Privacy Policy


wear blue: run to remember
Privacy Policy

Last Updated: 9 March 2023

This Privacy Policy explains how wear blue: run to remember (“wear blue”) collects, uses, and discloses personal information from donors, participants, volunteers, and website visitors in the course of serving our mission to honor the service and sacrifice of the American military. However, this Privacy Policy is not a contract and does not create any legal rights or obligations not otherwise provided by law. 

This website, https://www.wearblueruntoremember.org/, is the property of wear blue: run to remember, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.  

wear blue PRIVACY PLEDGE

At wear blue, we are keenly aware of the trust you place in us and our responsibility to protect the privacy of the people we serve, as well as our many volunteers, sponsors, and donors. As part of this responsibility, in this Privacy Policy, we let you know what personal information we collect, how we collect it, and how we use this information to improve and sustain our program. As a volunteer, you also help us uphold this policy.

OUR COLLECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION 

We collect personal information in a variety of ways. For example, we collect personal information automatically when you interact with us and our website. We also collect personal information directly from you when you choose to provide it to us, such as when you contact us, sign up for our newsletter, register for and participate in our programs, volunteer with us, apply for a job with us, donate to our organization, or purchase one of our products. Lastly, we also collect personal information about you from other sources and third parties.

Website Visitors

We collect the following personal information that individuals provide us in connection with our website:

  • Order Information, such as name, email address, billing address, shipping address, items purchased, and payment information when 

you purchase merchandise on our website.  Please see the Personal Information from Third Parties section below regarding how we use third-party payment processors to process these transactions.  

  • Inquiry Information, such as information you provide in custom messages to us via our website or via email.

As is true of most organizations operating online, we and our third-party providers also collect personal information automatically when you visit or interact with our website or email communications, which may include:

  • Log Data, such as internet protocol (IP) address, operating system, browser type, browser id, the URL entered and the referring page/campaign, date/time of visit, the time spent on our website, and any errors that may occur during the visit to our website.
  • Analytics Data, such as the electronic path taken to our website, through our website and when exiting our website, as well as usage and activity on our website.
  • Location Data, such as general geographic location based on the log data we or our third-party providers collect, or more precise location where permitted by law.

For more information about our and our third-party partners’ use of cookies and related technologies to collect information automatically, and any choices individuals may have in relation to this collection, please see the Cookies and Online Advertising section below.

Program Participants and Family Members

We collect personal information about our program participants and their families when they register for and participate in events.  This information includes: 

  • Contact Information, such as name, postal and email address, phone number, and emergency contact information.
  • Demographic Information, such as sex and age. 
  • Group Affiliations, such as military affiliation, employer, or group membership. 


  • Health Information, such as health or injury histories.
  • Running Information, such as running route, time, and pace (if you choose to share it with us or the wear blue community). 
  • Photo/Video Information, such as photos or videos of you participating at a wear blue event.
  • Youth Mentorship Program Background Check Information, such as date of birth and social security number. Please see the Personal Information from Third Parties section below regarding how we use third-party background check providers to help make healthy matches between the youth participant and the assigned mentor.
  • Program Comments, such as comments you may provide when registering for our programs (like how you heard about us and what motivates you to run). 

Volunteers

We collect personal information from volunteers when they sign up online and when they volunteer at wear blue events.  This information includes:

  • Contact Information, such as name, postal and email address, and phone number.
  • Group Affiliations, such as military affiliation, employer, or group membership. 
  • Background Check Information, such as date of birth and social security number. Please see the Personal Information from Third Parties section below regarding how we use third-party background check providers to help us place volunteers.
  • Photo/Video Information, such as photos or videos of you volunteering at a wear blue event. 
  • Volunteer Comments, such as comments you may provide when signing up to volunteer with us (like how you heard about us and what motivates you to serve). 



Job Applicants

We collect personal information from individuals who choose to apply for a position with us.  This information includes:

  • Contact Information, such as name, address, email address, and phone number.
  • Resume Information, such as current and prior work experience and educational background.

Donors

We collect personal information from donors who generously choose to donate to wear blue.  This information includes:

  • Contact Information, such as name, email address, and phone number.
  • Donation Information, such as the amount of your donation, your dedication or designation, and payment information. Please see the Personal Information from Third Parties section below regarding how we use third-party payment processors to process donations.

Personal Information from Third Parties

We also obtain personal information from third parties, which we often combine with personal information we collect either automatically or directly from you, including from: 

Background Check Providers: We use a third-party background check provider to collect personal information needed to conduct background checks on our volunteers and youth program mentors (including date of birth and social security number). Please note that wear blue receives the result of the background check, but not detailed findings. These background checks are governed by the third-party provider’s privacy and security policies. Please review those policies when prompted.

