Privacy

Privacy Notice

Future for Water is a registered charity number 1212554. We run The River Summit & Festival and the Future for Water Impact Awards, and we are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (registration number ZC110008). This notice explains what information we collect, why we collect it and what we do with it. It applies to theriversummit.com and to everything you do with us, in person, by email or online.

If you have any questions, email claire@futureforwater.org.

Last updated 5 October 2026.

What we collect and why

The law says we must have a lawful reason, known as a legal basis, for everything we do with your information. Here is what we collect for each activity, why, and the legal basis we rely on.

  • Tickets and events. Your name, email address and booking details, so we can run the event you have booked. Legal basis: to fulfil your booking contract.

  • Access and dietary needs. Anything you tell us so we can meet your needs at an event. Because this can include information about your health, we only collect it with your explicit consent, use it only for that event and delete it within one month afterwards.

  • Mailing list. Your name and email address, so we can send you our newsletter and news about our work. Legal basis: your consent. Every email has an unsubscribe link and we act on it straight away.

  • Future for Water Impact Awards. Your contact details, your organisation and partners, and the information in your entry, so we can run the Awards. Our judges will read your entry. If you are shortlisted or win, we may publish your name, organisation, partners and a summary of your project, and we will ask your permission before we do. Legal basis: legitimate interest and consent.

  • Donations and entry fees. A record of the payment and who made it, so we can keep accurate accounts. Legal basis: legal obligation.

  • Volunteers. Your contact details and the details of an emergency contact, so we can organise volunteering and act quickly in an emergency. Please let your emergency contact know you have given us their details. Legal basis: consent.

  • Speakers, partners, sponsors and Testing the Waters Consortium members. Your professional contact details, so we can work together. Legal basis: consent.

  • Our website. When you use a form on our website, we receive the information you enter. Our website also uses cookies, small files that help the site work and show us how it is used. Essential cookies keep the site working; any others are used only with your consent. You can also control cookies through your browser settings.

  • Records. Health and safety incident records and safeguarding concern records are kept to support timely responses, investigations and compliance checks, maintain up-to-date risk assessments, track actions, and provide evidence of learning and safeguarding decisions. 

Payments

Tickets, donations and entry fees are paid through third-party platforms. We never see or hold your card details.

Photographs and filming

We take photographs and film at our events and publish some of them to share our work. We tell you on the day and you can opt out. If you want a published image taken down, ask us and we will remove it from our own channels, though we cannot recall copies others have already shared. We will not publish images in which a child is identifiable without permission from a parent or guardian. Legal basis: legitimate interests.

Who else sees your information

We share your information only where we need to, and only what is needed:

  • Our suppliers, who help us run our work: our website host (Squarespace), our ticketing platform (Ticket Taylor), our email newsletter provider (Mailchimp) and our payment platform (Squarespace). They act only on our instructions, under a written agreement.

  • Our Awards judges, who read Awards entries.

  • Anyone we are required to share with by law.

We never sell your information or share it with anyone for their own marketing.

Some of our suppliers are based outside the UK, including in the United States. When your information is transferred outside the UK, we make sure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as data transfer agreements approved under UK law. 

How long we keep it

  • Mailing list: until you unsubscribe.

  • Event bookings: 12 months after the event.

  • Awards entries: two years after the Awards close. We keep the names and summaries of shortlisted and winning projects as a record of the Awards.

  • Volunteer records: 12 months after you last volunteered with us.

  • Professional contacts: while we are working together. We review them every two years.

  • Financial records: six years plus the current year, as the law requires.

  • Health and safety records: 3 years

  • Safeguarding records: for as long as we need them to protect the person, support accountability and meet legal obligations.

Automated decisions

We do not make decisions about you using automated systems, and we do not use your information for profiling.

Your rights

You have the right to:

  • ask for a copy of the information we hold about you

  • ask us to correct anything that is wrong

  • ask us to delete your information

  • ask us to limit how we use it

  • object to how we use it, including stopping marketing emails at any time

  • ask for your information in a format you can take elsewhere

  • withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on it

Some of these rights apply only in certain circumstances. To use any of them, email claire@theriversummitandfestival.com. We will reply within one month and there is no charge.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this notice

If we make a significant change, we will publish the latest version here and change the date at the top.