The Beacon of Hope Project (BOHP) is a not-for-profit community organisation in the Illawarra, NSW (ABN 97 352 541 232). This policy explains, in plain language, what information our website collects and what we do with it. If anything here is unclear, ask us: enquiries@beaconofhopeprojectaus.org.
What we collect, and why
Forms you fill in
When you use a form on this site (contact, program enquiries, or feedback and concerns), we receive what you choose to tell us. On the feedback and concerns form, your name and contact details are optional — you can report without identifying yourself.
Form submissions are stored securely on our website platform and emailed to our team. Feedback and concerns submissions are also recorded in our secure case-management system so they can be handled properly and tracked over time.
A small number of our forms (such as vendor enquiries and volunteer expressions of interest) run directly on our operations platform, Lark — what you submit there goes straight into that system.
Like most websites, our site automatically records basic technical information with each submission (such as an IP address and browser type). We use this only for security and to prevent spam and misuse of our forms — never to identify genuine reporters or enquirers. This technical information stays on our website platform — it is never attached to feedback and concerns records in our case-management system.
Visitor statistics
We use our website platform’s built-in statistics to understand, in aggregate, how the site is used — which pages are viewed, roughly where visitors come from, and how they found us. We use this to improve the site, not to identify individual visitors. We do not use advertising trackers.
Cookies
This site uses a small number of functional cookies set by our website platform (for example, for security and, for site administrators, logging in). We do not use advertising cookies.
Services that help us run this site
A small number of trusted services process information on our behalf:
- WordPress.com (Automattic) — hosts this website, provides the statistics above, and filters form spam (Akismet).
- Google Workspace — our organisation email, where form notifications and your correspondence with us are held.
- Lark — our internal operations platform, where feedback and concerns records and responses to our volunteer and vendor forms are kept. Lark stores data on servers overseas.
- TryBooking — if you book a market stall, your booking is made directly with TryBooking under their own privacy policy.
- Stripe — when online donations are open, payments are processed by Stripe. Your card details go directly to Stripe; we never see or store them.
Photos
Photos of participants and volunteers appear on this site only with their consent, and we do not name or identify the people in them.
How long we keep information
We keep form submissions and correspondence for as long as they are needed for the purpose you sent them — and, for feedback and concerns, for as long as good record-keeping and safeguarding require.
Your choices
You can ask us at any time what information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it (we will, unless we genuinely need it — for example, safeguarding records). We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. Contact enquiries@beaconofhopeprojectaus.org.
Changes to this policy
If we change how the site handles information, we will update this page. This policy was last updated on 7 August 2026.