Privacy Statement
Last Updated: September 24, 2026
Vital City Fund (“Vital City”), a fiscally sponsored project of the Fund for the City of New York (“Vital City,” “we,” “our,” and “us”), is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Statement (“Statement”) describes the information we collect through our website (“Site”), how we use and share it, and how you can make choices about our use of the information. The Vital City app for iPhone is covered in its own section below.
By using our Site, you consent to this Statement. We may amend this Statement from time to time, so please review it regularly. By using our Site after we post an updated Statement (or we have given you other notice we may determine appropriate), you agree to the updated Statement.
Information We Collect
Information You Provide to Us
You can browse our Site without submitting any personally-identifiable information (“Personal Information”). We may collect Personal Information, such as your name, email address, and other information, when you voluntarily provide it to us. Below are the most common ways in which you may choose to provide your Personal Information:
• When you sign up to receive emails, newsletters, and other communications from us
• When you contact us to request information or assistance
Cookies; Google Analytics
Like many websites, our Site uses the Google Analytics web analytics service provided by Google, Inc., which is located at 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043-1351, USA. Google Analytics uses tracking technologies, including cookies (which are small text files placed on your computer) to collect information to help analyze how visitors use our Site so that we can optimize our Site and give you a better experience. The information (which may include IP address, browser type, time and date of visit, referring website, landing page, search terms, search results, web pages viewed, time spent on a web page, and links clicked) is transmitted to and stored by Google. For information on how Google uses data from sites that share information with Google, see: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/ (or other relevant URL that Google may provide from time to time). You can prevent the use of Google Analytics relating to your use of our Site by downloading and installing the browser plugin available at this link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.
We do not use information automatically collected by the Site to identify visitors individually but we reserve the right to do so in circumstances where we may deem it necessary in connection with legal process or to protect our rights or the rights of a third party as further described below.
How We Use Your Information
We or our service providers (“Service Providers”) may use your Personal Information for the following purposes:
• To send emails, newsletters, and other communications you requested from us; we may use Mailchimp to manage emails, and you can review their privacy policy concerning their use of user data at: https://mailchimp.com/legal/ (or other relevant URL that Mailchimp may provide from time to time)
• To respond to your inquiries and communicate with you concerning events and activities
• To notify you about substantive changes to our privacy practices
• To detect, investigate, and protect against any activities that may violate our policies or the law and to establish, defend against, or enforce any related claims
How We Share Your Information
We do not rent or sell your Personal Information to any third parties.
We may share your Personal Information with our Service Providers that help us operate and provide services in connection with the Site.
We also reserve the right to disclose and use Personal Information and other information in special circumstances, including to enforce this Statement or any other part of our Terms, to comply with legal process or law enforcement, to address actual or suspected illegal activity, to protect our property or rights, to protect the rights and safety of anyone, or for other reasons we determine in good faith are necessary, appropriate, or required by law. If we ever merge with, are acquired by, otherwise consolidate with another organization, or enter into a related transaction, Personal Information may be transferred along with our other assets.
Third-Party Web Sites
Our Site may contain links to websites controlled by third parties, including social media platforms (“Third-Party Sites”). We are not responsible for Third-Party Sites or their content, activities or privacy practices. Any information you share or actions you take on Third-Party Sites are governed by their respective terms of use and privacy policies, which you should review carefully to learn about their practices. By including links, we do not endorse or make any representation or warranty about the Third-Party Sites, their content, or any associated organization or activity.
Security
We use commercially reasonable efforts to safeguard your Personal Information, including such measures as encryption during transmission. Of course, no transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so you provide your Personal Information at your own risk.
Location of Servers and Transfer of Information
By using our Site and providing your Personal Information to us, you consent to the transfer, collection, storage, processing and use of your Personal Information both within and outside of the United States.
Unsubscribe; Your Choices Regarding Our Use of Your Personal Information
If you wish to stop receiving our newsletter or other communications, the most direct way is the unsubscribe link at the foot of any email we send, which takes effect immediately. You may also review, update or correct your Personal Information, or communicate your preferences, by emailing info@vitalcitynyc.org.
Deleting your account
You may delete your Vital City account at any time and for any reason. Deleting your account removes your name, your email address, your subscription and email preferences, and your membership record from our systems, including from Mailchimp, the service we use to send email.
