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Privacy Policy

Effective Date: January 1, 2026

South Florida HBCU Picnic ("SFHBCU Picnic," "we," "our," or "us") respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share, and protect personal information when you visit our website, register for events, purchase donation-based tickets, make donations, apply for scholarships, sign up for email or SMS updates, volunteer, submit vendor or sponsor interest, or otherwise communicate with us.

Our Mission and Community Purpose

The South Florida HBCU Picnic exists to strengthen local HBCU alumni associations, support local students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and build a stronger South Florida HBCU community. Because our event is built in partnership with local alumni associations, Greek-letter chapters, sponsors, vendors, volunteers, and community partners, we may share limited contact and affiliation information as described below.

Information We Collect

We may collect information you provide directly, including:

  • Name, email address, phone number, mailing address, and communication preferences.
  • Event registration, ticket, donation, sponsorship, vendor, volunteer, and attendance information.
  • HBCU affiliation, alumni association affiliation, Greek-letter organization or chapter affiliation, class year, school interest, or other community affiliation you choose to provide.
  • Scholarship application information, which may include school, academic, essay, resume, recommendation, eligibility, financial need, enrollment, award, and contact information.
  • Payment and donation details, such as donation amount, transaction date, ticket level, receipt information, and payment processor confirmation. We do not intentionally store full credit card numbers.
  • Photos, videos, testimonials, survey responses, event feedback, and messages you submit to us.
  • Accessibility, dietary, safety, or accommodation information you choose to provide for event planning.

We may also collect limited website and device information through cookies, analytics tools, forms, and security tools, such as IP address, browser type, pages visited, referral source, and interaction with our website.

How We Use Information

We use personal information to:

  • Process event registrations, donation-based tickets, donations, receipts, and confirmations.
  • Administer the South Florida HBCU Picnic, related events, vendor participation, sponsorships, volunteers, and attendee communications.
  • Operate scholarship applications, eligibility review, reviewer assignments, scoring, finalist selection, awardee communication, reporting, and scholarship administration.
  • Communicate about event logistics, updates, weather, safety, schedule changes, fundraising, volunteer needs, scholarship deadlines, and community opportunities.
  • Strengthen local alumni associations and official local Greek-letter chapters by connecting people who voluntarily identify an affiliation with those official partner groups.
  • Send email or SMS messages when you sign up or otherwise provide consent.
  • Improve our website, forms, events, scholarship process, fundraising, and community programming.
  • Maintain records, prevent fraud, protect our community, comply with legal obligations, and enforce event terms.

Sharing With Alumni Associations and Greek Chapters

A core purpose of the South Florida HBCU Picnic is to strengthen local alumni associations and partner organizations. If you indicate that you are associated with a specific HBCU alumni association, local alumni chapter, Greek-letter organization, or local Greek chapter, you authorize us to share limited contact and affiliation information with the official local association or chapter connected to that selection.

This may include your name, email address, phone number, school or chapter affiliation, event registration status, and basic participation information. The purpose is to support alumni engagement, chapter outreach, event coordination, catering or tent planning, community-building, and follow-up connected to the Picnic.

We do not share scholarship essays, recommendation letters, reviewer scores, financial-need details, transcripts, or sensitive scholarship materials with alumni associations or Greek chapters unless it is necessary for scholarship administration, required by law, or you give additional permission.

Your SMS marketing consent to SFHBCU Picnic is not automatically transferred to alumni associations, Greek chapters, sponsors, vendors, or other partners. Partner organizations are responsible for obtaining and honoring their own legally valid consent before sending marketing texts or emails.

If you do not want your contact information shared with an alumni association or Greek chapter, do not select that affiliation on the form, or contact us at info@sfhbcupicnic.com.

Sharing With Service Providers and Partners

We may share information with trusted service providers who help us operate our website, forms, email, SMS, event registration, ticketing, donations, payment processing, scholarship review, file storage, analytics, and communications. These may include platforms such as ticketing providers, donation processors, form tools, email/SMS platforms, cloud storage, spreadsheet tools, and other administrative systems.

We may also share limited information with:

  • Scholarship committee members and reviewers.
  • Event volunteers and staff who need information to perform their role.
  • Sponsors, vendors, or partners when needed to fulfill a registration, benefit, sponsorship, or event service.
  • Government agencies, payment processors, auditors, accountants, attorneys, or other parties when required for compliance, safety, fraud prevention, or legal obligations.

We do not sell personal information. We do not rent or sell donor, attendee, scholarship applicant, email subscriber, or SMS subscriber lists.

Scholarship Applicant Privacy

Scholarship applications may include sensitive educational, personal, and financial information. We use scholarship information only to administer the scholarship program, evaluate eligibility, assign reviewers, select finalists and awardees, communicate with applicants, issue awards, maintain required records, and report aggregate program impact.

Scholarship application access is limited to authorized administrators, scholarship committee members, reviewers, and service providers who need the information for the scholarship process. Reviewers and committee members are expected to keep applicant information confidential.

