Effective Date: December 16, 2025
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- About Rockefeller Foundation
- Rockefeller Foundation’s Contact Details
- Concerns and Complaints
- How We Collect Personal Information
- Types of Personal Information Collected
- How We Use the Information We Collect
- Sharing Personal Information
- Cookies
- International Transfers of Personal Information
- Security of Personal Information
- Retention of Personal Information
- Implied Consent
- Minors
- Your Rights
- Changes to the Privacy Policy
1. Introduction
The Rockefeller Foundation (the “Foundation”) takes its obligations under data protection laws seriously and is committed to ensuring your privacy.
This Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) is part of our Terms of Use and is designed to help you understand the types of personal information the Foundation, www.rockefellerfoundation.org, and other platforms operated by the Foundation (collectively, the “Site”) collects, how we process that information and who we share it with in relation to our activities. It also explains the rights you have in relation to that information.
Personal Information when referred to in this Policy means any information that: (i) identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular individual or household; (ii) relates to an identified or identifiable natural person. An identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identification number or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.
We may amend this Policy at any time and for any reason. The updated version is available at this location, by following the “Privacy Policy” link on our website footer at www.rockefellerfoundation.org.
2. About Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a pioneering philanthropy built on collaborative partnerships at the frontiers of science, technology, and innovation that enable individuals, families, and communities to flourish. We make big bets to promote the well-being of humanity in food, health, energy, and finance, including through our public charity, RF Catalytic Capital (RFCC). The Foundation has offices in various countries worldwide, including in the United States, Italy, Kenya, Thailand and Colombia.
For the purposes of applicable data protection law, the Foundation is responsible for this Policy and, to the extent relevant to applicable data protection law, is the controller of your Personal Information.
3. The Rockefeller Foundation's Contact Details
If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact us via:
Email at privacy@rockfound.org;
Telephone at +1-212-869-8500; or
Mail to ATTN: Privacy Request, The Rockefeller Foundation, Communications Office, 420 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10018-2702.
4. Concerns and Complaints
If you have any concerns or complaints about how your Personal Information is used or collected by the foundation, please in the first instance contact us using the details at Section 3 above. We would appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns first. However, you do have the right to make a complaint at any time as follows:
In Italy, you may make a complaint to:
Garante per la protezione dei dati personali
Email: segreteria.stanzione@gpdp.it
Telephone: +39 06 69677 1
Mail: 11 Piazza Venezia, 00187 Roma
Website: https://www.garanteprivacy.it/
In the rest of the European Economic Area, you may make a complaint to your national supervisory authority as listed here: https://www.edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en
In the United Kingdom, you may make a complaint:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Email: icocasework@ico.org.uk
Telephone: +44 303 123 1113
Mail: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow SK9 5AF
Website: https://ico.org.uk/
In Kenya, you may make a complaint to:
Office of the Data Protection Commissioner
Email: info@odpc.go.ke
Telephone: +254 2078 0180
Mail: Britam Tower, 12th & 13th Floor, Hospital Road, Upper Hill – Nairobi
Website: https://www.odpc.go.ke/
In Thailand, you may make a complaint to:
Personal Data Protection Commission
Email: saraban@pdpc.or.th
Telephone: +66 2 111 8800
Mail: 120 Moo 3, Chaeng Watthana Road., Thung Song Hong, Lak Si, Bangkok 10210
Website: https://www.pdpc.or.th/en/home/
In Colombia, you may make a complaint to:
Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio
Email: contactenos@sic.gov.co
Telephone: +57 1 8000 910165
Mail: Calle 24 No. 7 – 43, Bogotá D.C 110311
Website: https://sedeelectronica.sic.gov.co/
5. How we collect Personal Information
We use different methods to collect information from and about you including through:
Information You Provide Directly
Certain features of the Site may include features or services that permit you to enter contact information and other information about you, such as your name, address, and e-mail address.
We will also collect Personal Information about you in the context of applying for a job, developing and executing a grant proposal, or engaging with the Bellagio Center. Details about the types of Personal Information and the purposes for which they are collected are set out below in Sections 6 and 7 of this Policy.
