Privacy notice

Effective Date

This Privacy Notice is effective March 26, 2026.

This Privacy Notice describes the types of personal information the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (“AFSP,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects through in person events, this website, and others we disclose it.  This Privacy Notice is designed to help you understand how we collect, use, process, and disclose your personal information, and to help you understand and exercise your privacy rights.

AFSP is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, making it exempt from some state privacy statutes. Although the AFSP may be absolved of obligations concerning consumer privacy rights under state privacy statutes, the AFSP chooses to provide consumers with certain applicable rights consistent with such laws, as detailed below.

BY ACCESSING OR USING OUR SITES, YOU AGREE TO OUR USE OF YOUR INFORMATION AS DESCRIBED HEREIN, WHICH GOVERN YOUR USE OF OUR SITE.

Our Sites may contain links to websites that are not controlled or operated by AFSP. This Privacy Notice does not apply to these third-party websites. We encourage you to request and review the privacy notices of any third-party before disclosing information to that party.

Changes to our Privacy Notice

AFSP reserves the right to modify this Privacy Notice at any time, without prior notice to you, unless required to do so under applicable law. When we modify this Privacy Notice, we will post the updated one to this Site. Modifications to the Notice will be effective immediately. Each time you use this Site, you should check the effective date of this Privacy Notice and review any changes made since the last time you visited. Your continued use of this Site following modification of this Privacy Notice will signify your acceptance of the modification(s).

We may collect the following categories of personal information from you: identifiers, internet or other electronic network activity information, geolocation, and sensitive personal information. We more fully discuss the pieces of personal information we collect below.  We define “Contact Details” as personal information such as your name, mailing address, telephone number, and email address.

Contact Details

We may collect certain contact information from you, such as your name, email address, telephone number, and mailing address so that we can contact you regarding donations, events, programs, and add you to our mailing list. When you are on our mailing list, we may mail you our newsletter and other relevant information. You may unsubscribe from our mailing list at any time. We may request your zip code so we can recommend resources in your area like local chapters or to connect you with local elected officials.

Attendee Information

When you register for one of our events, we request that you create an account with our third-party fundraising application partner. Through our third-party fundraising application partner, we will collect your Contact Details so we can send you updated information in connection with the event. We may also ask for your connection to suicide, and your answer may contain personally identifying information, including sensitive health data and optional sensitive personal information which could identify your racial or ethnic origin. The information that you provide us regarding your connection to suicide is always optional. If you qualify for a T-shirt, we may collect your shirt size to provide this to you.

If you attend an event in person and did not pre-register, we have a QR code which directs you to our online forms so you can register and donate with a credit card.  If you prefer to donate with cash or a check, we will have you complete a form with minimum Contact Details and provide you with an envelope which is sent via UPS to our third-party processing service.

Demographic Information

At AFSP, diversity and inclusion are very important to us. To help us better serve diverse communities, at event registration and through our impact measurement surveys, we may request demographic information such as your gender, race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity, but it will always be optional. We collect such information to ensure we are reaching a diverse population and are designing programs and activities to meet those populations’ specific needs. Please note that we generally aggregate this information and do not link individuals to their responses. 

Donation Information

There are many ways to donate; some of these include walks, events, auctions, galas, special events, individually, via a memorial/tribute, or through your place of work.  There are many ways to give using AmazonSmile, cryptocurrency, vehicle donation, planned giving, matching gifts, stock gifting, and donor advised funds. When you donate, we collect your name, email address, mailing address, and payment card information. Your name, email address, messages, and donation amount may be viewed in the donor application when using the internal messaging feature. This information is used to process your donation, send you a thank you note, and keep you up to date with information at AFSP. In some cases, we may send you a personalized message via phone call, email, or text. Payment card information is provided directly by users, via the AFSP Site, into our third-party PCI/DSS-compliant payment processing service to which AFSP subscribes, and AFSP does not, itself, process or store the card information. We strongly encourage you not to submit credit card information. Occasionally, donors, attendees, or volunteers will ask AFSP employees to, on their behalf, enter payment card information into the PCI/DSS-compliant payment processing service to which AFSP subscribes. When AFSP employees receive payment card information from donors, attendees, or volunteers by email, fax, phone, or mail, it is entered as instructed and then deleted or destroyed. 

