These Terms and Conditions may change or be updated from time to time. It remains your responsibility to access and check these Terms and Conditions.
The latest version of these Terms and Conditions will govern any future usage by you of the website and its associated services. The date on which these Terms and Conditions were last updated is stated at the end of this document.
Charities Trust, a charity registered with the Charity Commission, (registration number 327489) and a company limited by guarantee registered in England, (company number 2142757) (collectively "Charities Trust", "We", "Our", "Us") operates the website www.sponsorme.co.uk and other related systems and services. These are the Terms and Conditions which govern each use you make of the payment services provided through that website.
These Terms and Conditions apply separately to each single donation or event fee payment that you make. By confirming on the Sponsor Me website that you wish to make a donation or event fee payment you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions for that transaction.
1. Your use of our Internet sites or any of the products or services offered on those sites (collectively, the "Services") is subject to these Terms and Conditions (Terms). Charities Trust reserves the right to modify these Terms at any time without notice to you by posting revised Terms on our website. Your use of our website or Services constitutes your binding acceptance of these Terms, including any modifications that we make.
2. Charities Trust has the right, but not the obligation, to take any of the following actions in our sole discretion at any time and for any reason without giving you any prior notice.
a) Restrict, suspend or terminate your access to all or any part of the Services.
b) Change, suspend or discontinue all or any part of the Services.
c) Refuse, move or remove any material that you submit to our sites for any reason.
d) Refuse, move or remove any content that is available on our sites.
e) Deactivate or delete your accounts and all related information and files in your account.
f) Establish general practices and limits concerning use of our sites.
You agree that we will not be liable to you or any third party for taking any of these actions.
3. You understand and agree that we may need to contact you in relation to your donations or for other administrative purposes that these communications are considered part of the service we provide under the legitimate interest we have for processing your donations.
5. Any donation which you make using the website will be made to Charities Trust itself. Charities Trust is a registered charity, so your donation may be eligible for Gift Aid (see below for more details).
6. Although your donation will be made to Charities Trust you can choose a charity from the list available on the website to which you would like Charities Trust to pass on the funds raised. Charities Trust will make all reasonable endeavours to pass on your donation to the nominated charity in accordance with your wishes. If for any reason Charities Trust is unable to pay over the funds to the nominated charity these will be paid to an alternative charity. Where a donation is redirected to an alternative charity Charities Trust will make reasonable efforts to inform the fundraiser of the change.
7. Your donation will be allocated to the charity or charities nominated by the fundraiser, as soon as payment is made. Your donation plus Gift Aid less Charities Trust's fees will be passed to the charity and not applied to Charities Trust's own funds.
8. Donations are passed to charity on a monthly basis using the BACS payment service. There may be occasions where donations are held pending further investigations.
9. If you select a charity which has not been recently verified by Charities Trust we will contact the charity as part of our verification process and to request bank details. It may speed up this process if you inform the charity independently that you have set up a fundraising page to support them. Please note that we do not normally pay charities by cheque due to the high costs of processing. Where we have been unable to pay a charity by BACS due to the charity not providing bank details we may issue a cheque but this will be subject to an additional processing charge (currently £2.50 per cheque) which will be deducted from the funds raised.
10. Once a fundraising page has been created and charities selected you may not amend the charity selection or the percentage split of the donations received.
11. Charities Trust is not responsible for any dissatisfaction you may have about how your chosen charity uses any donation which you make through the website.
12. Charities Trust will pass the name of fundraisers to the charity or charities they are supporting as part of the donation process.
13. You can make donations by following the instructions on the Sponsor Me website. Donations can be made by debit card or credit card (including American Express).
14. Any donations made in currencies other than GBP will be converted to GBP and you may incur additional fees levied by your card provider for the transaction.
15. Once a donation is made using the website, the transaction is final and cannot be disputed or reversed unless it was made fraudulently. If you become aware of any fraudulent use of your debit card or credit card you should report this to your card operator in accordance with their reporting rules.
