Privacy policy

Who are we?

In this policy references to the Woodland Trust, or Trust, or to ‘we’ or ‘us’ are to the Woodland Trust which is a registered charity in England and Wales 294344, and in Scotland SC038885. A non-profit making company limited by guarantee. Registered in England No. 1982873 at Kempton Way, Grantham, Lincolnshire, NG31 6LL.

This also includes our trading company – Woodland Trust (Enterprises) Limited (registered company number 2296645) a wholly owned subsidiary of the Woodland Trust which trades only to raise funds for its parent company – the Woodland Trust.

We were established in 1972 and are the UK's largest woodland conservation charity. We’re passionate about woods and trees and work to transform our landscapes, joining up fragile and fragmented habitats. We campaign to save threatened woodland and own and care for more than 1,000 publicly accessible woods. We want everyone to have access to woodland, and we want to make the UK a healthier, better place to live.

We take our duty to process your personal data very seriously. This policy explains how we collect, manage, use and protect your personal data.

We comply with data protection law. This says that the personal information we hold about you must be:

1. used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way
2. collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes
3. relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes
4. accurate and kept up to date
5. kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about
6. kept securely.

Please read our supporter promise for more information.

We may change this document from time to time. Please check back frequently; you will be able to see if changes have been made by the date it was last updated.

What personal data we collect and how we use it

What information we collect

The Woodland Trust is what’s known as the ‘controller’ of the personal data you provide to us. This means that we determine how we process your personal data ensuring it is done so in a secure way.

We collect your personal data in connection with specific activities, such as campaign updates, newsletter requests, registration or membership requests, product purchases, feedback, donations, competition entries, information you provide in public forums on our sites and applications.

The information is either needed to fulfil your request or to enable us to provide you with a more personalised service. You don't have to disclose any of this information to browse our sites. However, if you choose to withhold requested information, we may not be able to provide you with certain services.

We will only process your data when we have a lawful basis to do so, such as your consent, fulfilling a contract, our legitimate interest and the Data Use and Access Act 2025 revision for ‘soft on in’ in achieving our charitable aims.

We collect and use the following types of personal information:

• Names & contact details: We use this information for identification & authorisation, communicating with you, delivery of goods or services such as memberships, donations, dedications and Gift Aid contributions/declarations. Queries, complaints, customer relationship management, marketing, profiling and contractual obligations. This information is also collected and processed during our recruitment processes.
• Address: We use this information for identification & authorisation, communicating with you, delivery of goods or services such as memberships, donations, dedications and Gift Aid contributions/declarations. Queries, complaints, customer relationship management, marketing, profiling and contractual obligations. This information is also collected and processed during our recruitment processes.
• Date of birth: We process this information to ensure that we apply the correct safety rules to under 18-year-olds. This information is also collected and processed during our recruitment processes and sometimes for events for security, identification and authorisation.
• Photographs/video recordings: The Woodland Trust captures this data with our use of CCTV located across our sites. Photographs could be obtained at events, when taking photographs valid consent will be obtained by the Woodland Trust through our model release forms completed prior to capturing them. On occasion when requested by the authorities this information may be shared by the Woodland Trust with the police to aid investigations.
• Call recordings: Some of our calls are recorded for monitoring and training purposes. Calls are also recorded and used in instances such as complaints and investigations.
• Service Use History: We use this information for identification & authorisation, communicating with you, delivery of goods or services such as memberships, donations, dedications and Gift Aid contributions/declarations. Queries, complaints, customer relationship management, marketing, profiling and contractual obligations.
• Payment details (including card or bank information for transfers and direct debits): This information is processed for financial transactions such as Gift Aid declarations, donations, memberships, shop purchases and delivery of goods.
• Website users (including user journeys and cookie tracking): Please refer to our cookies policy for more information.
• Information relating to compliments or complaints: We process your personal information when investigating any complaints received, this allows us to investigate efficiently and accurately.
• Gender: This information is processed in ways such as determining salutations for mailings, it is also collected through our recruitment processes and anonymously for research purposes. This information is also collected and processed during our recruitment processes.
• Criminal convictions: This information is processed during our recruitment processes in line and in accordance with appropriate legislation.
• Right to work information: This information is processed during our recruitment processes in line and in accordance with appropriate legislation.
• Household records: A household record groups people who have told us they are part of a household by, for example, creating a joint or family membership, or through the relationships we have discussed with you in advance. Each Household Record has a primary contact, and we use their contact details and address as the main information for the household. People included in the Household Record do not need to live at the same address. Each person’s data is still managed separately, and any preferences or permissions you set apply only to your own record except for household addressed communications.
• Primary contact for household record: Each household record has a nominated primary contact. This is the person who takes responsibility for keeping the household’s details up to date. Being the primary contact does not mean they control consent for everyone in the household. Any adult linked to the household can manage their own preferences, including how they hear from us or updates to their membership. If you would like to change who the primary contact is, you can do this at any time by contacting us using the details at the bottom of this page.
• Shared email addresses and telephone numbers (including mobile): We use something called contact point consent to help us manage how we get in touch with you. This means consent is linked to a specific email address or telephone number, rather than to a particular person. If more than one person shares the same email address or phone number we will ensure that, where preferences or consent differ, we address the person that has requested to still be contacted. Where someone requests for their information to be deleted, this will remove the email address from all records for anyone that uses it. If you provide us with a shared or group email address (for example, one that is accessed by multiple individuals), please be aware that any communications we send to that address may be visible to others who have access to the account. This may include confirmations, updates or other information related to your interaction with us. By using a shared email address, you acknowledge that visibility of such communications to others is a possibility.