Payment Processors: We use third-party payment processors to process payments on our website, including merchandise purchases and donations. These third-party payment processors collect payment information, such as bank account or credit card information, in order to process your transaction, 



but that information is not passed on to wear blue. Each payment processor’s use of personal information is governed by its own privacy policy. Please review each payment processer’s privacy policy to understand how it will manage or otherwise process personal information, including financial information.

Other Providers: We also use other third-party providers to help us manage event and volunteer registration, donor information, marketing, and online shop operations and fulfillment. 

Examples of other wear blue providers include:

  • Youth Mentorship Program: MentorCore, Sterling Volunteers
  • Data Management: Kindful, BoodleAi, Google Drive
  • Financial Donation Portals: Classy, Stripe, WePay, QuickBooks
  • Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, MailChimp, Racery, Strava
  • Merchandise: Shopify, Square, RSL

OUR USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

In order to provide the very best service to our community, wear blue: run to remember uses the personal information we collect:

  • To manage our organization and our day-to-day operations.
  • To provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us.
  • To process your program registration, volunteer placement, donation, or merchandise purchase.
  • To present our website and its contents to you.
  • To notify you about changes to our website or any other products or services we offer or provide through it.
  • To communicate with you, including via email, postal mail, phone/text message, and social media, about local races or events in your area, other races or events, fundraising, or wear blue leadership opportunities.
  • To promote and advertise our organization’s mission.
  • For research and statistical purposes and to monitor website usage to help us improve our website and our services.


  • To evaluate and process your job application with us.
  • In other ways we may describe when you provide the information.
  • For other purposes with your consent.
  • To help maintain the safety, security, and integrity of our property and website, technology assets, and organization.
  • To defend, protect, or enforce our rights and applicable contracts and agreements.
  • To prevent, investigate, or provide notice of fraud or unlawful or criminal activity.
  • To comply with legal obligations.

OUR DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We disclose personal information in the following ways:

wear blue Partners and Volunteers: We share personal information internally at wear blue in order to manage our day-to-day operations. For example, we share personal information of enrolled program participants internally with wear blue employees, contractors, and volunteers in order to plan and facilitate races, events, and other organizational activities.

Payment Processors: We direct donors and website visitors to provide personal information to payment processors who process donations and merchandise orders on our behalf. 

Marketing and Communications Providers: We coordinate and share personal information with our marketing and communications providers to communicate with individuals about races, events, programs, fundraising, and other wear blue initiatives. 

Service Providers: We engage third-party service providers that perform operational services for us or on our behalf, such as website hosting, infrastructure provisioning, data management, IT services, analytics services, and administrative services.

Aggregate Data: We share aggregate data (that is no longer personally identifiable) with third parties for grant writing, solicitation of donors, and other fundraising activities for the continuation of wear blue programs.

Business Transaction or Reorganization: We may take part in or be involved 


with a corporate business transaction, such as a merger, acquisition, joint venture, or financing or sale of company assets. We may disclose personal information to a third-party during negotiation of, in connection with, or as an asset in, such a corporate business transaction. Personal information may also be disclosed in the event of insolvency, bankruptcy, or receivership.  

As Required By Law or the Circumstances: At times wear blue may be required by law or litigation to disclose personal information. If we are required to do so by law or we believe, in good faith, that such a disclosure is necessary to comply with the law, defend our rights or property, or to respond to an emergency situation, we may disclose any information in our possession.

Otherwise with Consent: We may disclose personal information about a program participant, volunteer, or donor to third parties with that individual’s consent or at their direction.  For example, with an individual’s consent, we may post a testimonial on our website or in wear blue communications.

YOUR COMMUNICATIONS PREFERENCES

Email: We may email persons who have contacted us, enrolled in our programs, volunteered, or made an online payment or donation, in order to send occasional updates and announcements about our programs or emails of a marketing nature, such as annual giving campaigns. If you do not wish to receive email, you may opt out at any time by following the instructions within our messages or notifying us at remember@wearblueruntoremember.org.

Social Media: When an individual interacts with us through various social media networks, such as Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, we may receive some information about the individual that they permit the social network to share with third parties. The data we receive is dependent on an individual’s privacy settings with each social network. Individuals should always review and, if necessary, adjust their privacy settings on third-party websites, social media networks, and services before sharing information and/or linking or connecting them to other services.

Postal Mail: Persons who submit their postal address with the goal of receiving further information, enrolling in our program, volunteering, or donating may periodically receive postal mail from us. If you do not wish to receive mail, please let us know by sending a request to 



remember@wearblueruntoremember.org. Please include your exact name and address so we can be sure your name is removed from our postal mailing list.

