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Security report for pencilsofpromise.org

Pencils of Promise · Non-profit · United States

Medium risk. 7 critical or high findings in Security headers, GDPR outside view and 1 other check.

Security score

66/100

Risk levelMedium

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

Pencils of Promise is a well-established non-profit organization founded in 2008, dedicated to improving global education through building schools and implementing WASH programs. The organization targets a general audience interested in philanthropy and education development. Their market position is strong within the non-profit education sector, leveraging digital platforms for fundraising and awareness. Technically, the website is built on WordPress with Elementor and optimized using NitroPack, ensuring fast performance and mobile responsiveness. The integration of Google Analytics, Tag Manager, and Hotjar indicates a mature digital marketing and analytics approach. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enforced and domain registration locked, though DNSSEC is not enabled and no explicit security or incident response policies are published. Privacy compliance is weak due to the absence of visible privacy and cookie policies, which should be addressed to meet GDPR and other regulations. Overall, the site is professional, trustworthy, and technically sound but could improve transparency and compliance documentation.

Scanned

This is an earlier scan of pencilsofpromise.org. View the latest report

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
58/ 100 · Medium
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

7 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. Security headers

    Security headers are instructions your web server sends to every visitor’s browser. Missing ones leave visitors more exposed to attacks such as clickjacking and injected scripts.

    • High

      Missing Strict-Transport-Security header

      Forces HTTPS connections

      What to do: Add "Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload"

      • CWE-319
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V3.4.1
    • High

      Missing X-Frame-Options header

      Prevents clickjacking attacks

      What to do: Add "X-Frame-Options: DENY" or "X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN"

    • High

      Missing Content-Security-Policy header

      Controls resources the browser is allowed to load

      What to do: Implement a Content-Security-Policy appropriate for your application

      • ASVS V3.4.3
      • OWASP Secure Headers: OWASP Secure Headers Project recommends Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'; form-action 'self'; base-uri 'self'; object-src 'none';…

  2. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

Need hands-on remediation? Email guard@offseq.com

Keep watching pencilsofpromise.org

This scan found 23 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

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  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
52
Security headers
15
Email security
85
DNS health
85
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
58
Average
66

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

The organization operates a non-profit business model focused on education and community development, with key services including school construction and WASH initiatives. Their fundraising is supported by a dedicated subdomain for donations, indicating a structured approach to revenue generation. The target customer segments include donors, volunteers, and educational stakeholders globally. The website's content and branding are consistent, supporting a strong trust relationship with visitors. Partnerships and integrations with fundraising platforms like Classy enhance their operational capabilities. Growth indicators include ongoing campaigns and active social media presence. Strategic observations suggest opportunities to enhance compliance transparency and incident response readiness to further strengthen stakeholder confidence.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a good security maturity level with HTTPS enforced and domain registration protections in place. However, the lack of DNSSEC and absence of published security policies or incident response contacts represent gaps in security transparency and readiness. No vulnerabilities or exposed sensitive data were detected in the HTML content. The use of multiple third-party scripts necessitates regular security audits to mitigate risks. Compliance gaps exist in privacy and cookie policy disclosures, which could expose the organization to regulatory risks. Incident response readiness is unclear due to missing contact channels for security issues. Overall, the security posture is solid but could be improved by publishing formal policies and enabling DNSSEC.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy with clear GDPR compliance statements.
  2. Implement a cookie consent mechanism to comply with privacy regulations.
  3. Enable DNSSEC to enhance DNS security and prevent spoofing.
  4. Publish a security policy and incident response contact information, including abuse and security email addresses.
  5. Regularly audit and update third-party scripts and embedded SDKs to mitigate vulnerabilities.
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Pencils of Promise
Description
Pencils of Promise creates a better world through education, building schools, and WASH programs. Become a part of something bigger than yourself!
Key services
Building schools, WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) programs, Educational initiatives
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
WordPress, Elementor, NitroPack, Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Hotjar, Classy Embedded Giving SDK
Frameworks
Elementor
Platforms
WordPress
Performance
fast
Mobile
excellent
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
85/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enforced
  • Domain locked with multiple client status prohibitions
  • No DNSSEC enabled (potential improvement area)

Analytics and tracking

Services
Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Hotjar
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
poor

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Hotjar
Marketing tools
Classy Embedded Giving SDK
Transparency
basic

Site quality

Design
excellent
User experience
excellent
Content relevance
excellent
Navigation
excellent
Professionalism
excellent
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website is a professionally designed non-profit site focused on education.
  2. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found, which is a compliance gap.
  3. Uses modern web technologies and performance optimization tools.
  4. No visible contact emails or phone numbers on the homepage HTML content.
  5. No security.txt or vulnerability disclosure found.
  6. Domain is privacy protected but legitimate and long-standing.
  7. No WAF or blocking detected; site fully accessible.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is built on a modern WordPress platform using Elementor for page building and NitroPack for performance optimization, resulting in fast loading times and excellent mobile responsiveness. The use of Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, and Hotjar indicates advanced analytics and user behavior tracking capabilities. The site uses multiple font services and CDN providers to optimize content delivery. Hosting appears to be on a managed WordPress environment, likely WP Engine, supporting scalability and reliability. Technical debt appears low with up-to-date libraries and frameworks. Opportunities exist to improve DNS security and enhance compliance-related technical implementations such as cookie consent scripts.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

Earlier scans of this domain

  1. 66/100Medium31 findingsView report
  2. 66/100Medium31 findingsView report
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