Sometimes we will collect other sensitive information about you such as health information. This information is normally collected when you are attending an event where you provide to us directly information about accessibility such as wheelchair use and allergies. This is collected so we can accommodate your needs at the event. This information will only be collected and processed when we have explained why we require it and with your consent.

Sometimes when we are collecting research information we may request:

Sexual Orientation, health information, racial or ethnic origin and religious or philosophical beliefs. This is collected anonymously unless we specify otherwise and obtain the valid consent needed from you. We will always explain why and what we are wanting to collect and process data for.

How we obtain your details

We will also hold information about your details so that we can respect your preferences for being contacted by us.

We collect your personal information in a number of ways:

• when you provide it to us directly such as donations, signing up to our newsletters, becoming a member, making an enquiry, visiting our website or using our apps.
• Family Members, Guardians or carers that provide us your information on your behalf such as our Nature Detectives Memberships.
• when you provide permission to other organisations to share it with us (including Facebook)
• when you have given it to a third party and you have provided permission to pass your information on to us
• from publicly available sources (where possible) to keep your information up to date (e.g. the Post Office’s National Change of Address database).
• CCTV footage and or other recordings such as events.

We combine the information from these sources with the information you provide to us directly.

From time to time, we may pay for the contact details of people who might be interested in hearing from us in future. Before we purchase contact information, we always check the wording used when your information was originally collected, to make sure that we only contact people who have actively expressed an interest in receiving information from third parties.

When providing permission for third party organisations to share your data you should check their Privacy Policies carefully to understand fully how they will process your data.

Our marketing

Sometimes, with your consent, we will process your personal data to provide you with information about our work or our activities that you have requested or are expecting.

In June 2025, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 introduced changes to the rules for charities around marketing communications. These changes allow charities to use a 'soft opt-in' approach in certain situations. This means that, in some cases, we do not need your explicit consent to send you relevant marketing messages if you have already had contact with us.

For example, if you contact us to ask about one of our ancient woodlands, we may send you information about our other ancient woodlands or similar activities that we think you may find interesting and relevant. We will always give you a clear and easy way to opt out of receiving these messages. You can do this at any time using the unsubscribe or opt-out options included in our communications.

We may also use your personal data where it is in our legitimate interests or yours, including under the soft opt-in rules. We only do this where those interests do not override your rights and freedoms.
This can include sending you information about:

• appeals and fundraising
• conservation and campaigning work
• membership
• services and products
• newsletters you have requested
• feedback requests and competitions
• other activities we run, and those of carefully selected partner organisations.

You can find more details on our legitimate interest statement.

In some situations, we need to process your personal data:

• to fulfil a contract with you (for example, if you buy something from our online shop)
• to comply with the law or regulatory requirements.

For more information about how we send and manage essential service emails such as purchase confirmations, please see our service email policy.