16. Not withstanding the above Charities Trust may at its absolute discretion agree to refund a donation made in error if the funds have not been passed to the nominated charity. Where this occurs an administration fee of £10 will be incurred.
17. Donations made to sponsor a fundraising activity or event (sponsorship) cannot be refunded if the activity or event is cancelled. The donations will be passed to the charity or charities nominated by the fundraiser on a monthly basis.
18. When you make a donation, it may be necessary for us to verify your identity or the details which you have given to us or to request other information. You agree that you will provide such information or documents as we may reasonably request from time to time to enable us to do this.
19. When you make a donation using the website and confirm that you are a UK taxpayer in accordance with the requirements of the Gift Aid scheme.
20. Charities Trust will reclaim Gift Aid on your donation under the Gift Aid scheme and add this to your donation. Further details about this will be given when you use the website to make a donation. Please note that Charities Trust is not a financial, tax or accounting adviser and you should not rely on information on the website to determine the financial, tax or accounting treatment of any donation which you make using the website. False Gift Aid declarations may affect your personal tax liability.
21. In order for Gift Aid to be claimed donations must be freely made without the donor or a "connected person" receiving a benefit in exchange for the donation.
22. Further information about the Gift Aid scheme can be found on the HMRC website, including details of how higher rate tax payers can reclaim additional tax relief on their donations.
23. If you are fundraising for an Adventure event your attention is drawn to the particular restrictions on Gift Aid for events of this nature, Further information about the Gift Aid scheme can be found here on the HMRC website.
24. Charities Trust is required to pass details of fundraisers and donors claiming Gift Aid to HMRC and in asking us to claim Gift Aid you are giving us permission to do.
25. There is no registration charge for setting up a fundraising page or event.
26. If you do not have a Charities Trust My Giving Account a processing fee of 4% will be deducted from the sum of your donation and any Gift Aid reclaimed, to cover our administrative costs. If you are a Charities Trust My Giving Account customer then the amount of the fee deducted will be in accordance with the existing terms of your Charities Trust My Giving Account.
27. If your donation is not eligible for Gift Aid the fee of 4% will be deducted from the donation alone.
28. When registering to fundraise with Sponsor Me you will be asked to select a password to protect your account. (Users are not required to register unless setting up their own fundraising event - you do not need an account to make a donation). Charities Trust advises that you keep your password secret, and if you believe that you password may have become lost, stolen, misused, used without authorisation, or have become known to another person you must contact us to go through the process of resetting your password. If you become aware of any fraudulent card use or if it is lost or stolen you must contact your card provider immediately.
29. The online services may become temporarily unavailable although this mostly occurs through planned overnight maintenance. Charities Trust will endeavour to inform you of any planned downtime or account suspension through a general notice on our website.
30. Occasionally the payments service will be interrupted or caused to fail by unforeseen circumstances beyond the control of Charities Trust, or where we need to act to comply with the Law. We will not be responsible for the consequences of such events.
31. Charities Trust as the operator of the Sponsor Me website acts as an intermediary between the charities and the individual or corporate users of our Services. If Charities Trust requests registration information from you, you will provide us with true, accurate, current and complete information.
32. Charities Trust provides a Business to Business fundraising service and we primarily work with companies to help engage their employees in company fundraising initiatives via Sponsor Me. To this end, our Services are not directed or marketed to persons under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children aged 13 and under.
33. If you are issued with a password you may not reveal this password to anyone else and you may not use anyone else's password to access an account that is not your own. Whilst Charities Trust is responsible for maintaining the security of your data in line with our Privacy Policy, this does not extend to where you have willingly shared your account and/or passwords with any other party. If the security of your account is compromised under these circumstances it is your responsibility to immediately notify us of any unauthorised use of your passwords or accounts or any other breach of security.
34. You also agree to exit from your accounts at the end of each session. We will not be responsible for any loss or damage
that may occur if you fail to comply with these requirements.
