Terms of Service

1. Introduction

Welcome to Free For Charity! These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of our website, services, and platforms (collectively, "Services"), provided by Free For Charity ("we," "us," or "our"). By accessing or using our Services, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, please do not use our Services.

2. Who these Terms apply to

The General Terms (Sections 1–15, plus Section 19 — Contact Us) apply to everyone. In addition, one or more of these audience sections applies to you, depending on how you use the Services. If more than one applies, the terms for each role apply together:

• General visitors (Section 16) — anyone browsing our sites, reading content, or donating.
• Volunteers (Section 17) — people who contribute their skills to FFC or to charity projects.
• Supported charities (Section 18) — nonprofits that apply for or receive the FFC technology stack, and the people acting on their behalf.

3. Eligibility

Our Services are available only to individuals who are at least 18 years old. By using our Services, you represent and warrant that you are at least 18 years of age.

4. Use of Services

4.1 Account Registration

To access certain features of our Services, you may be required to register for an account. You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information during the registration process and to update such information to keep it accurate, current, and complete. You are responsible for safeguarding your password and for any activities or actions under your account.

4.2 Prohibited Activities

You agree not to use our Services for any unlawful purpose or in any way that could harm, disable, overburden, or impair the Services. Prohibited activities include, but are not limited to:

• Engaging in any activity that violates any applicable law or regulation
• Transmitting any harmful or malicious code, viruses, or malware
• Interfering with or disrupting the integrity or performance of our Services
• Collecting or storing personal data about other users without their consent
• Using the Services to solicit funds outside the scope of Free For Charity's mission

5. Donations

All donations made to Free For Charity are voluntary and non-refundable. By making a donation, you agree to our Donation Policy, which is incorporated by reference into these Terms.

6. Payments

All payments made to Free For Charity are voluntary and non-refundable. No refunds will be given due to the nonprofit nature of Free For Charity.

7. Intellectual Property

7.1 Ownership

All content, trademarks, logos, and other intellectual property included in our Services are the property of Free For Charity or its licensors. You agree not to use, reproduce, distribute, or create derivative works based on our intellectual property without our express written consent.

7.2 User Content

By submitting content to our Services, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, and display such content in connection with our Services. (Supported charities retain ownership of their own content — see Section 18.6 — and volunteer contributions are addressed in Section 17.6.)

8. Privacy

Your privacy is important to us. Please review our Privacy Policy, which describes how we collect, use, and disclose information about you.

9. Third-Party Links

Our Services may contain links to third-party websites or services that are not owned or controlled by Free For Charity. We are not responsible for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party websites or services. You acknowledge and agree that Free For Charity shall not be liable for any damages or loss caused by or in connection with your use of any third-party websites or services.

10. Disclaimer of Warranties

Our Services are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. Free For Charity makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, regarding the use or the results of our Services in terms of accuracy, reliability, or otherwise. Free For Charity disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

11. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Free For Charity shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits or revenues, whether incurred directly or indirectly, or any loss of data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses, resulting from:

• Your use of or inability to use our Services
• Any unauthorized access to or use of our servers and/or any personal information stored therein
• Any interruption or cessation of transmission to or from our Services
• Any bugs, viruses, trojan horses, or the like that may be transmitted to or through our Services by any third party

12. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Free For Charity, its officers, directors, employees, and agents, from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of or in any way connected with your access to or use of our Services, or your violation of these Terms.

13. Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the United States and the State of North Carolina, without regard to its conflict of law principles.

14. Changes to Terms

We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. If we make changes, we will provide notice by updating the date at the top of these Terms and posting the modified Terms on our website. Your continued use of our Services after the effective date of the modified Terms will constitute your acceptance of the changes.

15. Termination

We may terminate or suspend your access to our Services, without prior notice or liability, for any reason, including, without limitation, if you breach these Terms. Upon termination, your right to use our Services will immediately cease.

16. General Visitors

This section is for anyone browsing our sites, reading content, or donating — without being a volunteer or a supported charity.

