The short version: we only use your information to send you the things you’ve asked for, to process your donation or membership, and to reply to you. We don’t sell it, and we only send you our newsletter if you’ve signed up for it.
Last updated: 7 November 2026
Who we are
Push the Boat Out is Edinburgh’s international poetry festival. It is run by Push the Boat Out Arts SCIO, a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (charity number SC052742), registered with OSCR. Our registered address is c/o EQ Accountants, 41 Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, EH2 4HQ. In this policy, “we”, “us” and “Push the Boat Out” mean the same thing.
We’re registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). We follow UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018).
If you have any questions about your data, email [email protected].
What we collect and why
Newsletter sign-ups
Your email address, used only to send you our newsletter. We do this with your consent.
Messages you send us
Your name, email address and message, through our website or by email, used to reply to you. This is in our legitimate interests.
Donations and Friends memberships
Your name, email address, postal address, the amount, and your Gift Aid declaration if you make one. We use these to take your payment, manage your membership, thank you, and claim Gift Aid. This is to fulfil our agreement with you, and to meet our legal obligations for Gift Aid.
Card details are entered directly with our payment provider, Stripe. We never see or store your full card number.
Applications
If you apply to volunteer, for an opportunity or for artist development, we receive the details you enter in the application form. We use them to consider your application and keep in touch about it. This is in our legitimate interests.
Visiting our website
Technical details such as your IP address and browser type, used to keep the site secure. If you accept analytics cookies, we also see which pages are visited, so we can understand how the site is used.
We don’t sell or rent your information, and we don’t make automated decisions about you.
Our newsletter
We only add your email address to our mailing list if you ask us to, using a sign-up form or by ticking the newsletter box on another form. We use it only to send our newsletter about the festival, events and ways to get involved. We never share it with other organisations for their marketing.
Our newsletter is sent using MailerLite. MailerLite stores your email address for us and tells us whether emails were delivered and opened, so we can improve them.
You can unsubscribe at any time with the link at the bottom of every newsletter, or by emailing [email protected]. Once you unsubscribe, we stop emailing you straight away.
Tickets
All our tickets are sold through Citizen Ticket. When you book, you give your details and payment to Citizen Ticket, under their own terms and privacy policy. We never see your card details.
Citizen Ticket Ltd is based at 25 Greenside Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3AA. For questions about a booking, contact them at [email protected].
Cookies and website tools
Our website uses a few essential cookies and similar browser storage to work properly, keep our forms free of spam, and remember your cookie choices. Analytics cookies (Google Analytics) are only set if you accept them in the cookie banner. You can change your choice at any time from the cookie banner’s settings.
To stop spam and bots, our forms use Cloudflare Turnstile (a “verify you’re human” check) and CleanTalk. These look at technical signals such as your IP address and how the page is used. They don’t build a profile of you or track you across other websites.
Our fonts are hosted on our own website, so your browser doesn’t contact Google Fonts when you visit.
The full list of cookies is in our cookie policy.
Who else sees it
We use a small number of trusted services to run the festival. They only use your information to provide their service to us:
- MailerLite, to send our newsletter.
- Stripe, to take donation and membership payments.
- Citizen Ticket, to sell tickets.
- Google, for application forms (Google Forms) and, if you accept analytics cookies, Google Analytics.
- Cloudflare and CleanTalk, to protect our website and forms from spam and attacks.
- Our website host and web developer, who keep the website running.
- HMRC, when we claim Gift Aid on your donation.
We’ll also share information if the law requires us to, for example with our independent examiner or auditor.
Some of these providers may store data outside the UK. When they do, they use the safeguards UK law requires, such as approved contract terms.
How long we keep it
- Newsletter: until you unsubscribe.
- Messages you send us: up to 12 months after we’ve finished helping you, then deleted.
- Donations, memberships and Gift Aid declarations: 6 years after the end of the financial year they relate to, as HMRC and charity law require.
- Applications: up to 12 months after the festival or opportunity they relate to.
- Ticket bookings: up to 2 years after the event.
Keeping it safe
We use secure, reputable services and strong passwords, and only the people who need your information can see it. No system is perfect, but if something ever went wrong that affected you, we’d tell you and the ICO where the law requires it.
Your rights
You can ask us to:
- tell you what information we hold about you and send you a copy
- correct anything that’s wrong
- delete your information (unless we have to keep it, for example Gift Aid records)
- stop or limit how we use it, or object to it being used
- send your information to you or someone else in a usable format
- withdraw any consent you’ve given, including unsubscribing from our newsletter
Just email [email protected]. It’s free, and we’ll reply within one month.
If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, please talk to us first. You also have the right to complain to the ICO at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this policy
If anything changes, we’ll update this page and the date at the top.