Public Policy Information

Our online AFSP Action Center helps you stay up to date on the state and federal bills that need your support and policies that impact your community. When you support AFSP through the Action Center, we collect your Contact Details. When you email elected officials through the Action Center or sign up to attend an advocacy event, you must register as an AFSP Volunteer Advocate. As a Volunteer Advocate, you may choose to receive monthly email and text updates from our public policy office that will alert you to the legislation and policies that need your support as well as upcoming policy events. We also allow you to sign up for our newsletters.

Local Chapters

With local programs and events in all 50 states, AFSP’s chapters are close to your location. We collect your zip code so we can find the chapter closest to you. If you sign up for Local Chapter Communications, we will collect your Contact Details and add you to the chapter's email distribution list.  Emails and texts will be sent for events like Out of the Darkness Walks, Campus Walks, Overnight Walks, International Survivor of Suicide Loss Day, and many other events in your area.

For Walks, the collection of an email address is not optional, but you can unsubscribe from these emails at any time. To receive text messages related to the walks, you must opt-in, and you can opt-out by texting the word STOP.  Email and mobile opt-ins are excluded from third party disclosure for marketing purposes.  

Feedback Information

We always want to ensure that we are providing the right services and making our programs better, so from time to time we may request that you complete an impact measurement survey. Filling out this survey is always optional. Optional demographic information collected in the surveys is to ensure we are reaching a diverse population and are designing programs and activities to meet those populations’ specific needs.  We also want feedback on who we are reaching through our programs and events and how your experience was with the organizers of the programs and events. To provide information on who we are reaching, many of our impact measurement surveys ask the participants to provide their city & state using Google Maps. We use third-party providers who specialize in survey software to provide these services.

• If you are a facilitator, we may ask you to complete a survey regarding your experience hosting an event.
• If you are a participant, we may ask you to complete an impact measurement survey to help us assess the program's experience and effectiveness. 

Volunteer Information

When you become a volunteer, we collect your Contact Details so we can contact you regarding volunteer opportunities in your area and to keep you up to date with information at AFSP. 
If you are a volunteer with one of the Chapter Boards or one of our programs, we may also collect your gender, ethnicity, and other sensitive information to help AFSP create diversity in its Boards and programs.

Program Information

As a public service, AFSP provides a list of support, education, and bereavement groups, but we do not run, recommend, endorse, or fund any of these groups. These groups may collect your personal information, but it is not provided to AFSP. These groups follow different rules regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information. We encourage you to read about their privacy policies. Through different education programs, AFSP provides awareness and training to the public about mental health and suicide. You can receive information about our programs directly from AFSP, your local chapter, or one of our partners. If you participate in one of our programs, AFSP or one of AFSP’s partners may collect your Contact Details to provide this training. 

Healing Conversations Information

AFSP offers personal support for suicide loss survivors through our Healing Conversations program. Healing Conversations is our volunteer-led peer-to-peer support program for suicide loss survivors. To facilitate this support, AFSP collects your name, email address, phone number, city, state, age range, primary language, connection to the loss, plus the month and year of the loss. We also collect information related to the visit and provide follow-up surveys. We collect this information to create a volunteer connection that best matches the loss survivor’s needs.

Creating a Digital Memory

When you choose to create a Digital Memory Quilt square, the information you share with AFSP will be made publicly available. This is completely voluntary, and the information we collect for this is your name, state where you live, and email address plus a “square title”, image, and description. We use a third-party provider to create these squares.

