Privacy Policy
StewardDesk ("we," "our," or "us") is a free tool built to help volunteer church treasurers and assistants manage their church's finances. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and how we protect it. We will never sell your data.
1. Information We Collect
We collect only what we need to provide the service:
- Account information — your username, email address, and hashed password when you register. We also store your assigned role (e.g., Admin or User) and the organization you belong to.
- Organization information — the name and basic details of your church or organization, provided during account setup.
- Congregation member records — names, email addresses, and other profile fields (such as gender, marital status, and member status) for the individuals your team enters into StewardDesk to track giving. This data belongs to your organization and is entered by your authorized users.
- Financial records — offering counts, contribution amounts and dates, physical cash and check count records, and any notes your team enters.
- Bank transaction data — if you connect a bank account via Plaid, transaction data (amounts, dates, merchant names) is transmitted to us by Plaid and stored within your organization's account. We do not store your bank login credentials.
- Giving platform import data — if you connect Zeffy, donor names, email addresses, donation amounts, payment types, campaign details, and related giving records are imported and stored within your organization's account.
- Contact form submissions — if you contact us through the in-app contact form, we collect your message and email address to respond to your inquiry.
- Usage and technical data — basic information such as browser type, IP address, and session activity, used solely to keep the service running and secure.
2. How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect to:
- Provide, operate, and improve StewardDesk
- Authenticate users and enforce role-based access controls within each organization
- Sync bank transactions and giving data on your behalf
- Send account-related emails (e.g., user invitations, password resets)
- Respond to support requests submitted through the contact form or by email
We do not use your data for advertising, profiling, or any purpose unrelated to operating the service.
3. Role-Based Access Within Your Organization
StewardDesk uses role-based access control. Within each organization, an OrgAdmin can manage users, configure integrations, and access all records. OrgUsers have access to contribution and operational data but cannot manage other users or integration settings. Only users belonging to your organization can access your organization's data.
4. Bank Connectivity via Plaid
StewardDesk uses Plaid to connect to financial institutions. When an organization administrator initiates a bank connection, they interact directly with Plaid's secure interface. Plaid's handling of your financial data is governed by the Plaid End User Privacy Policy. We encourage you to review it before connecting a bank account.
What we import. The bank connection is read-only — StewardDesk can never initiate transfers or move money. We import only inbound transactions (deposits and credits) from the following categories: peer-to-peer transfers (Zelle, Venmo, Cash App), cash and check deposits, ACH and direct deposits, and certain income credits. Outgoing payments, bills, purchases, and transactions in unrelated categories are automatically filtered out and never stored.
Purpose. Imported deposits are held in a staging area for review by your team. Users can then match each deposit to a member and giving category to create a contribution record. Your bank login credentials are never stored by StewardDesk.
Bank connections in StewardDesk are organization-level — one connection serves all users within your organization. The connection persists until an administrator explicitly disconnects it through the Integrations settings page. You may also manage your Plaid data directly at my.plaid.com.
5. Giving Platform Integrations (Zeffy)
StewardDesk supports importing giving records from Zeffy. When this integration is enabled by your organization's administrator and an import is performed, donor information (name, email address), giving amounts, payment method types, and campaign details are fetched via the Zeffy API and stored within your organization's account. This data is governed by this Privacy Policy. The data practices of Zeffy are governed by Zeffy's own privacy policy.
6. Cookies and Sessions
StewardDesk uses a single authentication cookie to maintain your login session. Sessions expire 12 hours after you sign in and do not use sliding expiration — you will be required to sign in again after that period. We do not use tracking cookies, advertising cookies, or third-party analytics cookies.
7. Data Storage and Security
Your data is stored in Microsoft Azure (Azure SQL Database and Azure App Service) in the United States. We use industry-standard security practices including:
- Encryption in transit (TLS) for all data transmitted to and from the service
- Encryption at rest for database storage via Azure SQL's built-in transparent data encryption
- Mandatory two-factor authentication (TOTP) — all accounts are required to enroll on first login and cannot access the application until setup is complete
- Role-based access control limiting what each user can see and do within an organization
- Strict tenant isolation — each organization's data is filtered at the database level by a site identifier
No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security, but we take your data seriously and maintain appropriate safeguards.
8. Data Sharing
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We may share data only in the following limited circumstances:
- Hosting and infrastructure — Microsoft Azure processes and stores data on our behalf as our cloud infrastructure provider.
- Transactional email — Azure Communication Services is used to send user invitation and password reset emails on our behalf.
- Third-party integrations — Data is shared with Plaid or Zeffy only as directed by your organization's administrator to enable the integrations you have chosen to activate.
- Platform operators — Our platform operators (SuperAdmins) may access organizational data for the purpose of technical support, maintenance, or resolving reported issues. This access is used only as necessary and is not for commercial purposes.
- Legal requirements — We may disclose information if required by law, court order, or to protect the rights and safety of our users or others.
9. Multi-Organization Isolation
StewardDesk is a multi-tenant platform. Each organization's data is stored with a unique site identifier and is accessible only to users within that organization. Database-level query filters enforce this separation — users from one organization cannot access another organization's data.
10. Data Retention
We retain your account and organization data for as long as your account is active. If you request account deletion, we will remove your personal information and organization data within a reasonable timeframe, except where retention is required by law or to resolve pending disputes.
Congregation member records entered by your team are retained as long as your organization's account remains active. Your organization's administrator may delete individual member records at any time from within the application.
11. Your Rights
You have the right to:
- Access the personal information we hold about you
- Request correction of inaccurate information (you can update your email and password directly within the app)
- Request deletion of your account and associated data
- Disconnect a bank account connection at any time (organization administrators can do this from the Integrations settings page, or directly via my.plaid.com)
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at hello@stewarddesk.com.
12. Children's Privacy
StewardDesk is not directed at children under the age of 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it.
13. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page and, for significant changes, notify users by email. Continued use of StewardDesk after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
14. Contact
Questions about this Privacy Policy? Reach us at hello@stewarddesk.com or through the contact form.