• The General Terms (Sections 1–15) are the complete terms that apply to you. You do not need an account or any further commitment to browse or donate.
• You may read and share our public content for informational purposes; our content and marks remain ours (Section 7.1).
• Please use the sites respectfully and lawfully (Section 4.2). Donations are voluntary and non-refundable (Sections 5–6).
• How we handle visitor data, cookies, and analytics is described in our Privacy Policy.

17. Volunteers

This section is for people who contribute their skills to Free For Charity or to the charity projects FFC supports (web development, Microsoft 365 / Google Workspace administration, data & analytics, design, military and other volunteers).

17.1 Volunteer relationship

Free For Charity is a 100% volunteer organization. Volunteering is unpaid and is not employment— it creates no wage, benefit, or contractor relationship. You volunteer at-will and may stop at any time, and FFC may end a volunteer's access or role at any time, with or without cause. FFC may, at its discretion, fund certifications and provide recognition (see the Contributor Ladder), but none of these is guaranteed.

17.2 Accounts & security

Volunteers follow the same security baseline as everyone in the FFC ecosystem: use your own account in your real name, secured with multi-factor authentication; never share credentials; use unique passwords; and use the approved, supported browsers. Protect any access you are granted to FFC or charity systems and use the least privilege needed (see the setup guides).

17.3 Conduct

Act lawfully, professionally, and respectfully toward other volunteers, charities, and the communities they serve. Follow each project's conventions and the standard contribution workflow; do not harass others, introduce malicious code, or disrupt the Services (Section 4.2 applies in full).

17.4 Confidentiality & data

In the course of volunteering you may be given access to FFC or charity data. Use it only as needed for your volunteer work, keep it confidential, do not copy, export, or misuse it, and follow the data-handling expectations in Section 18.7. Report any suspected security issue promptly (see the Vulnerability Disclosure Policy).

17.5 Responsible AI use

Volunteer work is AI-assisted. Review AI output before committing or publishing it, do not paste secrets or sensitive personal data into AI tools except where FFC has approved a tool for that use, and follow each AI provider's own terms.

17.6 Contributions & intellectual property

Your contributions are donated. You grant Free For Charity and the relevant charity a license to use, reproduce, modify, and distribute your contributions in connection with the Services and the project's open-source license (consistent with Section 7.2). You represent that you have the right to contribute what you submit and that it does not infringe anyone else's rights.

17.7 No authority to bind; conflicts of interest

Volunteers do not represent or speak for Free For Charity or any charity, and cannot enter commitments on their behalf, unless expressly authorized in writing. Disclose any conflict of interest. When you stop volunteering or change roles, your access is revoked or returned.

18. Supported Charities

This section is for nonprofit organizations that apply for or receive the Free For Charity technology stack, and the people who act on the organization's behalf (applicant, board members, staff, and volunteers).

18.1 What FFC provides (and that it is free)

FFC provides, at no cost, an integrated stack for eligible nonprofits — typically a domain, professional email, a website you maintain yourself, design assets, analytics, access to donated software, and trained volunteer support. FFC is a volunteer- and donor-funded 501(c)(3); services are provided as-is (Sections 10 and 11 apply).

18.2 The full-stack commitment

FFC delivers an integrated stack, not an à-la-carte menu. The organization agrees to adopt and use the complete Free For Charity stack as designed — not to pick and choose individual pieces while declining the rest. This includes, as applicable: the FFC-managed domain and DNS; professional email on the FFC-provisioned platform; the website maintained through the standard FFC (GitHub-based, AI-assisted) workflow; the security baseline; and the supporting accounts the program depends on. The stack is secure, recoverable, and maintainable because the pieces work together; partial adoption creates security and support gaps that undermine the free model for every charity FFC serves.

18.3 Eligibility & prerequisites

Service is granted only after the organization meets the eligibility floor and completes the prerequisite steps (including the smaller-charity revenue gate — currently under US$1M in annual revenue — account setup, and validation checks). See Charity Prerequisites.

