Straight talk about data.

Last updated October 9, 2026

Most privacy policies are written to be survived, not read. This one is written to be read. It explains what BuildLeverage.org does with information, who owns it, and what you can do about it. BuildLeverage.org is operated by Build Leverage LLC (“we”, “us”).

The short version

We are not an advertising company. We do not run ads, and we do not sell or rent personal information to anyone.
The organizations that use BuildLeverage.org own their supporter data. It is their list, and we hold it for them.
We hold one thing of our own: the connections people make when one person moves another to take action. We use it only to credit that work and to let those two people invite each other, and only in the ways described below.
You can always stop hearing from a person, or from everyone, in one click.

Who’s who

Organizations are our customers: advocacy groups that use BuildLeverage.org to run petitions, calls, events, fundraisers, email and text messaging. Supporters are the people who take action through an organization. When you act through an organization, that organization decides how to follow up with you, and we process your information on its behalf and on its instructions.

Two kinds of data, two owners

Supporter data belongs to the organization

What you give an organization when you act with it (your name, email, phone number, address or ZIP code, and the actions you take) belongs to that organization. We store and process it for them. We do not give it to any other organization on the platform, and if the organization leaves BuildLeverage.org, it goes with them.

Connections are held by BuildLeverage.org

When you take an action because of another person (you opened their personal link and then signed, called, registered or gave), we record that they brought you. That record is a connection, and it is held by BuildLeverage.org rather than by any one organization, because it describes something between two people, not something between you and an organization.

A connection is created only when someone takes an action. Opening or clicking a link is not enough.

How connections are used

Credit. The person who shared the link sees how many people acted because of them. They do not see who you are, your email, or your phone number.
Invitations between the two of you. We may let the person who brought you invite you to other actions like this one. Before that can happen, we show you who brought you and a switch to allow it, which starts on. You can turn it off right there, or later from any invitation.
Invitations go out from an organization, not from us. An invitation is sent by email by the organization running the action you are invited to. The person who invited you never receives your email address or phone number.
That organization does not get you. Receiving an invitation does not add you to that organization’s list. It can only contact you further if you take one of its actions.
Limits. One person can invite another only occasionally, and every invitation carries two links: stop invitations from this person, and stop all invitations. Both work everywhere on BuildLeverage.org.
Email only. We do not send invitations by text message.
Never for anything else. We do not sell connections, rent them, use them for advertising, or give them to organizations as a list.

If you share a link: your name and photo

If we show people who acted through your link who brought them, we show only the name and photo you choose, and you can use your initials instead of a photo. You can change or remove either at any time.

What we collect

From organizations: account details for the people who use BuildLeverage.org, and the content they create (their pages, messages and campaigns).
From supporters, for the organization: what you enter when you act (typically name, email, address or ZIP code, and sometimes phone number), and a record of the actions you take and the messages you receive, open or click.
Connections: who brought whom, which action it happened on, and the invitation settings described above.
Payments: handled by our payment processor. We do not store card numbers.
Page visits: see “Cookies and page visits” below.
Technical logs: the ordinary logs any secure service keeps to prevent abuse and keep the service running.

Voter and district data

To show a decision-maker the people who live in their district, we match supporters against public voter-file and district data. That data is licensed or public, and it can include people who have never used BuildLeverage.org. We use it to match, count and group an organization’s own supporters, never to contact anyone who has not chosen to hear from that organization, and it is not used to decide anyone’s eligibility for credit, employment, insurance or housing. What we produce from it is a well-built estimate, not a certified public record. A voter record shows whether and when someone voted, never whom they voted for.

Donation and political contribution records

Money you give to an organization through BuildLeverage.org is recorded for that organization. Separately, public records of contributions to federal campaigns (from the Federal Election Commission) may be matched to supporters. We keep these apart and never add them together: a gift to an organization and a contribution to a campaign are different facts from different sources.

