We collect almost nothing. Here is exactly what.

This website

• No cookies are set by this site. No third-party analytics, pixels, or ad networks are loaded.
• Fonts are loaded from Google Fonts, which receives your IP address as part of the request. If you prefer, your browser will fall back to local fonts when that request fails.
• Forms on this site use your own email client. Nothing is transmitted to or stored by us until you press send.
• Server logs at our host record standard request data (IP, user agent, timestamp) for security and are retained for 30 days.

Enrollment data

We collect what we need to keep a kid safe and communicate with a family: names, birthdates, address, guardian contacts, emergency contacts, allergy and medication information, and any accommodations a family chooses to share. We do not collect Social Security numbers, immigration status, or income documentation. We do not verify eligibility for free or reduced lunch — we ask, and we take the answer.

Enrollment records are stored in a database with access limited to six staff. Paper forms are kept in a locked cabinet at the Hawthorne office and shredded after three years. We do not share data with schools, funders, or anyone else without written guardian permission, except when required by law or when a kid is at immediate risk of harm.

Photos

No photograph of a child is taken, used, or shared without a signed, event-specific release. A release can be withdrawn at any time, including retroactively, and we will remove the image from our materials within ten business days. Our annual report uses no identifiable photographs. Parents may opt out at enrollment and we do not ask twice.

Donors

We keep donor names, contact details, and gift history in our accounting system. Donors may give anonymously and may ask to be removed from all mailings at any time. We do not sell, rent, or trade donor lists, and we do not share them with other nonprofits.

Kids' digital work

Some programs produce digital work — a game, a recording, a robot log. Kids own what they make. We publish it only with permission, and we never publish a child's full name alongside a project without a separate release. If a kid asks us to take something down, we take it down.

Contact

Privacy questions go to the operations director at hello@stench.org. Subject line 'privacy' gets it to the right folder. We respond within five business days.