Privacy Policy

Last Updated: April 24, 2023

The 2026 Special Olympics USA Games (“we,” “us,” or similar terms) is a tax exempt, 501(c)3 organization. Information about the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games is made available via our website, 2026specialolympicsusagames.org (the “Site”).

This Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) explains our practices for handling the information we may receive about visitors to our Site, our athletes, supporters, and business partners, and others with whom we interact in providing access to and information about the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games.

Note, you may receive more specific notices regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information in connection with other, specific features or activities related to the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games. Those notices supplement this Policy and should be read carefully in connection with such features or activities.

Important Information About This Policy

While we always aim to provide complete and transparent information about how we process your personal information, we reserve the right to amend or update this Policy from time to time or to create additional policies in order to accurately reflect changed circumstances or new legal requirements. As a result, it is important that you read this Policy closely so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your personal information.

To assist us in ensuring that we can provide the most accurate information possible, we ask that you check this Policy for updates. We also ask that, where we have an ongoing relationship with you and any of the data you have provided becomes no longer accurate, you keep us informed of this so we can amend our records accordingly. By providing us with personal information or using our Site, you expressly consent to the information-handling practices described in this Policy. If you do not agree with this Policy, please do not use our Site or provide us with your information.

Information We Collect

A. Personal Information

For the purposes of this Policy, “personal information” is any information that identifies, relates to, or can be used to contact a particular individual. The types of personal information we receive include the following categories.

Individual contact information – first name, last name, personal email address, personal billing address, personal mailing address, and telephone number.
Business contact information – first name, last name, business email address, physical address of the business, billing address, tax ID, and business telephone number.
Donor information – if you choose to use the features on our Site that enable you to make a donation, we will collect your contact information, payment card details, and billing address. Note, we use a third-party service provider to process donations, including your payment card information, as described in more detail below.
Marketing information – details regarding informational and promotional materials you may have requested or received from us, the event details in which you are interested, your receipt of promotional communications, and information on your marketing or communication preferences.
Communication information – copies of communications and inquiries you have submitted to us, including through email, calls, direct messages, or comments on social media, our “Contact Us” or “Volunteer” forms, or other features available as part of our Site.
Device and usage information – details regarding how and when you use our Site, including the device used to connect to our Site, your IP address and device identifier, the frequency and duration of your usage, the pages you view, what websites or search terms referred you to our website, and information about your interaction with our Site.

We collect this information when you visit or navigate our Site, fill in forms as part of our Site, send us inquiries regarding our events, interact with the attendee and volunteer services features of our Site, such as a chatbot, make a donation, communicate with us (including by phone, email, or otherwise), or otherwise provide us with personal information.

Note that if you engage with us via a social media platform, such as Facebook, that those platforms operate separately from us and have their own information collection and use practices. Please review their privacy policies closely before submitting information via a social media platform.

Please note that we may aggregate or anonymize the foregoing types of information such that they are no longer capable of identifying you, in which case they are not considered “personal information.” We may also collect information about you from third-party sources and information about you that is publicly available.

B. Automatically Collected Usage and Device Information

Like most websites, our Site uses various technologies to automatically collect information about visitors. Those technologies include:

Cookies. Cookies are small text files that a website transfers to a visitor’s device for recordkeeping purposes. We use cookies to personalize visitors’ experiences on our website, provide content that we believe may be of interest, track visitor trends and patterns, engage in marketing and advertising, and otherwise analyze our Site traffic. For further information about cookies, including how to refuse cookies, please visitwww.allaboutcookies.org. Please note that if cookies are disabled, you may not be able to enjoy certain features of our Site.
Log Files and Device Identifiers. We use log files to track actions occurring on the Site and collect data about visitors, including IP address, browser type, Internet service provider, referring/exit pages, date/time stamps, and device identifiers.
Web beacons and other technologies. Our Site may use other tracking tools, including web beacons (also known as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs), which are small electronic images embedded in content and email messages that are not ordinarily visible to users. Web beacons allow us to track pages and content accessed and viewed by users, as well as to monitor email readership.
Analytics. Our Site may also use third-party analytics tools such as Google Analytics. You can find more information about how data is collected and processed in connection with the Google Analytics service here. You can also read Google’s privacy policy here.

The information collected through these technologies may be combined with personal information or aggregated with other information on Site visits. We may share information about your use of our Site with our advertising and analytics partners, who may combine it with other information that you previously provided to them.

C. Information from Other Sources

We may obtain both personal and non-personal information about you from our delegation representatives, other Special Olympics organizations, business partners, and other third parties and add it to other information we have collected. We, and the third parties we engage, may combine information we collect from you with information obtained from other sources. This helps us improve the information’s overall accuracy and completeness, and also helps us better tailor our interactions with you.

