We’re a 501(c)(3) nonprofit run by parents and volunteers, and most of the people who trust us with information are families signing their kids up for robotics and maker programs. This policy explains, in plain language, what we collect, why, who helps us handle it, and how we protect your family. We tried to keep the lawyer-speak to a minimum.
If anything here is unclear, email us at privacy@piedmontmakers.org and a real person will answer.
The short version
- We collect the basics needed to run programs: names, contact info, the school and team a kid is on, and emergency contacts.
- A parent or guardian (or other caregiver) gives us this information — kids don’t sign themselves up.
- We use a small set of trusted tools to manage enrollment and communication. We don’t let them use your family’s information for their own purposes.
- We never sell your data. Not to anyone, ever.
- We may share photos of kids at our events in our newsletter, website, and local press. You can opt your child out anytime — just email us.
- For some robotics programs, we share registration info with FIRST (the organization behind the leagues).
That’s the gist. The rest is the detail.
Who we are
Piedmont Makers is a California 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 47-2831568) supporting STEAM education and maker culture for kids and adults across the East Bay. We run youth robotics teams, a community engineering lab, an annual school maker faire, and popup maker events. We’re entirely volunteer-run.
What we collect, and why
For kids in our programs, we collect what we need to put them on a team and keep them safe: name, address, grade or age, school, the team or program they’re in, and an emergency contact. A parent, guardian, or caregiver provides this when they enroll their child.
For adults (parents, guardians, volunteers, donors, and newsletter subscribers) we typically collect name, email, and sometimes a phone number. If you donate or buy a shirt, the payment is handled by our payment processor; we don’t see or store your card number. If you volunteer in a role that involves regular contact with kids, see the background-check section below.
We collect this information to run programs, communicate with families, coordinate volunteers, and keep records the way any nonprofit needs to.
The tools that help us
We’re a small volunteer organization, so we rely on a handful of established services to do the work. The ones that handle children’s enrollment information are:
- TeamSnap — team rosters and program enrollment
- Google Workspace — email, documents, and shared files
- Slack — coordination among coaches and volunteers
For newsletters, sign-ups, and general communication (which mostly involve adult names and email addresses), we use third-party email, forms, and sign-up tools — including but not limited to services for newsletters and event registration. We may change these tools over time, but we hold them to the same standard: they help us operate, and they’re not allowed to use your information for their own marketing or to sell it.
We keep basic analytics on how this website gets used, such as which pages people visit and roughly where they arrived from, so we can tell what’s useful and what isn’t. That data describes traffic to the site, not your family. We don’t connect it to enrollment records, and we don’t use it for advertising or sell it.
We use software tools, including AI-assisted ones, to help with everyday operations like building schedules and rosters. We never allow any software providers to train AI models using your family’s information.
Sharing with FIRST
Some of our robotics programs are run through FIRST, the national nonprofit behind these leagues. For those programs, we register participants and mentors with FIRST and sync information with FIRST’s dashboards so kids can compete. Not every program does this; it depends on the league. FIRST has its own privacy and youth-protection practices that apply once information is in their system.
Volunteer background checks
Volunteers who work closely with kids on a regular basis go through background screening — both FIRST’s Youth Protection Program and, where California law requires it, a state-level fingerprint check. To do that, we share the volunteer’s identifying information with the screening providers that run those checks. This applies to coaches and mentors above a certain amount of contact time; many of our occasional volunteers fall below that threshold and aren’t screened this way.
Photos of kids at our events
We love showing off what our kids build. We may photograph participants at our events and use those photos in our newsletter, on our website, on our social media, and in local print newspapers to celebrate the work and promote our programs.
By participating in our events and programs, you agree to this use. But we want families to feel comfortable, so you can opt your child out anytime — just email privacy@piedmontmakers.org with your child’s name, and we’ll keep them out of future promotional photos. If a photo of your child is already published and you’d like it removed, let us know and we’ll do our best.
What we don’t do
We don’t sell your data, rent it, or trade it. We don’t share your family’s information with advertisers. We don’t collect more than we need to run our programs.
How long we keep it
We keep information while a family is active in our programs and for a reasonable period afterward — for our records, for historical and tax purposes, and to make re-enrollment easier next season. If you’d like us to delete your information, email us and we’ll remove what we reasonably can.
How we protect it
We use reputable tools, limit access to the volunteers who actually need it, and take reasonable steps to keep information secure. We’ll be forthcoming: we’re a volunteer-run nonprofit, not a security company, but we treat your family’s information with the same care we’d want for our own kids.
Kids’ privacy
Our programs are designed so that a parent, guardian, or caregiver provides information on a child’s behalf — kids don’t create accounts or submit their own information to us online. If you believe a child has given us information directly, contact us and we’ll address it.
Your choices
You can unsubscribe from our newsletter anytime using the link in any email. You can ask us to correct or delete your information, or opt your child out of promotional photos, by emailing privacy@piedmontmakers.org.
Changes to this policy
If we update this policy, we’ll change the effective date at the top.
Contact us
Questions about your privacy? Email privacy@piedmontmakers.org. For anything else, hello@piedmontmakers.org is the front door.
Piedmont Makers is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. This policy reflects how we operate. If something here doesn’t match your experience, please tell us.