Phone: Persons who supply us with their telephone numbers may receive telephone contact from us responding to a request for more information about our program, volunteering, or a transaction. We do not make unsolicited marketing calls.

Text: wear blue will not send group text messages without obtaining prior consent. If you no longer wish to receive our group text messages, please let us know by sending a request to remember@wearblueruntoremember.org. 

Online Video Conferencing: Program participants may receive invitations via email to join wear blue Online Connection sessions. Program participants who choose to participate in those Online Connection sessions will access a link to participate in online sessions. Online Connection sessions are accessed through third-party platforms such as Google Meet, Zoom, or WebEx. We do not control the privacy practices of any third-party platforms. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of third-party platforms for more information regarding their privacy practices before participating.

COOKIES AND ONLINE ADVERTISING

Use of Cookies and Individual Choice

We and our third-party providers may use (i) cookies or small data files that are stored on an individual’s computer and (ii) other, similar technologies, such as web beacons, pixels, embedded scripts, location-identifying technologies, and logging technologies (collectively, “cookies”) to automatically collect personal information and use or disclose the personal information for the purposes described in the sections above. For example, our website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”), to collect and view reports about the traffic on our website. More information on the use of Google Analytics can be obtained by visiting Google’s privacy policy here, and Google’s currently available opt-out options are available here.

If you would prefer not to accept cookies, most browsers will allow you to: (i) change your browser settings to notify you when you receive a cookie, which lets you choose whether or not to accept it; (ii) disable existing cookies; or (iii) set your browser to automatically reject cookies. Please note that doing so 


may negatively impact the experience on our website, as some features and offerings may not work properly or at all. Depending on your device and operating system, you may not be able to delete or block all cookies. In addition, if you want to reject cookies across all browsers and devices, you will need to do so on each browser on each device you actively use. 

Additional Choice Relating to Third-Party Advertising Cookies

Please note certain of our third-party providers may directly collect personal information about your online activities over time and across different websites when you use our website for purposes of providing online behavioral or interest-based advertising services to third parties. We support the self-regulatory principles for online behavioral advertising (“Principles”) published by the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”). These Principles allow you to exercise choice regarding the collection of information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites for online interest-based advertising purposes. 

More information about the DAA Principles can be found at www.aboutads.info. If you want to opt out of receiving online interest-based advertisements on your internet browser from advertisers and third parties that participate in the DAA program and the related Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) program and perform advertising-related services for us and our advertising partners, you can follow the instructions at www.aboutads.info/choices and http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/ to place an opt-out cookie on your device indicating that you do not want to receive interest-based advertisements. Opt-out cookies only work on the internet browser and device they are downloaded onto. If you want to opt out of interest-based advertisements across all browsers and devices, you will need to opt out on each browser on each device you actively use. If you delete cookies on a device generally, you will need to opt out again.

To opt out of receiving online interest-based advertisements from advertisers and third parties that participate in the DAA program on mobile apps, you can follow the instructions at http://www.aboutads.info/appchoices.

Please note that when you opt out of receiving interest-based advertisements, this does not mean you will no longer see advertisements from us on our website or third-party websites. It means that the online ads that you do see from program participants should not be based on your interests. We are not responsible for the effectiveness of, or compliance with, any third parties’ opt-out options or programs or the accuracy of their 


statements regarding their programs. In addition, third parties may still use cookies to collect information about your use of our online services, including for analytics and fraud prevention as well as any other purpose permitted under the DAA’s Principles and other program requirements.

CHILDREN’S PERSONAL INFORMATION

Our website is not directed to children under the age of 13. wear blue does not intend to, or knowingly, collect the personal information of a child under the age of 13 through the website unless such information is submitted by that child’s parent or legal guardian to register the child for a wear blue program. If we learn that any personal information we collect has been provided by a child under the age of 13 without verifiable parental consent, we will promptly delete that personal information.

LINKS TO THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES OR SERVICES

Our website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins, and applications. Except where we post, link to, or expressly adopt or refer to this Privacy Policy, this Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we are not responsible for, any personal information practices of third-party websites and online services or the practices of other third parties. To learn about the personal information practices of third parties, please visit their respective privacy notices. 

UPDATES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We will update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make changes to this Privacy Policy, we will change the date at the beginning of this Privacy Policy.  If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify individuals by prominent posting on our website, or through other appropriate means. All changes shall be effective from the date of publication unless otherwise provided.

CONTACT US

If you have any questions or requests in connection with this Privacy Policy or other privacy-related matters, please contact us at the email or postal addresses below: 

remember@wearblueruntoremember.org