When incorporating equitable grantmaking practices, modern grantmakers face hard questions about collecting data, such as how much becomes a burden on applicants and grantees. When funders review how they use the data they request, an often overlooked perspective is how data privacy and retention may factor in, especially as data privacy comes to the forefront. For years, the UK has had the GDPR data governance guidelines, and now U.S. state privacy laws are ever-growing. Applying a data privacy lens to the why and what funders ask of applicants and grantees can help streamline the data collection to reduce the burden and strengthen the relationship of being good stewards of their data. Attendees of this session are encouraged to bring their organization’s privacy and data retention policies to share.