How HopeMatch handles your information

About this page

This page is a plain-language guide to how HopeMatch Discover handles information today. It is not the full privacy policy — that policy, along with details about the organization that operates HopeMatch, still needs to be approved and published.

The operator's legal name, contact details and location, and how long submitted information is kept, have not been finalized. They will be added here once they are confirmed.

Searching and browsing

You can search the directory and use Guided Help without an account. Directory searches and service lookups request public listing information from HopeMatch; like any website, the service technically receives those requests.

The words you search for and the filters you pick appear in the page's web address, so they can show up in your browser history or in a link you copy and share.

Guided Help answers are different: they stay in the page's memory only — they are not saved to an account and are gone when you leave the page.

What stays in your browser

Saved resources: your list is kept in the page's memory first and is lost when you refresh or close the page, unless you tick “Remember my saved list on this browser.” Remembering stores only service IDs on this device — never your answers — and there is no account sync. Anyone else using this browser can see a remembered list. Switching Remember off keeps your current-session list; if removal from this browser fails, the page warns you and you should retry removing it. Clear all empties the list.

Service inquiry drafts: a draft you prepare on a service page is held in memory only. HopeMatch does not submit or send it — “Copy my draft” only puts the text you reviewed onto your clipboard, and sending it is up to you. Clearing the draft or leaving the page cannot erase text you already copied, or copies you or anyone else saved or sent elsewhere.

Service preparation checklists: “I have this ready” marks on a service page are held in the page's memory only. They are never saved to an account or this browser, never sent to the provider or HopeMatch, and clear when you close the checklist, refresh the service details, or leave the page. They are separate from inquiry drafts and are not an application or eligibility check.

Request help (Universal Intake) automatically tries to save its draft in this browser. Look for “Saved on this device”; if browser storage is unavailable, your progress may not be kept. Take care on a shared device and use Clear draft to remove a saved browser draft. This draft is separate from your saved resources list.

Shared saved-list links show only the chosen public services, and nothing is saved automatically for the person who opens the link. Anyone who has the link can view those services, which may reveal what you were looking at — and clearing your own list does not erase copies others have already opened, saved or printed.

What is sent when you choose to submit

Request help: when you press Submit, your answers are stored so that HopeMatch intake staff — people explicitly granted intake access — can read them. Submitting does not guarantee that someone will review, respond or provide services. Clearing the browser draft afterwards does not delete a request you already submitted.

Report a problem: reports about listings are stored for HopeMatch resource reviewers, and the service processes technical information to help prevent abuse. Reports are checked before anything in the directory changes, but no updates or replies about reports are sent. Please don't include private details about yourself or anyone else in a listing report.

Provider information

When a provider proposes a new service, location or edit, the proposal is reviewed before it becomes public. New services start as private drafts and are not listed until a reviewer publishes them.

Private receiving-contact requests are different: they are never published on the directory. Full contact details are available only to authorized resource reviewers; the provider tools show masked contact details.

Claiming a listing requires reviewer approval. Reviewers also control whether inquiries are enabled for a service; eligible owners and admins can pause them. Notification preferences and contact details never turn on delivery by themselves.

Accounts and sign-in

If you sign in, HopeMatch keeps your account and sign-in session so you can use provider and staff pages, and your browser can stay signed in — sign out on shared devices. Signing out does not clear a Request help draft or a remembered saved list; use their own clear options for those. Account storage is separate from the optional saved-resources remembering described above — one does not turn on the other.