35. The technology and the software underlying our sites and the Services is the property of Charities Trust, our affiliates and our partners. You agree not to copy, modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, assign, distribute, reverse engineer, grant a security interest in, or otherwise transfer the any right to the technology or software underlying the site of the Services. You agree not to modify the software underlying our sites or the Services. You agree not to modify the software underlying our sites in any manner or form or to use modified version of such software, including (without limitation) for the purpose of obtaining unauthorised access to our sites.
36. Without limiting the foregoing, you agree that you will not use our sites to take any of the following actions:
a) Defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten, or otherwise violate the legal right of others;
b) Publish, post, upload, e-mail, distribute, or disseminate (collectively, "transmit") any inappropriate, profane, defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent, or unlawful content;
c) Transmit files that contain viruses, corrupted files, or any other similar software or programs that may damage or adversely affect the operation of another person's computer, our sites, any software or hardware, or telecommunications equipment;
d) Advertise or offer to sell any goods or services for any commercial purpose unless you have our written consent to do so;
e) Transmit surveys, contests, pyramid schemes, spam, unsolicited advertising or promotional materials, or chain letters;
f) Download any file that you know or reasonably should know cannot be legally obtained in such manner;
g) Falsify or delete any author attributions, legal or other proper notices or proprietary designations or labels of the origin or the source of software or other material;
h) Restrict or inhibit any other user from using and enjoying any public area within our sites;
i) Collect or store personal information about other end users;
j) Interfere with or disrupt our sites, servers, or networks;
k) Impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, a Charities Trust representative, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
l) Forge headers or manipulate identifiers or other data in order to disguise the origin of any content transmitted through our sites or to manipulate your presence on our sites;
m) Take any action that imposes an unreasonably or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure;
n) Engage in any illegal activities.
37. If you choose a username that, in our sole discretion, is obscene, indecent, abusive or that might otherwise subject us to public disparagement or scorn, we reserve the right, without prior notice to you, to automatically change your username, delete your posts from our sites, deny you access to our sites, or any combination of these options.
38. Unauthorised access to our sites is a breach of these Terms and a violation of the law. You agree not to access our sites by any means other than through the interface that is provided by Charities Trust for use in accessing our sites. You agree not to use any automated means, including, without limitation, agents, robots, scripts, or spiders, to access, monitor, or copy any part of our sites, except those automated means that we have approved in advance and in writing.
39. Use of our sites is subject to existing laws and legal process. Nothing contained in these Terms shall limit our right to comply with governmental, court, and law-enforcement requests or requirements relating to your use of our sites.
40. Our sites include a combination of content that we create, that our partners create, and that our users create. All materials published on our sites, including, but not limited to, written content, photographs, graphics, images, illustrations, marks, logos, sound or video clips, and Flash animation, are protected by our copyrights or trademarks or those of our partners. You may not modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, reproduce, create derivative works of, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or in any way exploit any of the materials or content on our sites in whole or in part.
41. You are solely responsible for all materials, whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, that you upload, post, e-mail, transmit, or otherwise make available on our sites ("Your Content"). You certify that you own all intellectual property rights in Your Content. You hereby grant us, our affiliates, and our partners a worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free, nonexclusive, sub licensable license to use, reproduce, create derivative works of, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, transfer, transmit, distribute, and publish Your Content and subsequent versions of Your Content for the purposes of (i) displaying Your Content on our sites, (ii) distributing Your Content, either electronically or via other media, to users seeking to download or otherwise acquire it, and/or (iii) storing Your Content in a remote database accessible by end users, for a charge. This license shall apply to the distribution and the storage of Your Content in any form, medium, or technology now known or later developed.
42. Our site contains content that we create as well as content provided by third parties. It also includes information about products and services offered by parties other than Charities Trust, such as product descriptions, specifications, pricing, availability, and performance. We do not guarantee the accuracy, the integrity, or the quality of the content on our sites, and you may not rely on any of this content. Without limitation, we are not responsible for postings by users in the user opinion, message board, or feedback sections of our sites.