Research Information

In addition to Contact Details, Scientific Advisors (“SA”) are asked to provide professional contact information, optional demographic information, which is used to determine participant inclusion, areas of expertise and, if requested, reviews of grant applications through a third-party provider. SA’s names and institutions are disclosed on our Site. Our online AFSP Apply for a Research Grant serves as a third-party managed portal for submitting research grant applications. When you submit a grant application, we collect your professional contact information and institutional information. Assigned SA grant reviewers are able to read your application and review your Contact Details and provide online reviews through the third-party portal. In conjunction with other organizations, AFSP hosts international conferences related to research using third-party platforms. The information collected and used for conferences will adhere to the privacy policies of those platforms. We encourage you to read about their privacy policies.

Ordering Products

When you order DVDs, apparel, and other items from the AFSP store, we use a third party to provide these products to you. Your name, email, mailing address, and payment information are collected so we or our third-party partners can process your payment information, arrange for shipping, and provide you with an invoice and/or confirmation. We may also use this information to communicate with you if there are any questions related to your order. Payment card information is provided directly by users, via the AFSP Site, into the PCI/DSS-compliant payment processing service to which AFSP subscribes, and AFSP does not, itself, process or store the card information. If you give this information directly to AFSP, we will process it on your behalf and not keep a record of it outside the appropriate third-party provider.

Call, Event Recordings, and Transcripts

If you contact AFSP for information or assistance, we may listen for training and quality assurance purposes. The information collected may contain additional information based on the contact and improvements which could be made by our associate as a learning opportunity?

If you attend one of our online events, we may record the event and your appearance using a third-party provider.  These video/audio recordings and the information contained in them may be made available to the public.

Other Personal Information

We may collect personal information at other points on our Site or in relation to other affiliated programs and/or services offered by the AFSP. When such data is collected, a notice will be provided stating that personal information is being collected.

We may collect information to connect with you about your use of social media, blogging, or other communication methods you may use on behalf of AFSP.

We may also collect and use the information you provide: (a) to operate and maintain this Site; (b) to improve our content, services, and communications with you (for example, by customizing your experience or homepage on this Site); (c) to enforce our Terms of Use; and (d) to detect and protect against error, fraud and any other unauthorized or illegal activities.

We do not use any automated decision making in the performance of data analytics for reasons of employment or financial consideration. In some situations, developed from publicly available sources.

We may use aggregate information to improve, enhance, modify and maintain our services or develop new services as well as conduct quality control measures.

We may use aggregated demographic information to determine locations of users of our website.

Directly from you

You directly provide AFSP with most of the data we collect and use. We collect data and process data when you:

• Become a volunteer
• Subscribe to our mailing list
• Opt-in for texting
• Register for an event or place an order for any of our products or services
• Attend a conference, gala, or fundraising function
• Voluntarily complete a survey or provide feedback on any of our programs
• Donate to AFSP
• Complete a program or event impact measurement survey
• Begin an application for or apply for a research grant
• Purchase a product from AFSP
• Elect to connect with us through your social media account; certain information may be shared with us through that account, and those social media companies may also collect information about you. The use of their features is governed by their privacy notices.
• Otherwise interact with us

Indirectly from third parties

AFSP may also receive your data indirectly through the following sources:

• Third-party providers. The types of personal information we may collect from third-party sources include:
  • Identifiers, such as name, telephone number, postal or email address, and social media identifiers. For example, we use a third-party provider to match your general location information (zip code) to a local chapter near you or to match you to your elected officials.
  • Audio and Visual Information, such as your voice and likeness captured in photographs, including when you tag us on social media that includes a photo or video of you.
  • Commercial Information, such as information about the products you have purchased from us and how much you spent.
  • User Content you post or make available online, such as your social media posts or publications.
  • Engagement rates for email campaigns, including things like email open rates, URL redirects, if an email address is no longer valid (bounce rates), and the time from email to website click.
• Some social media companies may collect your IP address and other device information.
• We partner with other companies for joint events including Facebook for mental health resources.

