Privacy

Sharing with sgoguide.com

Data on this site is shared with sgoguide.com. SGO rankings here are independent.

Because SGO Index is owned by sgoguide.com, the site owner may share any information this site holds about SGOs, schools, scholarships and states with sgoguide.com, at the owner's discretion. Family alert sign-ups are never shared with sgoguide.com.

When you browse

Public pages set no cookies and load no advertising or third-party tracking scripts. Like any website, our hosting provider keeps standard server logs (such as IP address, browser and the page asked for) to run the site and protect it from abuse.

When you follow an Apply or Donate link, we count the click. We keep only the total number of clicks per link, not who clicked. So that one visitor can't inflate the totals, we count clicks per IP address for an hour, using a scrambled (hashed) form of the address, and delete those counts after 2 days.

Counts on school pages

To show schools and SGOs how many people want scholarships at a school, we count what happens on each school's page. We keep only daily totals per school, never who did what.

• Visits. When a school's page opens, your browser tells us which school it is and whether you came from our search, from a web search engine (such as Google) or some other way. Nothing else is sent. Your browser remembers, for that tab only, which school pages it has already counted, so reloading a page doesn't count twice. Search engines' crawlers aren't counted.
• “I want scholarships here.” A tap adds one to the school's total. We don't ask for your name or email. Your browser keeps a note of the tap on your device so the button shows as done next time; clearing your browser's site data removes it.
• Forms. We also add one to the school's total for each alert sign-up and “I'd give” pledge sent from its page (described below).
• Only our staff see these totals. We share them, as numbers, with schools and SGOs to show the interest in scholarships at a school.
• So that one visitor can't inflate the totals, we count visits and taps per IP address using a scrambled (hashed) form of the address, and delete those counts after 2 days.

Scholarship alerts for families

If you sign up for alerts, we keep your email address, the school or state you chose, any grades you picked, when you signed up and confirmed, and which scholarships we've already emailed you about, so we never send the same one twice. We never ask for a child's name, birthdate, your income or your address.

• Nothing is sent until you confirm by clicking the link in our first email. Sign-ups that aren't confirmed are deleted after 7 days.
• We email you only when a scholarship for your school or state opens. Apply links in these emails go through our click counter, which keeps only the total number of clicks per link.
• Every alert email has a one-click unsubscribe link and a link to change or delete your sign-up. Unsubscribing or deleting removes your sign-up, its record of what we sent and the spam-limit counters for your email address, at once and completely.
• Your sign-up is never shared with sgoguide.com or anyone else. We use it only to send your alerts.
• To stop spam, the sign-up form uses Cloudflare Turnstile and limits how many sign-ups one IP address (5 an hour) and one email address (3 a day) can make. We count these by scrambled (hashed) forms of the IP and email address, and delete the counts after 2 days.

“I'd give” pledges for a school

If you tell us you'd give to scholarships for a school, we keep your email address, the school, the amount range you picked (if any), whether you asked for an email when an SGO starts taking gifts for that school, and when you signed up, confirmed and were emailed. A pledge is not a donation and doesn't commit you to anything.

• Nothing counts until you confirm by clicking the link in our first email. Pledges that aren't confirmed are deleted after 7 days.
• We use only the number of pledges and the amount ranges, by school, when we ask schools and scholarship organizations to start scholarships. We never give anyone your name or email address, including sgoguide.com.
• If you asked, we email you when an SGO starts taking gifts for that school. Every email has a link that deletes your pledge at once and completely.
• The form uses the same spam protection as alerts: Cloudflare Turnstile and limits of 5 pledges an hour per IP address and 3 a day per email address, counted by scrambled (hashed) forms and deleted after 2 days.

Problem reports

If you report a problem, we keep what you write and, if you give it, your email address so we can reply. If the report is about a page an SGO or school manages, we send what you wrote to that page's managers so they can fix it, but not your email address.

To stop spam, the form uses Cloudflare Turnstile to check that a person is sending it, and we limit how many reports one IP address can send in an hour. We count reports by a scrambled (hashed) form of the IP address, not the address itself.

Asking us to add a school or an SGO

If you ask us to add a missing school, or propose an SGO's listing, we keep what you send, including your name, role and email address where the form asks for them, to check the request and email you about it. Only our staff see them; they are never shown on the site. If we approve an SGO's proposal, we may invite the email address it gave to manage the listing.

To stop spam, these forms use Cloudflare Turnstile and a limit per IP address, counted by a scrambled (hashed) form of the address.

Accounts for SGOs and schools

People who manage an SGO or school page sign in with their email address. We keep that address, the name they give, the pages they manage, any documents they send to prove a claim, and a record of every change they make to a listing. Sign-in pages use cookies to keep you signed in.

• Documents sent to prove a claim (such as an IRS determination letter or a letter on the organization's letterhead) are seen only by our staff, to review the claim. They are never shown on the site.
• We email managers about the pages they manage: claim decisions, invitations from colleagues, problem reports about their page, scholarships that open for their school, reminders to confirm their status, status updates that aren't getting through, and links on their page that stopped working.
• Every change to a listing is kept in its change history with who made it, so our staff can undo mistakes.

Services that help run the site

We use outside services to host the site and its database, to send email, to handle sign-in and to check that forms are sent by people. They handle data only to provide those services to us.

Questions or requests

To ask what we hold about you, or to have it corrected or deleted, contact us through Report a problem. Families can delete an alert sign-up themselves from the link in any alert email.