In the Vital City app for iPhone, sign in, open the account screen or the About page and choose Delete account. The account is deleted right away and the app signs you out. To confirm the request is yours, the app sends a short-lived token that vitalcitynyc.org issues to signed-in members to our account-deletion service, which runs on Cloudflare; the service checks the token and then deletes the account.
Or email info@vitalcitynyc.org from the address associated with the account, with the subject line "Delete my account." We use the address you write from to verify that the request is yours. We will complete your request within 30 days and reply to confirm when it is done.
Deletion is permanent. You are welcome to subscribe again afterward, but we cannot restore a record once it has been deleted.
The Vital City app
This section covers the Vital City app for iPhone; everything above applies to it as well. The app exists to let you read Vital City. It contains no advertising, tracking or third-party analytics software, it does not use your device's advertising identifier and it does not track you across other companies' apps or websites. It does not collect your location, contacts, calendar or anything else from your phone beyond what is described here.
Reading. You can read everything in the app without an account. To do that, the app fetches articles, images, issues and podcast episodes from vitalcitynyc.org and from Ghost, the platform Vital City publishes on, plus a small configuration file and a weekly list of archive photographs that Vital City publishes on GitHub Pages. Like any web request, these reveal your device's IP address and basic device information. We do not use that to identify you.
Signing in. Members sign in inside the app with the same emailed code or link the website uses. The app then keeps your session, your name, your email address and your membership status on your phone so you stay signed in and can read members-only pieces. That information is sent only to vitalcitynyc.org, to confirm who you are, except when you delete your account as described above. Signing out removes the saved session. iOS can keep an app's saved sign-in after the app itself is deleted, so sign out before deleting the app if you want nothing left on your phone.
Counting what is read. Like the website, the app counts what is read, so we know which pieces find an audience. A count is sent when the app opens, when you open a piece and when you move between the app's main sections. It records the piece or screen, that it came from the app, your language setting and whether you are signed in. It does not record what you scroll past, how long you stay or anything you type. Counts go to Vital City's own analytics on vitalcitynyc.org, where a signed-in member's count carries their membership id, as it does on the website, and to Google Analytics, identified only by a random number the app creates on your phone the first time it opens. That number is not the advertising identifier or your device's id, and deleting the app deletes it. Google works out a rough location from the connection, as with any web request; the app itself neither asks for nor keeps your location. Your name and email address are never sent to Google, and the app tells Google the counts are not for advertising personalization.
Website pages in the app. Signing in, signing up, reading a members-only piece and opening one of the data tools show pages from vitalcitynyc.org inside the app, and those pages run the same measurement the website runs in any browser. Donating opens the website in Safari, outside the app. The app never sees payment information.
Kept on your phone. Articles you save, your alert settings, which alerts you have seen and a search index stay on your phone and are deleted with the app. Alerts are checked on the phone itself: the app looks at vitalcitynyc.org for new pieces from time to time, and no notification token or record of what you were shown is sent to us or anyone else.
Photos. If you send Vital City a photograph for Oh snap!, the app opens an email to ohsnap@vitalcitynyc.org with the photo attached or, if Mail is not set up, your phone's share sheet with that address copied for you. You decide whether to send it; the app uploads nothing itself. The camera is used only when you tap to take a photo, and a photo from your library is read only when you choose it.
Other services. Some content comes from third parties, as it does on the website, including podcast audio from Simplecast, video from YouTube (Google's privacy policy applies to its player), interactive charts from Flourish and historical photographs from the Library of Congress and Wikimedia Commons. Each sees the network request needed to deliver its content and nothing else about you.
Do Not Track (DNT) Requests
Some browsers have incorporated Do Not Track (“DNT”) preferences. As there is not yet an industry-standard DNT protocol on how to interpret DNT signals, we do not honor DNT signals from browsers at this time. However, you may refuse or delete cookies to prevent some tracking activities.
Children
Our Site is directed at an adult audience and we do not knowingly collect information from children under age 13. If you are a parent or guardian and discover that your child under age 13 may have provided personal information to our Site, please contact us at: info@vitalcitynyc.org.
Contact Us
For any questions you may have about this Privacy Statement or our data practices please contact us at info@vitalcitynyc.org.