Automatically

We may collect personal information automatically when you use our Site.

• Automatic Collection of Personal Information. We may collect certain information automatically when you use our Site, such as your Internet protocol (“IP”) address, user settings, MAC address, cookie identifiers, mobile carrier, mobile advertising and other unique identifiers, browser or device information, location information (including approximate location derived from IP address), and internet service provider. We may also automatically collect information regarding your use of our Site, such as pages that you visit before, during and after using our Site, information about the links you click, the types of content you interact with, the frequency and duration of your activities, and other information about how you use our Site.
• Cookie Policy (and Other Technologies). We, as well as third parties that provide content, advertising, or other functionality on our services, may use cookies, pixel tags, and other technologies (“Technologies”) to automatically collect information through your use of our Site. These third parties may collect personal information about your online activities over time and across different websites when you use our Site.
  • Cookies. Cookies are small files placed in device browsers that store preferences and facilitate and enhance your experience.
  • Pixel Tags/Web Beacons. A pixel tag (also known as a web beacon) is a piece of code embedded in our Site that collects information about engagement on our Site. The use of a pixel tag allows us to record, for example, that a user has visited a particular web page or clicked on a particular advertisement. We may also include web beacons in e-mails to understand whether messages have been opened, acted on, or forwarded.

We use cookies and other Technologies to:

• Assist you with navigation.
• Assist you in registering for an event.
• Analyze your use of our Site, products, services, or other applications.
• Assist with our promotional and marketing efforts.

There are several different types of cookies that our Site uses:

• Essential - AFSP uses essential cookies to recognize you on our Site and remember your previous selections. These could include the language you prefer and your location. A mix of first-party and third-party cookies and services are used.
• Targeted Advertising and Personalization - AFSP uses advertising cookies to collect information about your visit to our Site, the content you viewed, the links you followed, and information about your browser, device, and your IP address.
• Analytics – AFSP uses analytics to help us understand how our Site performs, how visitors interact with the Site, and whether there are technical issues.

AFSP discloses your data when we are legally required to disclose it. The data that AFSP collects from you is stored in multiple systems hosted by third parties located in the United States and other locations. These third parties do not use or have access to the personal information that you provide us for any purpose other than processing it for AFSP.

Categories and examples of third parties to whom we may disclose your personal information are described below.

• Service Providers. We may disclose your personal information with our third-party service providers and vendors that assist us with the provision of our services. This includes service providers and vendors that provide us with IT support, hosting, payment processing, customer service, and related services.
• Business Partners. We may disclose your personal information with business partners to provide you with a product or service you have requested. We may also disclose your personal information with business partners with whom we jointly offer products or services.
• Affiliates. We may disclose your personal information with our affiliates, for example: for our administrative purposes, IT management, or for them to provide services to you or support and supplement the services we provide.

Examples of third parties with whom we may disclose your personal information include:

• Non-AFSP consultants and volunteers who are acting on our behalf for specific activities, like events and other programs in which you agreed to participate.
• Service providers that we engage to physically mail information to you, including items you have purchased or material from an event sponsor.
• Service Providers that we engage to email you information that you agreed to receive.  You may unsubscribe from these emails at any time. We do not disclose your personal information with non-AFSP employees, volunteers, others working on our behalf or other businesses unless:
• You request or authorize it.
• The information is provided to comply with applicable law, regulation or legal process (for example, to comply with a search warrant, subpoena, or court order), enforce an agreement we have with you, or to protect our rights, property or safety, or the rights, property or safety of our employees or others.
• The information is provided to our third-party vendors or service providers that perform functions on our behalf like:
  • Payment processing
  • Donation management
  • Location matching services
  • Survey software
  • Social media companies
  • Email management platforms
  • Marketing companies
  • Communications
  • Customer management software
  • Business productivity
  • Security and fraud detection and prevention
  • Conference, meeting, and calendar management
  • Volunteer management
  • Apply for a grant
• To address disputes, claims, or to persons demonstrating legal authority to act on your behalf.

