET)
Email: [email protected]
Web: carshelpingkids.org

For privacy-specific questions, please put "Privacy" in the subject line of your email.