Cookies and page visits

We use cookies that keep people signed in and the service secure. On organizations’ public pages, we count visits so an organization can see its traffic: which pages are read, for how long, and how many visits came through supporters’ share links. To count different visitors without knowing who they are, we set a random identifier in a first-party cookie that lasts about thirteen months. Our visit counter does not store IP addresses, device details or who you are. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies, and no advertising pixel runs on our pages.

If someone invited you

If a supporter entered your email address to invite you to an action, that address is held by BuildLeverage.org, not by any organization, until you take an action yourself. We use it only to deliver the invitation that person asked us to send, and to remember if you ask not to be invited again. We do not use it to contact you on our own behalf, and we do not give it to, or let it be used by, any organization, including the one whose action you were invited to. You join an organization’s list only if you take its action; from then on, what you give it is its supporter data like anyone else’s. You can stop invitations from that person, or from everyone, using the links in the invitation, or write to us and we will delete your address, keeping only what we need to make sure you are not invited again. We count opens and clicks on invitations only as totals; they are never tied to your address.

If you are a journalist

BuildLeverage.org keeps a list of journalists built from the public pages of news outlets: names, outlets, the subjects people cover, and work email addresses: ones those outlets publish, and ones that follow the address pattern an outlet uses for its own staff. We do not buy it from a contact database. Organizations using BuildLeverage.org can send a press release or a pitch to reporters on it. That email comes from the organization, which is responsible for what it says. We never sell or hand over the list or its addresses. If you reply to a pitch, the organization gets your reply like any email. Every email has an unsubscribe link that stops that organization’s pitches; the organization sees your name and outlet, so it knows we stopped them. We count opens and clicks to show organizations totals, never who opened or clicked. To be removed from the list entirely, write to privacy@buildleverage.org.

AI features

Some features use AI services to help organizations write, summarize or analyze their own material. When they do, we send the service only what that feature needs, for that request.

Service providers

We use service providers to run BuildLeverage.org: hosting, databases, email delivery, text message delivery, payment processing, security and AI features. They receive only what they need to do their part, and only to do it for us.

What we do not do

We do not sell, rent or trade personal information, and we do not “sell” or “share” it as California law defines those words.
We do not share supporter data between organizations.
We do not share mobile numbers or text-message consent with anyone for their own marketing.
We do not edit an organization’s words. What an organization writes is what is sent.

Text messages

When an organization asks for permission to text you, the box is shown already ticked and you can untick it. It is never required to take the action, and the exact wording you agreed to is stored with your record. Messages come from the organization whose action you took. Reply STOP to stop, or HELP for help; opting out takes effect immediately. Message frequency varies, and message and data rates may apply. We keep the number and consent record while the organization uses the service, and we keep a record of an opt-out permanently so you are never messaged again by mistake.

Your choices and rights

Stop invitations from one person, or from everyone, using the links in any invitation.
Stop email or texts from an organization using its unsubscribe link or by replying STOP.
Ask for access or deletion. For supporter data, the organization decides, and we will pass your request to them and help them fulfill it. For connections, write to us and we will show you, or delete, the connections involving you.
Ask us to stop using voter-file data about you. Write to us and we will stop using licensed data about you within five business days of confirming the request.
Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under state privacy law. We will honor them as the law requires.

Retention and deletion

We keep information for as long as it is needed to provide the service and to meet legal, security and operational needs. Organizations can export their data and ask for it to be deleted. Opt-outs and refusals are kept permanently, because deleting them is how somebody who said stop gets contacted again.

Security

We protect information with measures appropriate to what it is, including encryption in transit and access controls. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your information, we will notify the affected organization and, where the law requires, you.

Children

BuildLeverage.org is not for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information.

Where we operate

BuildLeverage.org operates in the United States, and information is stored and processed there.

Legal requests

If we receive a valid legal request for information, we respond as the law requires. Where we are allowed to and it is appropriate, we tell the affected organization first.

Changes

When we change this policy we will update the date at the top, and for material changes we will give notice before they take effect. Connections are only ever used under the policy in force when they were made, or a later one that gives you more control, never less.

Contact

Questions or requests: privacy@buildleverage.org