Building profiles of supporters

The Trust may make use of profiling and screening methods to produce relevant communications and provide a better experience for our supporters. Profiling can help us target our resources more effectively through gaining an insight into the background of our supporters and helping us to build relationships that are appropriate to their interests and capacity to give.

To do this we may use additional external sources of data to increase and enhance the information we hold about you. This may include obtaining details of changes of address, date of birth, telephone numbers and other contact details, information related to your wealth, and consumption and demographic data generated through a variety of geodemographic tools. It may also include information from public registers and other publicly available sources such as Companies House, newspapers and magazines.

Children

If you are under 18, please ensure you obtain your parent/guardian's consent before sending any personal information to any website or the Woodland Trust. We do have activities for those under 18 so we may ask your age. Before taking part, please ensure you speak to your parent or guardian.

Please note that we will not knowingly market to or accept donations or orders for goods or services from persons aged under 18 years.

As a parent or guardian, we encourage you to be aware of the activities in which your children are participating, both offline and online. If your children voluntarily disclose information, this may encourage unsolicited messages. We suggest that you discourage your child from providing any information without your consent.

Volunteering

When you volunteer with the Woodland Trust, we keep you informed about our work, the events we are involved in and the activities you take part in. How you interact with us will determine whether we classify you as a volunteer.

You will be told how your information will be used through the privacy information linked to the activity you take part in. For example, if you provide us with scientific data as part of a citizen science project, we will manage you as a volunteer. For more information on what personal information we process for Volunteers please see our volunteer privacy policy.

Scientific data

If you supply the Woodland Trust with scientific or environmental records as part of a citizen science, Observatree or volunteer project, they will be carefully stored by us and/or our project partners. Such records may include, for example, species information, location, dates and species photographs. 

Scientific data sharing helps to further research, education and our national understanding of biodiversity and conservation issues. Hence, anonymous scientific data may be shared with project partners and third parties such as the National Biodiversity Network or organisations such as local authorities, academic researchers and students.

In some circumstances, such scientific data may be sold, but the income will be directly used to support the running cost of these data-gathering projects. By submitting your scientific or environmental records you are indicating agreement with our approach.

For more information relating to how your personal data is processed with our Observatree partners, please see our Observatree privacy policy.

Tree Charter

If you join our Tree Charter Network we collect some basic information about you such as your Charter branch name, branch lead contact name, address, email address, contact telephone number and a description of the branch.

This information is then used to update our branch location map, branch events/activities and the Woodland Trust Charter Champions Facebook page.

We will only publish your information on our branch location map of our Tree Charter Website with your consent.

How we use non-personal data

We also collect and use information that does not identify an individual person. This may include:

• business to business (B2B) information, such as the name of an organisation, job roles, work addresses, generic business email addresses and other corporate contact details used for professional communication
• information about third party organisations, such as partner organisations, suppliers, and contractors
• publicly available information from, for example, the Land Registry, school directories, local authorities, environmental records or other public databases.

We use this type of information to help us carry out our work, understand land ownership, communicate with organisations, plan conservation activity and manage our partnerships and contracts.

Because this information relates to organisations rather than identifiable individuals, it is not considered personal data under data protection law. However, we still handle it fairly, securely and in line with our governance and accountability standards.

Anything else?

Most of the personal information and special category data we hold is processed by our staff here in the UK. However, some of the technology we use, such as systems for hosting, development, or maintenance, may involve your information being stored or accessed outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

Whenever this happens, we ensure your information is protected in line with the guidance of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and complies with UK data protection laws, including the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Data Use and Access Act 2025. We use recognised safeguards, such as secure contracts and binding corporate rules, to make sure your data stays safe.

Your personal information is stored securely on our internal systems. In some cases, it may also be accessed through work-issued devices. For example, some staff members and volunteers use mobile devices to help them collect information and communicate with you securely.

Some of our services may have their own additional terms and conditions. We encourage you to read these, as they may explain any differences in how your personal information is used. If anything is unclear, you can contact us using the details provided later in this policy.

We are proud to work with our volunteers. Occasionally, they may help us collect or process information. Before any volunteer is given access to personal data, we assess potential risks and put appropriate safeguards and training in place to protect your information.

Lawful basis for processing

We have a number of lawful reasons that mean we can use (or 'process') your personal information.