18.4 Account & security responsibilities

• Use your own account in your real name, secured with multi-factor authentication, and never share credentials except through approved credential-sharing tooling at the organizational phase.
• Use a unique password for every service; never reuse passwords.
• Keep MFA recovery codes stored safely so a lost device is never a lockout.
• Use only the approved, supported browsers (Chrome or Edge) for FFC work.
• Promptly report suspected account compromise, and report security vulnerabilities through the Vulnerability Disclosure Policy.

18.5 Acceptable use & content standards

FFC accounts, domains, sites, and tools may be used only for the organization's lawful, charitable, on-mission purpose. In addition to the prohibited activities in Section 4.2, the organization agrees not to publish content that is hateful, harassing, deceptive, or otherwise unlawful, and not to transfer FFC-provided access or assets to unrelated third parties. The organization is responsible for all content it publishes on its FFC-built site and is expected to keep that content accurate, lawful, and accessible.

18.6 Your content, data & ownership

The organization retains ownership of its own content, data, and brand. FFC claims no ownership of the charity's content (FFC's own software, templates, and trademarks remain FFC's, per Section 7). If the organization leaves, FFC will support a reasonable handover of the domain and the content/data the charity owns, and will make a reasonable effort to delete the organization's data from FFC-managed systems on request after offboarding, subject to backups and legal retention.

18.7 Data handling & privacy

The organization is responsible for the constituent and donor data it stores in FFC-provided systems and agrees to handle it lawfully and respectfully — collecting only what is needed, restricting access, honoring applicable privacy laws (U.S. state privacy laws first, then GDPR where relevant), and not uploading data it has no right to hold.

18.8 Responsible AI use

The FFC stack is AI-assisted. The organization agrees to review AI output before publishing or acting on it, not to paste sensitive data (constituent/donor personal data, secrets, credentials) into AI tools except where FFC has approved a tool for that use, and to follow each AI provider's own terms.

18.9 Third-party & donated software; what's free vs. paid

Much of the stack is donated or discounted third-party software (e.g. Microsoft, Google, Canva via TechSoup/Goodstack). Use of those products is also subject to each vendor's terms, and eligibility is the vendor's decision, not FFC's. The core FFC stack is free; optional paid add-ons (for example premium AI seats such as GitHub Copilot or Microsoft 365 Copilot, or paid LastPass tiers) are the organization's own cost and choice, and FFC does not commit to funding them.

18.10 People & access changes

The organization keeps its access list current: when a volunteer, board member, or staffer leaves or changes roles, the organization promptly revokes or adjusts their access to FFC-provided accounts and repositories, following the least-privilege principle.

18.11 Conflict of interest

People acting for the organization must disclose any conflict of interest and must not use their access for personal gain. Board members accept the responsibility and liability of their role, which they signal publicly by linking the charity under their LinkedIn "Volunteering" section.

18.12 Branding & attribution

In return for free technology, the organization agrees to the "credit FFC" expectation — keeping the standard, unobtrusive Free For Charity attribution (a small footer acknowledgment and, where appropriate, a link back) that FFC includes with delivered work, unless FFC agrees otherwise in writing.

18.13 Support expectations

FFC support is best-effort and volunteer-run. There is no service-level agreement or guaranteed response time. Self-service walkthroughs and guides are available at any time, and a "contact us for help" path is provided during onboarding.

18.14 Continued eligibility & annual refresh

Continued service depends on the organization staying eligible and current — keeping accounts secured, its Candid/GuideStar profile and seal up to date (an annual ~30-minute refresh), and the full-stack commitment intact. Letting prerequisites lapse may pause service until they are restored.

18.15 Acknowledgment & authority

The person who acknowledges these Terms on the organization's behalf confirms they are authorized to commit the organization. Acceptance is recorded through the FFC application acknowledgment, and confirms the organization agrees to these Terms, including the full-stack commitment and the responsibilities in this Section 18.

19. Contact Us

If you have any questions about these Terms, please contact us:

Thank you for supporting Free For Charity and for complying with these Terms of Service.