If you provide information to us about any person other than yourself, your employees, counterparties, your advisers or your suppliers, you must ensure that they understand how their information will be used, and that they have given their permission for you to disclose it to us and for you to allow us, and our outsourced service providers, to use it.
Information We Collect Automatically
When you interact with the Site, certain information about your use of the Site is automatically collected. This information includes your domain name and host for Internet access; the Internet address of the site from which you came; the date and time of your access; your computer’s IP address and information about its operating system, browser, and host; MAC address and device-identifying information; the date and time you access the Site; the areas and pages you visit on the Site; and other clickstream data.
6. Types of Personal Information Collected
Contact information – such as your first name, last name, postal or billing address, email address and telephone numbers.
Website visitor, job applicant, employee, grant applicant and/or recipient, Bellagio residency or conference applicant, Vendor
Demographic information – such as your age and gender.
Job applicant, employee, grant applicant and/or recipient, Bellagio residency or conference applicant
Technical information – such as information from accessing our Site and/or services, your browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices that you use to access our Site.
Website visitor
Internet or other electronic network activity information – such as your browsing history and information regarding your interactions with and use of the Site.
Website visitor
Employment Information – such as your job title, organization, classification of employment (e.g., government), your areas of expertise and experience and your business interests.
Job applicant, employee, grant applicant and/or recipient, Bellagio residency or conference applicant, Vendor
Recruitment Information – such as name, title, addresses, telephone numbers, personal email addresses, date of birth, gender, current salary, compensation history, annual leave entitlement, pension and benefits information, current notice period and other employment records from previous roles, start date and location of employment; recruitment information (including copies of right to work documentation, references and other information included in a resume, cover letter or as part of the application process) and visual images and any photographs provided for business purposes.
Job applicant
Grant Information – such as your grant program/topic interests and geography interests.
Grant applicant and/or recipient
Marketing and communications information – includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.
Website visitor, grant applicant and/or recipient, Bellagio residency or conference applicant, Vendor
Aggregated Data – such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose.
Website visitor
7. How we use the information we collect
Optimization – to ensure that content from our Site and/or services is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your device.
Legitimate Interest – to be able to improve and ensure the effective operation of the website and our services.
Marketing – to deliver relevant website and/or services content (such as newsletters) and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you.
Legitimate Interest – To be able to publicize our activities and assess the relevance and effectiveness of newsletters and over content delivered to you.
Data Analysis – to monitor trends so that we can improve the website and/or our services to you.
Legitimate Interest – to be able to understand how our Site and services are being used.
Administration and Security – to administer and protect our business, website and/or our services, including troubleshooting, auditing and monitoring its use, including, detecting, investigating, and preventing activities that may violate our policies or be fraudulent or illegal.
Legitimate interest – To be able to ensure the security of our Site and services.
Maintenance – system maintenance and support processes.
Legitimate interest – to be able to maintain our Site and services.
Registration – to register new contacts of the Foundation who have signed up to our Site and/or our services.
Legitimate Interest – to be able to provide services.
Contract – to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us and to provide you with the information, products and services that you request from us.
Contract
Assessment of employment applications – to assess your candidacy as a potential employee or contractor for the Foundation.
Legitimate Interest – to be able to assess the suitability of candidates.
Assessment of grant or residency applications – to assess your candidacy as a potential grant recipient or Bellagio residency candidate.
Legitimate Interest – to be able to assess the suitability of candidates.
Compliance – to comply with legal requirements and protect the safety, property, and rights of the Foundation, Site users, and others.
Legal obligation
We do not make any decisions based solely on automated processing (including profiling) of your personal data which has legal effects concerning you or which significantly affects you.
8. Sharing of Personal Information
We share your personal information with third party service providers, affiliates, and agents who use the information to help us respond to your requests and to perform services on our behalf.
We may, subject to your agreement, share your personal information with marketing partners, advertisers or other third parties, who may contact you with their own offers or messages. We may, also subject to your agreement, share your personal information with third parties who we think have a similar mission to ours to enable them to reach you with similar or related messages.