How We Use Personal Information

We (or service providers acting on our behalf) may use the personal information identified above for the following purposes:

Providing you information about our Site, the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games events and experiences, and facilitating your request for more information about certain opportunities and features of the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games.
Engage in fundraising, and plan future fundraising activities, events, and services.
Process donations and event registrations and issue tax receipts, including on behalf of local organizations.
Providing and optimizing your experience as part of our Site and ensuring that we present our content to you in the most effective manner.
Communicating with you and responding to your inquiries and communicating regarding our Site and other technical or customer service issues.
Sending you promotional or informational communications and materials, tracking your marketing preferences, and for our internal marketing purposes.
Developing, updating, and improving our Site, attendee, volunteer, athlete, and visitor experiences, and otherwise improving our knowledge and insights regarding visitors to our Site.
Preventing and detecting fraud, financial crime, hacking activities, security breaches, and other unlawful activities in connection with the Site.
Enforcing our agreements with our business partners, partner organizations and others, complying with our legal or regulatory obligations, and defending or advancing legal claims.
Notifying you about changes to our Site or material changes to this Policy.
Providing you with surveys or otherwise soliciting feedback from you.
Performing other functions as otherwise described to you at the time of collection or to which you otherwise consent.

For more information about your options relating to your personal information and your communication preferences, see “Your Choices About Personal Information” below.

Our Marketing Efforts

We may send you direct marketing communications from time to time, including news, updates, offers, and other promotions relating to the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games. We will only send marketing messages where the law allows us to do so and, in the event that you no longer wish to receive marketing from us, then you can always unsubscribe using the option provided in the footer of the communication you have received or by contacting us using the information below.

Disclosure of Personal Information

When the information we collect about you is aggregated, anonymized, or otherwise does not identify you, we may use that information for any purpose or disclose it to third parties, to the extent permitted by applicable law.

In addition, we may share your information with the following types of third parties:

Other users of our Site, such as our delegation representatives, partner organizations, and other Special Olympics organizations.
Service providers we use to facilitate our business operations and administration. These third parties have access to your personal information only to perform specific tasks on our behalf. For example, our service providers include (i) our payment processors, (ii) IT and system administration providers that host our Site, (iii) data storage providers, and (iv) vendors to assist with IT support for our services or customer service issues.
If you are a donor, we may share your information with other Special Olympics organizations, including Special Olympics Minnesota. We do not sell our donor list to other organizations.
Marketing and advertising vendors that may assist with hosting information, marketing automation, advertisement placement and targeting, and marketing campaigns and communications.
Analytics vendors in order to understand our Site traffic and usage patterns and optimize our Site experience.
Regulatory and governmental authorities, law enforcement agencies, and courts, as necessary to comply with applicable laws and regulations, respond to a subpoena, search warrant, or other lawful request for information, or to otherwise protect our rights.
Buyers or other successors prior to or in the event of a merger, acquisition, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as a part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, where the information is among the assets transferred.
Other parties for any purpose we disclose at the time you provide the information.

Your Choices About Personal Information

We respect your right to make choices about the ways we collect, use, and disclose your information. We try to offer you meaningful choices regarding your personal information. Some choices you have regarding personal information include the following.

Marketing Emails – As required by applicable laws, you can opt-out of receiving promotional emails from us by clicking the “opt out,” “unsubscribe,” or similar link in any such promotional emails and following the instructions provided.
Cookies – Depending on your browser or device, you may have the option to set the browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies, notify you when a cookie is set, or delete cookies. Each browser and device are different, so we recommend you evaluate the tools and settings available in your browser or device, as well as any available instructions for the same. You can learn more about disabling cookies here.
Google Analytics – We may use Google Analytics in connection with the Site. If you would like to refrain from having your data collected by Google Analytics, Google has developed an opt-out browser that you can use. You can find more information on how Google uses the information it collects here.
Declining to Provide Information – You can choose not to provide us with information we may request through our Site, but that may result in you being unable to use certain features of our Site, request information about our services, or initiate other transactions with us.
Do Not Track Mechanisms – Please note that our Site does not honor “Do Not Track” signals, and such signals will not impact the operation of this Site.

In addition to the above, you may contact us using the details provided at the end of this Policy with any questions about the choices relating to your personal information.

Links to Third-Party Websites

Our Site may contain links to third-party websites. Such websites have separate privacy policies that you should review. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for the content of linked websites or those companies’ data-handling practices.

Children’s Privacy

Our Site is available to a general audience and is not directed at, or intended for use by, children under the age of 13 years. Accordingly, we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under age 13. Should we discover that a child under the appropriate age provided his or her personal information, we will use that information only to respond to that child and inform him or her that we must have parental consent before receiving such information.

Security of Personal Information

We use appropriate administrative, technical, and physical measures to protect your personal information from loss, theft, and unauthorized use, disclosure, or modification. Please be aware that no data transmission over the Internet is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot ensure or warranty the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk.

Location of Organization and Processing

The 2026 Special Olympics USA Games is headquartered in the United States and, as such, the personal information that you provide to us or that we collect may be transferred to, processed, or stored in the United States. By accessing and using the Site and otherwise providing us information, you consent to transfer, processing, and storage of your personal information in the United States.

Changes to this Policy

Please note that we may change this Policy from time to time. If there are changes to our Policy, we will post them here and update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this document. Continued use of the Site after any changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes. Accordingly, we encourage you to check the Policy periodically for updates.

How to Contact Us

For questions or more information about our privacy practices, please contact us by e-mail at info@2026usagames.org or by using the contact information provided below:

2026 Special Olympics USA Games
c/o Lonnie Snyder
900 2nd Avenue South
Suite 300
Minneapolis, MN 55402