We may gather aggregated data about you and other Site visitors and disclose the results of such aggregated but not personally identifiable information to our partners, service providers, advertisers, and/or other third parties for marketing or promotional purposes.

The AFSP Site interfaces with social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and others. If you choose to "like" or share information from the AFSP Site or other AFSP social media, you should review the privacy notice of the service that you are sharing with. If you are a member of a social media site, like Facebook, the interfaces may allow the social media site to connect your Site visit to your personal information. We may also disclose your information with third parties as appropriate and permitted by law.

Transferring personal information to the United States

AFSP is headquartered in the United States.  Information we collect about you will be processed and stored in the United States. By using the AFSP Site and services, you acknowledge that your personal information will be processed in the United States.

The United States does not have “adequacy” with the European Union (EU) as defined in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). If you are in the European Economic Area (EEA), AFSP collects and transfers your personal information to the United States with your consent, in the performance of a contract, or for an AFSP compelling legitimate interest in a manner that does not outweigh your rights and freedoms.  If you are a resident of the EEA, you have the right to access the personal information we hold about you, to port it to a new service, and to ask that your personal information be corrected, updated, or erased, or restricted from processing. If you would like to exercise these rights, please contact us through the contact information above. An EEA resident also has the right to object to processing of their personal information, or processing based solely on automated decision-making, when that decision-making has a significant legal effect.

AFSP enters into contracts or data processing agreements with its vendors whenever feasible and appropriate. AFSP strives to apply suitable safeguards to protect the privacy and security of your personal information and to use it only in the context of our relationship and the practices described in this Privacy Notice. 

AFSP may use personal information to provide you with tailored content and advertisements that we think you might like. AFSP may provide you with these materials as permitted by applicable law. Some of the ways we may market to you includes outreach over telephone, mailings, text, and email campaigns. If you have agreed to receive emails, you may always unsubscribe at any time. You have the right at any time to stop AFSP from contacting you for direct marketing purposes. If you no longer wish to be contacted for direct marketing purposes, you may use the ‘unsubscribe’ link included in emails.

We retain your personal information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Notice unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. Please note that in many situations we must retain all, or a portion, of your personal information to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, protect against fraudulent, deceptive, or illegal activity, or for another one of our business purposes.

Protecting children’s privacy online is very important to us. AFSP does not direct online services to children under 18, and we do not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 18. AFSP Programs and services only collect de-identified survey data on children 18 years and older. If you are under 18, please do not attempt to register for a service or send any personal information about yourself to us. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 18, we will take steps to delete that information as quickly as possible. If you are a parent or guardian, or if you believe that a child under age 18 has shared personal information without parental consent, please contact us.

The privacy choices you may have about your personal information are determined by applicable law and if you are a resident of a state that requires it. They are described below.

• Email Communications. If you receive an unwanted email from us, you can use the unsubscribe link found at the bottom of the email to stop receiving future emails. Note that you will continue to receive transaction-related emails regarding events, donations, products, or services you have requested. We may also send you certain non-promotional communications regarding us and our services, and you will not be able to unsubscribe from those communications (e.g., communications regarding our services or updates to our Terms or this Privacy Notice).
• Text Messages. If you receive an unwanted text message from us, you may opt out of receiving future text messages from us by following the instructions in the text message or by otherwise contacting us as set forth in “Contact Us” below.
• Phone Calls. If you receive an unwanted phone call from us, you may opt out of receiving future phone calls from us by following the instructions available on the call or by otherwise contacting us as set forth in “Contact Us” below.
• “Do Not Track.” Do Not Track (“DNT”) is a privacy preference that users can set in certain web browsers. Please note that we do not respond to or honor DNT signals.
• Global Privacy Control. We honor the Global Privacy Control (“GPC”). If you have GPC enabled, your preferences will be automatically honored.  
• Cookies and Personalized Advertising. You may stop or restrict the placement of Technologies on your device or remove them by adjusting your preferences as your browser or device permits. However, if you adjust your preferences, our Site may not work properly. You may opt-out of personalized advertisements on some mobile applications by following the instructions for Android, iOS, and others.

