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Poverty is an outrage against humanity. It robs people of their dignity and lets injustice thrive. But together we have the power to transform lives.
As part of the Closer Panel, your opinions and feedback can help shape our communications, focus and the way we work – putting us in a better position to help others across the globe.
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More about the panel
We’ve used the results of the surveys shared with the panel to help us evaluate fundraising ideas, get a steer on new website designs, and delve deeper into your views on campaigning for change – just to name a few.
As a panelist, we’ll send you a short email survey on a regular basis, up to one each month, with questions related to Christian Aid, our work and your opinions. All you need to do is simply fill it in and submit it.
In return, you’ll receive sneak previews of our marketing materials, have a chance to voice your opinions and suggestions, and receive feedback on how your views will shape our future work.
Terms and conditions
The Christian Aid privacy policy is applicable and can be found here. This gives you more information on how Christian Aid uses your data and your rights with regard to data protection, so do take a look there too.
General terms and conditions
- Participation in the panel is voluntary and Christian Aid employees are not eligible.
- To join our panel you must be at least 16 years of age.
- By participating in the panel, you agree to respect the intellectual copyright that may come with each survey, and so you agree not to reproduce, archive, copy, distribute, republish, upload, post or transmit in any way the materials/any portion of the materials you have access to from the surveys, or from your use of, or access to, the panel site including content, advertisements or software.
- If you post or send offensive, inappropriate or objectionable content, or otherwise engage in any disruptive behaviour, Christian Aid may terminate your participation in the panel.
- By signing up to the panel, you agree to accept these conditions.
How does the Closer Panel work?
Each month, you will receive an email inviting you to take part in a new survey. Clicking on the link in the email will take you to the survey which is hosted on an external website.
You can take part in as many or as few surveys as you like – you do not need to join in every time unless you would like to. Every survey features a different topic, with a new set of questions depending on what the ‘hot topics’ are at that time.
As part of the Closer Panel, your opinions and feedback can help shape our communications, focus and the way we work – putting us in a better position to help others across the globe.
What personal information do we collect?
When you sign up to participate in the panel, we will ask you for some personal information. This consists of information such as your name, email address (so we can contact you with the surveys), postcode, date of birth and gender, alongside other information about you (such as your past support for Christian Aid, or other hobbies and activities).
Your answers to these questions allow us to compare your answers to each monthly survey with the answers given by other members of the panel who are either similar to or different from you. Asking these questions when you first sign up means that we do not need to ask you lots of demographic questions each month.
We ask that you please keep your personal information up-to-date. If your personal details change over time, please contact us or call 020 7523 2493.
The surveys may also ask you for other personal information, and you may be asked to provide or volunteer additional, sometimes sensitive information (e.g about your political opinions or religious beliefs). While we may use your profile to help us analyse your answers to these questions, we do not store the information alongside your profile; it’s only associated with that individual survey.
By entering your personal information, when you sign up and/or as part of individual surveys, you enable Christian Aid to carry out more meaningful market research analysis, to better understand your/our supporters’ views.
How we will use your personal information?
Your information will be used for administering the surveys, for analysis and statistical purposes. By signing up, you agree to allow Christian Aid to send you communications by email about information which is relevant to the panel that you have joined, for example, links to surveys, feedback on results, or updates on the panel.
Survey answers are analysed anonymously, and we will not trace responses back to you as a single panellist. You won’t ever be contacted by Christian Aid based on the answers you give to the Closer Panel surveys. The only exception to this is that from time to time we may ask you if you would like to be involved in further research on a particular topic; we will usually ask you to contact us directly to let us know that you’re interested rather than giving you a yes/no option within the survey, so that we have no need to link your survey answers back to your contact details. If you contact us following one of these requests, then we will of course get in touch with you about that.
The Closer Panel is run using survey software from a company called Toluna, so your personal information – and all your survey answers – are stored on their secure servers. Where possible, we may make note of your participation in the panel on our internal supporter database, so that we know you support Christian Aid in this way (and don’t contact you to ask if you would like to take part!). None of your other personal information (eg contact details) or survey responses will be tracked back to your record on that database. We keep them separate.
Please note, this does mean that if you change your email address for your Closer Panel profile, you will still need to contact us to update the Christian Aid supporter database. Likewise, if you wish to unsubscribe from the panel, you need to do this via the ‘unsubscribe’ link in the Closer Panel emails, as updating our main supporter database will not automatically update the Closer database.
We will never provide information on an individual panel member to an additional third party.
For more information about how Christian Aid uses your data, including more details about your rights relating to data protection, please see our privacy policy.
How much time will this take?
Each survey will vary in terms of time commitment and you will be given an estimated time when invited to participate each month.
Christian Aid will usually contact you via email twice per calendar month specifically for this panel, although we may take breaks throughout the year. This includes an invitation to take part in the new survey and a reminder about the survey. We may also send you a summary of interesting findings from time to time. The communications around the panel are not linked with other communications sent by Christian Aid, although we try to make sure that the timing does not clash with other important emails from Christian Aid.
What if I do not want to participate any longer?
If you no longer wish to participate in the panel, you can opt-out at any time by unsubscribing from the panel.
This can be done by using the unsubscribe link in the emails you receive. Once you have unsubscribed from the panel you will no longer receive our survey invites. Your responses to previous surveys will remain on the system, as sometimes it is important for us to compare the responses of the panel to different surveys. However, in line with GDPR regulations, from 3 years after you unsubscribe, these will only be stored anonymously and your personal details will be removed from the system.
Our survey software has migrated! What has changed in 2021?
Toluna, the company that provides the survey software for the Closer Panel, has recently upgraded their system.
This means there are some changes to the way the Panel will work behind the scenes, such as a more streamlined sign up process and a smaller set of attributes associated with your profile, although if you are an existing panel member you shouldn’t notice a difference.
- Toluna will now be referred to as Toluna Start.
- We have reduced the amount of information that is included in members’ profiles in the Toluna Start database. Any historical data in the categories that are no longer needed will be deleted from existing members’ profiles.
- We may still ask questions regarding sensitive personal information such as your faith, to help us to better understand your views and how they compare with the views of other panel members. Where we do this, it will be within the context of individual surveys so the data is not linked to your profile.
If you have any queries or requests, please contact us or call 020 7523 2493.
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