If you interact with the Site in connection with your employment (e.g., you work for a grant recipient), your employer, coworkers, or other individuals designated by your employer may view any personal information that we collect in connection with your participation in the Foundation’s work or use of or interaction with the Site. This paragraph does not apply to Foundation employees.
Information Collected Under “Career Opportunities”
When you provide information in Career Opportunities, we use that information to evaluate your candidacy for employment and to track and evaluate our hiring practices generally. We may disclose your information to recruiters and other third parties who help us review applicants. When uploading a resume, please do not provide us with sensitive information such as social security numbers, dates of birth, and financial information.
Information Collected Under “Grants”
You may provide us with various pieces of information when we work with you to develop a grant proposal, in the process of funding your grant, and in the process of administering the grant. We invite individuals who have been provided with a Foundation grant to utilize our grantee portal. The information you provide to us during this process is used, stored, and shared under the terms of this Policy, as if it was collected through this Site.
Information Collected Under “Bellagio Center”
When you interact with the Bellagio Center, such as through application for the residency program or application to hold a conference. The information is used, stored, and shared by us under the terms of this Privacy Policy, as if it was collected through this Site. The information you provide during this process may also be received by a third-party grantee, the Institute of International Education, Inc. (“IIE”), to which we provide funding for Bellagio Center program administrative and outreach activities. IIE may also retain a copy of this information, and any copies held by IIE are held pursuant to its Privacy Policy.
Subject to applicable law, we reserve the right to use or disclose your personal information to third parties including law enforcement or other government entities, in a good faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) take action regarding suspected illegal activities; (b) enforce, apply, or investigate issues or complaints related to our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, or other policies or agreements such as the Foundation’s Whistleblower Policy; (c) comply with law or legal requirements, including legal process such as a search warrant, subpoena, or court order; and (d) protect our rights, reputation, personal safety, and property, or those of our users, affiliates, or the public.
We may change our ownership or corporate organization while providing the Site. We may transfer to another entity or its affiliates or service providers some or all information about you in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, acquisition, sale of assets or any line of business, change in ownership control, or financing transaction.
We may also disclose your personal information with your express consent.
We share aggregated, non-personally identifiable information about Site users with third parties as well.
Please note that public-facing interactions such as likes, comments, re-posts, etc., on social media become publicly available and can be collected and used by others, so you should use care before posting information about yourself or others.
9. Cookies
Cookies are small files that a site or its service provider transfers to your computer’s hard drive through your Web browser (if you allow it to do so) that enables the site’s or service provider’s systems to recognize your browser and capture and remember certain information. They are also used to help us understand your preferences based on previous or current site activity, which enables us to provide you with improved services. We also use cookies to help us compile aggregate data about site traffic and site interaction so that we can offer better site experiences and tools in the future.
We use the following cookies:
- Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our Site. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our Site.
- Analytical or performance cookies. These allow us to recognize and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our Site when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our Site works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
- Functionality cookies. These are used to recognize you when you return to our Site. This enables us to personalize our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
- Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our Site, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our Site and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests.
We allow third parties, to collect or receive your information and interactions with our Site over time and use that information to provide targeted ads to you on those platforms. You have the choice to tell us not to collect and use this information, and in some jurisdictions, we will only engage in interest-based advertising if you opt-in. You can learn more about ad-serving companies and the options available to limit their collection and use of your information by visiting the websites for the Network Advertising Initiative, the Digital Advertising Alliance, the European Interactive Digital Advertising Initiative for the EEA or UK, the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada for Canada, and similar AdChoices website for India. Similarly, you can learn about your options to opt-out of mobile app tracking by certain advertising networks through your device settings and by resetting the advertiser ID on your Apple or Android device.
Can I disable cookies?
Yes. If you do not want to receive cookies, you may set your browser to reject them or you may manually delete individual cookies. However, if your browser is set to reject cookies or you manually delete cookies, you may have trouble accessing some of the Site’s services and features. Note that browser-management tools for cookies are outside of our control and we cannot guarantee their effectiveness.
10. International Transfers of Personal Information
Access to the website and/or the services may be provided using resources and servers located in various locations, including the United States, Italy, Kenya, Thailand, Colombia or any other country in which we or our affiliates, partners, or service providers maintain facilities. Therefore, personal information about you may be transferred, processed, and stored outside the country where the website and/or services are used.
