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Privacy Statement

The University Fund Limburg (UFL) relies on your contribution to achieve its objectives, namely raising funds for academic research and education at Maastricht University (UM). Your support is therefore greatly appreciated. To build mutual trust, we aim to provide you with transparent information about how we handle your personal data.

UFL is responsible for the processing of your personal data, and it is important to us that we handle your information with care. This means that we treat your personal data as confidential and have implemented security measures to protect it against loss, unauthorised access, and theft. Specifically, this means that your data can only be accessed and amended by authorised individuals using MFA2 authentication. Your data will be deleted when you indicate that you no longer wish to receive communications from the Fund (insofar as the data is used solely for that purpose), in the event of your death, or when we are unable to keep your contact details up to date despite repeated attempts. In all cases, we apply the statutory retention periods where applicable.

When do we receive your personal data?

To finance research, we depend, among others, on our donors and volunteers. When you make a donation to the Fund or support the Fund in another way, we process your personal data, such as your name, address, and bank account number. We do so only on the basis of the following grounds under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

  1. Performance of a contract (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR)
    We process your data to ensure your donation can be handled correctly. This includes processing the payment, sending a receipt, or contacting you if there are any uncertainties regarding your donation.
  2. Legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c) GDPR)
    We are legally required to retain certain financial information for our administration and for audits by, for example, the Tax and Customs Administration or our accountant. Your name, donation amount, and bank account number form part of this mandatory financial administration.
  3. Legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR)
    We use your data for relationship management, such as thanking donors or informing them about how funds are spent. You have the right to object to this.
  4. Consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR)
    For sending newsletters or other communications that are not necessary for processing your donation, we request your explicit consent. You may withdraw this consent at any time.

When you make use of one of our services, such as contacting our team by email or telephone, or when you subscribe to our newsletter, we process personal data such as your name, telephone number, and email address. We do so on the basis of the following grounds under the GDPR:

  • Performance of a contract or taking pre-contractual steps (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR)
    We process your data in order to answer your questions, provide you with information, or handle your request appropriately.
  • Consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR)
    When you subscribe to our newsletter, we process your data on the basis of your explicit consent. You may withdraw this consent at any time.
  • Legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR)
    In some cases, we process your data to support our relationship management and to improve our services. In doing so, we always make a careful assessment of interests, with your privacy as a central consideration.

For what purposes do we use your personal data?

We only process the personal data necessary for handling donations or for supporting the realisation of our mission. Specifically, we process your personal data so that we can:

  • Process and manage donations
  • Carry out administrative tasks related to your work as a volunteer
  • Inform you about new campaigns and request further donations
  • Provide you with information about your volunteer activities
  • Keep track of whom we may or may not contact for our campaigns
  • Enable our financial administrators to perform their duties and comply with statutory financial and tax obligations
  • Test and improve the quality of our services, for example by understanding how our team operates and how our online presence is perceived within the community
  • Conduct market research to better tailor our services to the needs of our stakeholders
  • Collect web statistics
  • Recruit new collectors and volunteers
  • Handle any disputes
  • Carry out internal and external audits of our services

To keep you informed about new campaigns and to ask you for future donations, UFL also uses your email address to contact you. We do this only if you have explicitly given us permission (via opt-in) to use your email address. You may withdraw this consent at any time by asking us to remove your email address from our database. We do not use your data for any purposes other than those mentioned above.

Personal data and third parties
At times, we make use of IT systems or support from suppliers who may have access to our database. However, any adjustments or testing within the system are always carried out in a separate ‘sandbox’ environment in which no personal data is processed. It is contractually agreed that suppliers do not view any specific personal records. If adjustments at record level are required, we use only a dummy or anonymised record that has been created specifically for this purpose in our CRM system. In all cases, we ensure that these third parties provide appropriate safeguards in terms of privacy and security.

How long do we retain your personal data?
Your personal data is not kept for longer than necessary. We delete the personal data of donors as soon as we no longer need it to achieve our objectives. Some data is retained due to fiscal obligations. We are legally required to keep certain financial information for our administration and for inspection by, for example, the Tax and Customs Administration or our accountant. Your name, donation amount and bank account number form part of this mandatory financial administration. This information is retained for seven years. Once this period has expired, we ensure that your personal data is securely deleted.

Your rights regarding your personal data
• You have the right to request access to, and correction or deletion of, your personal data by emailing info@ufl.nl.
• You have the right to object. This means you may object to the use of your data by UFL for charitable purposes. This includes the use of your data for our campaigns or any other use of your data due to special personal circumstances on your part. You may submit an objection by emailing info@ufl.nl.

If you have a complaint about the way in which your personal data is processed by UFL, you may contact the Board of the Fund using the contact details provided at the bottom of this document. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Dutch Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens). When you submit a request, we will first assess whether we are able to comply with it. We cannot grant your request if we are unable to verify your identity. If we do accept your request for consideration, it may still be necessary for us to refuse it. This may be the case, for example, when your request is outweighed by the need to protect the rights of third parties, such as when you request access to personal data relating to others.

If we refuse your request, you will receive a written explanation from us setting out the reasons why we are unable to comply. If you disagree with our decision regarding a request for access, correction, deletion or an objection you have submitted, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Dutch Data Protection Authority: https://autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl/.

Unsubscribing from campaigns and newsletters
If you have made a donation, we may use your address, email address or telephone number to provide you with information about our plans and activities. This may be by post, email or telephone. In every email or after each telephone call, we offer you the opportunity to opt out of this form of communication. You may also send an email to info@ufl.nl to unsubscribe from any of our communication channels, or you may use the form available on our website.

Links to third parties
Our website may contain links to third‑party websites. We recommend that you read the privacy statement of any website you visit via our website. We do not accept responsibility for the way in which third‑party websites handle your personal data.

Use of cookies
Our website uses cookies to improve functionality and user experience. More information about the use of cookies and how to manage your preferences can be found in our cookie statement.

Analytics
• We use Google Analytics cookies.
• We have a data processing agreement with Google.
• We anonymise the final part of your IP address.
• We do not share analytical data with any other third parties.
• We do not use other Google services in combination with Analytics.

Questions and comments
If you have any questions or comments about our Privacy Statement or about how our Fund processes personal data, you may send your questions to:

Universiteitsfonds Limburg
Minderbroedersberg 4–6
6211 LK Maastricht

You may, of course, also send your questions by email to info@ufl.nl.

Changes to our Privacy Statement
We reserve the right to amend our Privacy Statement, and therefore advise you to check it regularly for any changes to our policy.
Version 2.0 (January 2026)