Legitimate interest

One lawful reason is something called 'legitimate interests'. Broadly speaking Legitimate Interests means we can process your personal information if:

• we have a genuine and legitimate reason and are not harming any of your rights and interests

Please read the 'Legitimate interests' statement for more information.

Consent

At the Woodland Trust we also use consent, this is where you give us clear and informed instruction for processing, we obtain your consent through email and consent statements.

Contract

We use this basis where we have entered a contract with you or steps to enter into one, for example, we offer contracts relating to our More Hedges, More Trees and employment contracts.

Vital Interests

We only use this when the processing of your personal data is necessary to protect someone’s life.

Sharing your information

We only disclose information to third parties or individuals when obliged to by law, for purposes of national security, taxation and criminal investigations, and the following:

• If you have agreed that we may do so.
• When we use other companies to provide services on our behalf, such as processing, mailing or delivering orders, answering customers’ questions about products or services, sending mail and emails, customer analysis, assessment and profiling, when using auditors/advisers or processing credit/debit card payments, developing/maintaining and hosting new IT provisions.
• To our subsidiaries (i.e. the companies owned by the Woodland Trust).
• If we receive a complaint about any content, you have posted or transmitted to or from one of our sites, to enforce or apply our terms and conditions or if we believe that we need to do so to protect and defend the rights, property or personal safety of the Woodland Trust, our websites or our visitors and for other lawful purposes.
• If we merge with another organisation to form a new entity, information may be transferred to the new entity.
• We may disclose aggregate statistics about our site visitors, supporters, customers and sales to describe our services and operations to prospective partners, advertisers and other reputable third parties and for other lawful purposes, but these statistics won’t include any personally identifying information.
• If we run an event in partnership with other named organisations your details may need to be shared. We will be very clear what will happen to your data when you register.

We will never sell or rent your personal information to other organisations. Any data shared with third parties will be done so in accordance with the security and data protection principles of the UK GDPR, Data Protection Act 2018, Data Use & Access Bill 2025 as well as appropriate Binding Corporate Rules (BCR) in line with these regulations.

How long do we keep your data?

We hold your information only as long as necessary for each purpose we use it. This period will normally be for seven years after your last financial contribution or other activity with us, unless we have a good reason to keep your information for a longer period. This is based on any legal, regulatory or business reasons we may have to retain your information.

Below outlines the seven-year exceptions for some of the data we keep.

Dedications

For dedications, the first name, surname, address, postcode, contact telephone numbers and email address of both the dedicator and dedicatee are kept in perpetuity.

We use this information for identification and authorisation, communicating with the data subject, delivery of goods or services, queries, complaints and customer relationship management.

Account managed relationships – high donors, major donors and legacy pledgers

For account managed relationships, the first name, surname, address, postcode, contact telephone numbers, email address, communications documented between the Woodland Trust and the supporter, event information, date and time of monetary gift or pledge are kept 100 years from the date of legacy pledge due to the complexities and potential disputes that could arise as part of the legal process.

We use this information for identification and authorisation, communicating with the data subject, delivery of services, queries, complaints and customer relationship management. For usage for legacies, we may also use the information to support our claim for any gifts left to us by supporters that are contested by other parties. We also use it as a way of evidencing the individual's interactions with the Woodland Trust in their lifetime.

You have the right to ask us to remove your personal information from our records. We will inform you in writing when we have actioned your request and if we need to refuse you, we will give you the reasons why.

What are your rights?

The UK GDPR gives everyone a number of very important rights. These are:

• transparency over how we use your personal information (right to be informed).
• request a copy of the information we hold about you, which will be provided to you within one month (right of access).
• update or amend the information we hold about you if it is wrong (right of rectification).
• ask us to stop using your information (right to restrict processing).
• ask us to remove your personal information from our records (right to be 'forgotten').
• object to the processing of your information for marketing purposes (right to object).
• obtain and reuse your personal data for your own purposes (right to data portability).
• not be subject to a decision when it is based on automated processing (automated decision making and profiling).

If you would like to know more about your rights under the data protection law see the Information Commissioners Office website.

Remember, you can change the way you hear from us or withdraw your permission for us to process your personal data at any time by using the form on our 'Contact us' page or by using our online permission portal.