Privacy & Information Policy

Last updated 17 September 2026 · We Aspire NPC · Registration 2026/101143/08

Who we are

We Aspire NPC is a non-profit company registered in South Africa (registration number 2026/101143/08, incorporated 4 February 2026, Gauteng). We fund South Africans studying at universities, universities of technology, TVET colleges and registered private colleges.

For the purposes of POPIA we are the responsible party for the personal information described in this policy. That means we decide why and how it is processed, and we are accountable for it.

What we collect, and why

We only collect what we actually need. Where information is optional, we say so on the form itself.

When you donate or join The Aspire Circle

Your email address

To send your receipt, your monthly impact report, and to contact you about your donation. Without it we cannot process a donation at all.

The amount, frequency and date of your gift

To administer your donation, meet our accounting and audit obligations, and report honestly on how funds were used.

A payment reference and the payment method used

To reconcile payments and resolve any dispute or failed transaction.

When you apply for support

Our application forms ask about the student, your household, your finances and your education, and you may send supporting documents such as an ID, a payslip or an academic record. We use this only to assess your application fairly and to deliver support if it is approved. Your application is added to our register. When we show funders and donors the level of need in our communities we use numbers and patterns, never names, and we never share your details or documents with a funder without asking you first. We support students aged 18 and over. Where an applicant is under 18 we ask for the consent of a parent or guardian before processing their application.

When you use a form on this site

Name, email address and — if you choose to give it — your phone number

To reply to your enquiry, process a volunteer application, or follow up on a pledge you have made.

Anything you write in a message field

Please do not send us sensitive personal information through a website form.

When you simply browse the site

If — and only if — you have accepted cookies, we collect standard website analytics: the pages you visited, roughly where in the world you are, which site or advertisement referred you, and general device and browser information. Your IP address is anonymised before it is stored. We use this to understand which of our appeals actually bring in support, so that we spend as little as possible on advertising.

If you decline, no analytics or advertising cookies are loaded at all. The site works exactly the same either way.

Our lawful basis for processing

Under section 11 of POPIA we rely on the following:

• Performance of an agreement — processing your donation once you have chosen to give.
• Legal obligation — retaining financial records as required by tax, company and audit law.
• Legitimate interests — keeping donors informed about the work their money funds.
• Your consent — analytics and advertising cookies, and marketing email to anyone who is not an existing donor. You may withdraw consent at any time.

Who we share information with

We do not sell your personal information. We have never done so and will not do so. We share it only with the service providers we need in order to operate:

Paystack

Payment processing. Receives your email address and donation amount. Handles all card data.

Netlify

Website hosting and form submissions. Stores what you submit through a form on this site. Documents sent with an application for support are kept in private storage that only authorised We Aspire staff can open.

Resend

Sends our confirmation emails. Receives your email address, your name and your reference number.

Google Analytics

Website analytics, only with your consent.

Meta (Facebook and Instagram)

Advertising measurement, only with your consent. Tells us that a donation followed an advertisement, so we can stop paying for advertising that does not work.

We will also disclose information where the law requires it — for example to SARS, or in response to a valid court order.

How long we keep it

• Financial and donation records — five years after the end of the relevant tax year, as required by South African tax and company law.
• Donor contact details — for as long as you are an active donor, and three years afterwards, unless you ask us to delete them sooner.
• Applications for support, and the documents sent with them — five years, then destroyed securely.
• Form enquiries and volunteer applications — five years, then deleted.
• Website analytics — 14 months.

Your rights

POPIA gives you real, enforceable rights over your information. You may:

• Ask what personal information we hold about you, and receive a copy of it.
• Ask us to correct anything that is wrong or incomplete.
• Ask us to delete information we no longer have a lawful reason to keep.
• Object to processing based on our legitimate interests.
• Withdraw your consent at any time — including cookie consent, by clearing this site's data in your browser.
• Unsubscribe from any email we send, using the link in that email.
• Complain to the Information Regulator if you believe we have not handled your information properly.

To exercise any of these, email info@weaspire.co.za. We will respond within 30 days. There is no charge, and asking will never affect how we treat you as a donor.

Cookies

A cookie is a small file a website stores in your browser. We use as few as we can.

Strictly necessary

One item recording your cookie choice, so we do not ask again on every page. This is not tracking and cannot be switched off — without it we would have no way to remember that you said no.

Analytics and advertising — optional

Google Analytics and the Meta pixel. These load only after you accept, and never before.

To change your mind after choosing, clear this site's cookies and site data in your browser settings and the choice will be offered again on your next visit.

Keeping information secure

The whole site is served over HTTPS. Card data never touches our systems. Donation records are verified directly with our payment provider rather than trusted from the browser, and administrative access is limited to people who need it to do their work.

No system is perfectly secure, and we will not pretend otherwise. If a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as section 22 of POPIA requires.

Applicants under 18

We support people studying after school, so almost everyone who applies to us is an adult. This website is intended for adults and we do not market to anyone under 18.

Occasionally a first year student is still 17. Where that happens we ask for the written consent of a parent or guardian before we process the application, as POPIA requires.

We do hold information about the students we support, as we must in order to fund their studies. That information is collected directly from them, is kept confidential, and is never used for marketing. We publish only a first name where the person has agreed to it, and we do not publish photographs of a beneficiary without their explicit written permission.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle personal information we will update this page and change the date at the top. Where a change is significant and affects you, we will tell existing donors by email rather than expecting you to notice.

Contact us

Any question about this policy, or about your information, goes to the same place:

info@weaspire.co.za · Midrand, Johannesburg