The online advertising industry also provides websites from which you may opt out of receiving targeted ads from data partners and other advertising partners that participate in self-regulatory programs. You can access these and learn more about targeted advertising and consumer choice and privacy by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance, the European Digital Advertising Alliance, and the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada.

Please note that you must separately opt out in each browser and on each device, you use to visit our Site.

Additionally, in accordance with applicable law, you may have the right to:

• Access to and Portability of Your Personal Information including: (i) confirming whether we are processing your personal information; (ii) obtaining access to or a copy of your personal information, including a list of the categories of third parties to which the controller has disclosed the consumer's personal information; and (iii) receiving an electronic copy of personal information that you have provided to us, or asking us to send that information to another company in a structured, commonly used, and machine readable format (also known as the “right of data portability”) unless such confirmation or access would require the controller to reveal a trade secret.
• Request Correction of your personal information where it is inaccurate or incomplete. In some cases, we may provide self-service tools that enable you to update your personal information.
• Request Deletion of personal information provided by, or obtained about you, unless retention of the personal information is permitted by law.
• Request Opt-out of the Processing of Your Personal Information for Sale, Targeted Advertising, or Profiling, including (i) the right to opt-out of the sale of personal information, (ii) targeted advertising or (iii) opt out of the processing of your personal information for purposes of profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning you.
• Withdraw Your Consent to our processing of your personal information. Please note that your withdrawal will only take effect for future processing and will not affect the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal.
• Appeal AFSP’s Decision Regarding Your Request through the [Data Access Request form/Data Subject Request Form] and receive in writing of any action taken or not taken in response to the appeal, including a written explanation of the reasons for the decisions. If you are unsatisfied with the results of the appeal, you may have the right to contact the attorney general of your state to report your concerns.
• Exercise Your Consumer Rights Through an Authorized Agent that is authorized to submit certain data rights requests on your behalf. A legal parent, guardian, or conservator may act on behalf of the consumer. An authorized agent can submit certain data requests by contacting us through the [Data Access Request form/Data Subject Request Form]. As part of our verification process, we will require proof concerning their status as an Authorized agent. We will also require you to directly confirm with us that you provided the person or business entity with permission to submit the request.

If you make a request, in the United States we have at least 45 days, depending on applicable law, from the date the request is received to process the request.  However, for requests to withdraw consent, we aim to process these within 15 days from the date the request is received, in accordance with applicable regulations. If your request cannot be granted within a reasonable time frame, we will provide you with an explanation of when the information will be provided and may ask for a 45-day extension. If for some reason your request is denied, we will provide an explanation as to why it has been denied.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please complete this [Data Access Request form/Data Subject Request Form] (“DSAR Form”). We encourage all Data Access Requests to be submitted exclusively through our designated DSAR Form. The DSAR Form is designed to ensure that we receive all necessary information to process your request promptly and accurately. Please note that requests submitted through any other means may not be processed.

However, if you prefer to submit your request through a physical copy, you may do so by sending it to:

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
199 Water St., 11th Floor
New York, NY 10038
Attention: "Data Subject Access Request"

We follow generally accepted security practices and procedures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, and disclosure. Unfortunately, no company or service can guarantee complete security. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we do not accept liability for unauthorized access, use, disclosure, or loss of personal information.

By using our Site or providing personal information to us you understand that any messages or information you send to our Site may be read or intercepted by others. 

If you have any questions, concerns, complaints, or for any other reason, please contact us. 

Contact us

Submit requests through the DSAR Form.

Phone and Fax:

Toll-Free: 1-888-333-AFSP (2377)
T: (212) 363-3500
F: (212) 408-9684

Mailing Address:

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
199 Water St., 11th Floor
New York, NY 10038

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