Award recipients may be recognized publicly with information such as name, HBCU, hometown, photo, award amount, short biography, or testimonial, but we will seek appropriate permission before using more detailed personal stories or images.

Please do not submit Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, passwords, medical records, or other highly sensitive information unless we specifically request it through a secure process.

Donations and Donor Privacy

We use donor information to process donations, provide receipts, acknowledge support, maintain financial records, communicate impact, and comply with nonprofit, tax, and fundraising obligations.

We may publicly recognize sponsors and donors unless they request anonymity or unless the donation platform provides an anonymous giving option. We will honor reasonable donor anonymity requests, while still maintaining internal records as required for financial, tax, and legal purposes.

Email Communications

If you provide your email address, we may send transactional or relationship emails, such as registration confirmations, donation receipts, scholarship updates, event logistics, volunteer coordination, and policy updates.

We may also send marketing or community emails about the Picnic, scholarships, fundraising, alumni engagement, sponsor opportunities, and related events. You can unsubscribe from marketing emails using the unsubscribe link in our emails or by contacting info@sfhbcupicnic.com. We may still send non-marketing messages related to transactions, safety, scholarship administration, donations, or event participation.

SMS/Text Messaging

If you opt in to receive SMS/text messages from SFHBCU Picnic, we may send recurring texts about event updates, registration, scholarships, fundraising, volunteer needs, deadlines, and community announcements. Message frequency may vary. Message and data rates may apply.

Consent to receive SMS messages is not required to purchase a ticket, make a donation, apply for a scholarship, or attend an event.

You can opt out of SMS messages at any time by replying STOP, CANCEL, END, QUIT, UNSUBSCRIBE, OPTOUT, or REVOKE, or by following any opt-out instructions included in the message. You may reply HELP for help, or contact info@sfhbcupicnic.com.

We do not sell SMS opt-in data or share SMS consent with third parties or affiliates for their own marketing.

Photos, Video, and Event Media

SFHBCU Picnic events may be photographed, filmed, livestreamed, or recorded. We may use event media for documentation, community storytelling, scholarship promotion, fundraising, social media, press, sponsor materials, and future event promotion.

If you do not want to be intentionally photographed or recorded, please contact us before the event or speak with event staff on site. We will make reasonable efforts to honor requests, but we cannot guarantee exclusion from crowd scenes or public event footage.

We take extra care with images and identifying information involving minors.

Children and Minors

Our website and events are family-friendly, but our website is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information online from children under 13 without appropriate parental or guardian consent.

Scholarship applicants may be under 18. If you are under 18, you should involve a parent or guardian when submitting applications, registrations, releases, or other personal information. Parents or guardians may contact us at info@sfhbcupicnic.com with privacy questions.

Cookies and Website Analytics

Our website may use cookies, embedded content, analytics, forms, or similar technologies to operate the site, understand visitor activity, improve communications, prevent spam, and measure campaign effectiveness. You can adjust your browser settings to block or delete cookies, but some website features may not work properly.

Data Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect personal information. These safeguards may include access limits, password protections, multi-factor authentication, secure payment processors, restricted scholarship files, and service provider controls.

No website, email, SMS system, cloud tool, or payment platform is completely secure. Please use care when submitting information online and avoid sending highly sensitive information through regular email or text.

Data Retention

We keep personal information only as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy, including event administration, scholarship review, donation records, legal compliance, accounting, dispute resolution, security, and historical nonprofit records.

Scholarship materials for non-awardees should generally be retained only for the scholarship cycle, review, audit, and reasonable recordkeeping period, then securely deleted or archived in limited form. Awardee, donor, financial, and legal records may be kept longer where needed for nonprofit, tax, accounting, grant, or compliance purposes.

We may retain de-identified or aggregate information for impact reporting and historical analysis.

Your Choices

You may contact us to request that we:

  • Update or correct your contact information.
  • Remove you from marketing emails.
  • Remove you from SMS messages.
  • Limit future sharing with alumni association or Greek chapter partners.
  • Review, delete, or restrict certain personal information where legally and operationally possible.
  • Mark a donation or recognition preference as anonymous.

Some information may need to be retained for legal, financial, scholarship, safety, or legitimate organizational purposes.

Third-Party Websites and Platforms

Our website may link to third-party platforms for event registration, donations, forms, ticketing, videos, social media, email, SMS, or file downloads. Those third parties may collect and process information under their own privacy policies and terms. We encourage you to review their policies before submitting information.

Legal Compliance and Safety

We may disclose information if we believe it is reasonably necessary to comply with law, respond to legal process, protect the safety of attendees or applicants, prevent fraud, investigate misuse, enforce event or scholarship terms, or protect the rights of SFHBCU Picnic and our community.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Updates will be posted on our website with a new effective date. Your continued use of our website, forms, events, or services after an update means the revised Policy applies going forward.

Contact Us

For privacy questions, requests, or concerns, contact:

South Florida HBCU Picnic
Email: info@sfhbcupicnic.com
Website: https://sfhbcupicnic.com