Our site provides the highest level of e-commerce security in order to protect your credit or debit card information at every step of the donation process.

In partnership with NatWest Streamline, we use industry standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology that encrypts all of your personal information, including card details, so that it cannot be read as it travels over the Internet.

This technology makes our site one of the most secure ways of making donations to charity. In fact, you run a far greater risk of becoming a victim of credit card fraud by giving your card details to an unknown person over the telephone than by making an Internet payment using SSL.

This is what happens when you press on a 'donate' or 'sponsor me' button on Firstgiving:

1. Our Secure Server and your browser exchange 'digital keys'.
2. The secure online donation form is displayed.
3. After you have filled in the secure form, your browser encrypts the information.
4. The encrypted message is sent to our Secure Server.
5. Only your browser and our Secure Server have the "digital keys" needed to decrypt the message.
6. Our Secure Server decrypts the message and stores the information in our secure database.
7. All credit and debit card processing is done from the secure database.
8. At no point is your payment information sent via email or any other non-secure method.
9. Your donation, email address, and card information remain completely private at all times. Only your name and address details are passed on to your chosen charity if you give us permission to do so. For further information, please read our privacy policy.

Please keep your password secret and contact us if you become aware of any breach of security.

If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy please contact us via email at support@firstgiving.com