H.O.P.E., by Rivanna Works

Privacy Policy

Effective October 29, 2026

H.O.P.E. (Helping Others and Providing Encouragement) is a church app for practical help and prayer. It is built and operated by Rivanna Technologies LLC, doing business as Rivanna Works (“we,” “us”), and is sponsored by Mountain View Chapel in Madison, Virginia (“the church”). This policy explains what information the app collects, how it is used and shared, and the choices you have. It covers the H.O.P.E. app on iPhone, Android, and the web, and its text messages and emails. It does not cover the rest of rivannaworks.com.

Rivanna Technologies LLC owns the information H.O.P.E. holds and is responsible for protecting it.

Who can use H.O.P.E.

H.O.P.E. is for adult members and attenders of Mountain View Chapel who have a record in the church’s Planning Center directory. People listed in Planning Center as children cannot sign in, and their information is not copied into the app. H.O.P.E. is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect information from children under 13.

Information we collect

From the church directory (Planning Center)

With the church’s permission, H.O.P.E. copies a limited set of fields from the church’s Planning Center account about once a week. The copy is read-only; H.O.P.E. never changes the church’s records. The fields are:

Name, primary email address, phone number, and address
Gender, whether you are listed as a child, and your membership and directory status
Background-check status
The church groups you belong to, and whether you lead them

H.O.P.E. does not copy birthdates, giving records, notes, household details, or any medical information.

Information you give us in the app

Needs you post or sign up for, including the name, address, phone number, and notes for the person who needs help
Prayer requests, prayer notes, and when you mark that you are praying
Your skills, whether you appear on the volunteers list, and your settings, such as notification choices and quiet hours
Reports about posts and requests for a call from a church leader

Information collected automatically

A push notification token for your device, if you allow notifications
Sign-in records, including the time and the IP address a sign-in request came from
When you last used the app, and server logs used to keep the service running and secure

The app asks for one device permission: notifications. It does not access your location, camera, photos, microphone, or contacts. H.O.P.E. has no advertising and no analytics or tracking tools.

How we use information

To sign you in and keep your account secure
To show needs, sign-ups, and prayer requests to the people allowed to see them
To send the notifications, emails, and sign-in texts you have chosen to receive
To let church leaders coordinate help and moderate the prayer wall
To fix problems, prevent misuse, and improve the app

We use your information only to run H.O.P.E. for the church. We do not sell it, rent it, or use it for advertising.

Who can see your information

Needs.Private details of a need (the person’s name, address, phone, and notes) are shown only to church leaders and to the volunteers who sign up for it. Messages asking for volunteers describe the need without those details.
Prayer requests. You choose who sees a request: everyone, women only, men only, or selected groups. If you post anonymously, other members do not see your name, but church leaders do. People who can see a request can see who is praying for it, unless those people keep their names private. Requests are archived after 30 days unless renewed.
The directory. Church leaders can look up anyone in the app. Other members see only the name and town of people listed in the church directory.
The volunteers list includes you only if you opt in, and never shows your address, phone, gender, or background-check status.
Leaders and administrators can see a log of messages the app has sent. Administrators can see a record of changes to roles, skills, and moderation.

Service providers we share with

We share information only with the companies that help run the app, only as needed for that purpose:

Planning Center, the church’s directory, for sign-in and the directory copy
Amazon Web Services, in the United States, for hosting, storage, backups, email, and text messages
Expo, with Apple and Google, to deliver push notifications

Notifications never include names, addresses, phone numbers, or the text of prayer requests shared with a limited audience, so they do not reveal those details on a lock screen or to these providers. We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect someone’s safety.

Text messages

If you sign in with a mobile number, H.O.P.E. sends a one-time sign-in text, branded H.O.P.E., only when you ask for one. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out or HELP for help. H.O.P.E. does not send marketing texts. Mobile phone numbers and text-message opt-in information are not shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. We share them only with the provider that delivers the texts.

Your choices

Choose, for each kind of message, whether it comes by push, by email, or only in the app. Messages about a change to your role always come by push and email.
Turn on quiet hours, and turn prayer alerts on or off.
Opt in to or out of the volunteers list, and keep your name private when you pray.
Sign out to remove your device’s push token.
Reply STOP to stop sign-in texts.

Keeping and deleting information

Sign-in links and codes expire within 15 minutes, and their records are deleted a day later. Expired sessions are removed daily. Server logs are kept for 30 days and backups for up to 35 days.

The church’s Planning Center directory is the source of truth for who you are. To correct your name, contact details, or other directory information, ask the church office to update Planning Center; the app picks up the change on its next copy.

Once you are no longer an active member in Planning Center, your H.O.P.E. account stops working and you are removed from the app’s search. The app keeps its history, including needs, sign-ups, prayer requests, and messages, so the church’s record of help stays complete.

Security

Information is encrypted between your device and our servers, and the servers’ disks and backups are encrypted at rest. Sign-in codes and session tokens are stored only in scrambled (hashed) form, and access rules are enforced on the server. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and will tell the church and affected people promptly if a breach affects them.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will post the new version here with a new effective date and, for significant changes, tell users in the app.

Contact us

Rivanna Technologies LLC, doing business as Rivanna Works, Charlottesville, Virginia. Call (540) 395-3149 or use our contact form. Mountain View Chapel members can also ask the church office.