43. You may be exposed to content that you find offensive, indecent, or objectionable or that is inaccurate, and you bear all risks associated with using that content. We have the right, but not the obligation, to remove any content that may, in our sole discretion, violate these Terms or that is otherwise objectionable.
44. Charities Trust's website and its associated services may contain links to other websites, including the websites of charities on individual’s fundraising pages. Inclusion of a link to another website does not imply endorsement of its content or opinions. Charities Trust is not responsible for the privacy practices, the content or the product or service offerings of any third party website and your relationship and any transactions with other people or organisations through their websites or otherwise are your own responsibility.
45. If you break these Terms and Conditions we reserve the right at our sole discretion, with or without notice, to delete any content and to prohibit you from using all or part of the Services.
46. The names Sponsor Me, sponsorme.org, sponsorme.co.uk, Charities Trust, the Sponsor Me logo and any other products or Services that we may provide through our website are property of Charities Trust or our partners and affiliates. As such they may not be used in connection with any other product that is not Charities Trust's, nor in any manner that may present Charities Trust in a bad light, cause confusion or disparage or discredit Charities Trust. Other logos or trademarks that appear on the Sponsor Me website are normally (but not exclusively) owned by charities. They must not be used without explicit consent from both the charity and Charities Trust.
47. You hereby agree to indemnify, defend and hold Charities Trust and all of our officers, directors, employees, agents, information providers, affiliates, partners and licensors (collectively, the "Charities Trust Parties") harmless from and against any and all liability, losses, costs and expenses (including attorneys' fees) incurred by any Charities Trust party in connection with any claim, including, but not limited to, claims for defamation, violation of rights of publicity/or privacy, copyright infringement, or trademark infringement arising out of:
a) Your use of our sites;
b) Any use or alleged use of your accounts or your passwords by any person, whether or not authorised by you;
c) The content, the quality, or the performance of content that you submit to our sites;
d) Your connection to our sites;
e) Your violation of these Terms; or
f) Your violation of the rights of any other person or entity.
g) We reserve the right, at our own expense, to assume defence and control of any matter for which you are required to indemnify us, and you agree to cooperate with our defence of these claims.
48. We disclaim any responsibility for the deletion, the failure to store, the misdelivery, or the untimely delivery of any information or material. We disclaim any responsibility for any harm resulting from downloading or accessing any information or material on the Internet using search results from our sites. We disclaim any responsibility for, and if you subscribe to one of our fee-based services you will not be entitled to a refund as a result of, any service outages that are caused by our maintenance on the servers or the technology that underlies our sites, failures of our service providers (including telecommunications, hosting, and power providers), computer viruses, natural disasters or other destruction or damage of our facilities, acts of nature, war, civil disturbance, or any other cause beyond our reasonable control.
49. We do not warrant that our sites will be uninterrupted or error free. In addition, we do not make any warranty as to the content on our sites. Our sites and their content are distributed on an "as is, as available" basis. Any material that you download or otherwise obtain through our sites is done at your own discretion and risk, and you will be solely responsible for any potential damages to your computer system or loss of data that results from your download of any such material. Neither we nor any of our partners makes any warranty that (i) our sites will meet your requirements, (ii) our sites will be uninterrupted, timely, secure, or error free, (iii) the results that may be obtained from the use of our sites will be accurate or reliable, (iv) the quality of any products, services, information, or other material that you purchase or obtain through our sites will meet your expectations, and (v) any errors will be corrected. Neither we nor any of our partners makes any warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including, without limitation, warranties of title or implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose, with respect to our sites, any content, or any of our services, tools, products, or properties. You expressly agree that you will assume the entire risk as to the quality and the performance of our sites and the accuracy or completeness of its content.
50. Neither we nor our partners shall be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising out of the use of or inability to use our sites, even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages.
51. These terms of service are governed by English law and are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.
Last updated: 29th May 2018