We transfer your Personal Information to third parties who provide services to us (for example data storage providers) including in some cases those who are situated outside of the European Economic Area (EEA), The United Kingdom (UK), Switzerland, Kenya, Thailand, Colombia or your respective jurisdiction. In particular, we use storage providers situated in the United States of America and transfer Personal Information to them.
We ensure that an equivalent degree of protection is implemented by only transferring Personal Information to countries with adequate data protection regimes or using appropriate safeguards, including but not limited to specific contracts approved by the European Commission or UK government (as applicable) which give Personal Information the same protection it has in the UK, the EEA, or Switzerland (e.g. European Commission: Standard contractual clauses for international transfers and the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum) or any data transfer mechanism approved by the European Commission or the UK authorities as appropriate, such as the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and the UK-US Data Bridge.
Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanisms used by us when transferring your Personal Information out of your jurisdiction.
11. Security of Personal Information
We maintain reasonable and appropriate measures designed to maintain information we collect in a secure manner. We have taken certain physical, electronic, and administrative steps to safeguard and secure the information we collect from visitors to the Site.
12. Retention of Personal Information
We will only keep your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means. We also take into account legal and regulatory requirements which require the retention of personal information for a minimum period of time, limitation periods for taking legal action, good practice and our general business purposes. Currently, this results in a maximum retention period of fourteen months, though some classes of information are held for less than that period.
13. Implied Consent
In certain jurisdictions, such as in Canada, applicable data protection laws require that we do not collect, use, or disclose your Personal Information without your prior consent. In those jurisdictions, your consent may be expressed or implied. You may expressly give your consent in writing, verbally or through any electronic means. In certain circumstances, your consent may be implied by your actions. For example, providing us with Personal Information to browse this website or in the context of communicating with us is implied consent to use such information. We will assume that you have consented to its reasonable collection and use of Personal Information consistent with the purposes for which the information was given.
14. Minors
We comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of the United States and similar laws around the world where applicable. Our Site is not directed to children, we do not actively solicit information from children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children without proper, verifiable parental consent. If you believe that we may have collected personal information from someone under the applicable age of consent without parental consent, please write to us at the physical address set forth below in the section “Contact Us” or email privacy@rockfound.org and we will endeavor to investigate and delete such information from our systems.
15. Your Rights
You have certain rights depending on which data protection laws apply to you in relation to your Personal Information. When provided for, and subject to limitations set forth, in applicable Data Protection Laws, you can:
- To request a copy of the Personal Information we have collected about you by contacting us.
- Rectification and Erasure. To request that we rectify or delete any of the Personal Information about you that is incomplete, incorrect, unnecessary or outdated.
- To object, at any time, to Personal Information about you being Processed for direct marketing purposes.
- Restriction of Processing. To request restriction of processing of Personal Information about you for certain reasons, such as, for example, if you consider Personal Information about you collected by us to be inaccurate or you have objected to the processing and the existence of legitimate grounds for processing is still under consideration.
- Data Portability. To request and receive the Personal Information we have collected about you in a commonly used and machine-readable form.
- Right to Withdraw Consent. If Personal Information about you is processed solely based on your consent and not for any other legitimate interest, to withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of our processing based on such consent before it was withdrawn, including processing related to existing contracts for our products and services.
- Right to Lodge a Complaint with a data protection authority. If you believe our processing of Personal Information about you is inconsistent with the applicable data protection laws, to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory data protection authority.
Your rights under other data protection laws may be similar or different to those above. If you ask to exercise these rights from a jurisdiction where you do not have the applicable right, we will consider the request at our discretion.
However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide our services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent. Please note that even after you have chosen to withdraw your consent we may be able to continue to process your Personal Information to the extent required or otherwise permitted by law, in particular in connection with exercising and defending our legal rights or meeting our legal and regulatory obligations.
16. Changes to the Privacy Policy
If we make material changes to how we collect, use, or share your personal information, we will notify you by posting a notice on our Site and/or by other means as required by law. The Effective Date at the top of this policy will indicate when changes become effective.