Data Retention Policy

1. Purpose

This policy sets out how long Donorbook retains different categories of data, and how you can request deletion. It reflects legal obligations — in particular HMRC's requirements for Gift Aid records — and our commitment to data minimisation under UK GDPR.

2. Retention Schedule

Account and profile data

• Retained while your account is active
• After account deletion: retained for 30 days to allow recovery, then permanently deleted
• Exception: financial transaction records (invoices, subscription history) retained for 6 years per HMRC requirements

Donor records

• Retained while your organisation's account is active
• Gift Aid declarations: retained for a minimum of 6 years from the date of the last donation under HMRC rules, even if your account is closed — you will be notified and given an export
• Donors without any Gift Aid activity: deleted within 30 days of account closure

Donation records

• Retained for 7 years from the donation date — the standard HMRC accounting records requirement
• This applies to all donation records regardless of Gift Aid status
• After 7 years, donation records are anonymised (donor identity removed) rather than deleted, to allow aggregate reporting

Email campaign data

• Campaign content and recipient lists: retained for 2 years from send date
• Delivery logs (sent/bounced/opened): retained for 90 days

API access logs

• API request logs (timestamp, endpoint, response code): retained for 90 days
• API key metadata (name, prefix, last-used date): retained until key is revoked plus 30 days

Webhook and integration data

• Webhook delivery logs: retained for 30 days
• Integration configuration (webhook URL): retained while account is active

Platform security logs

• Authentication and access logs: retained for 12 months for security incident investigation

3. Your Right to Deletion

You may request deletion of your account at any time from Settings → Account. On receipt of a deletion request we will:

• Provide a full data export within 5 working days
• Delete your account and non-retained data within 30 days
• Notify you of any data we are legally required to retain and for how long

To request deletion of specific data (e.g. a specific donor record) without closing your account, use the delete function within the platform or email legal@donorbook.co.uk.

4. HMRC Gift Aid Records — Special Notice

Under HMRC guidance, charities must retain Gift Aid declaration records and supporting donation evidence for at least 6 years after the end of the tax year in which the last claim was made. Even if you close your Donorbook account, we are obligated to retain Gift Aid-related records for this period and may be required to provide them to HMRC upon request. We will contact you before retaining data beyond your account closure date.

5. Data Deletion After Retention Period

When data reaches the end of its retention period, it is either permanently and irreversibly deleted from our systems and backups (within 30 days of the retention period end) or anonymised such that it can no longer be associated with any individual.

6. Backups

We maintain encrypted backups of our database with a 30-day rolling window. Data deleted from the live database will be removed from backups when those backups expire. We do not restore backups to retrieve deleted data on behalf of customers except in cases of accidental deletion where a formal request is made within 7 days.

7. Contact

For data retention enquiries or to exercise your rights: legal@donorbook.co.uk.