Terms of Service

The service and who provides it

Causefolk is an online service for organizations that work with volunteers. It lets them publish volunteer opportunities, take signups and applications, schedule shifts, record attendance and hours, and keep in touch with their volunteers. It runs at causefolk.com and at each organization's own address under that domain.

Causefolk is provided by Causefolk LLC (“we”, “us”). “You” means the organization that uses the service and the people who act for it. The Volunteers section explains how these Terms apply to volunteers.

By creating an organization or using the service, you accept these Terms. If you accept them for an organization, you confirm that you are allowed to bind it.

Accounts: organizations, owners and staff

An organization that signs up on its own starts with the person who created it as its owner. Owners manage the organization’s settings, billing, integrations and staff. The organization’s owners are responsible for its account and for how its staff use it.

Staff sign in with a one-time code sent to their email address; there are no passwords. Keep sign-in codes private, and do not let anyone who should not act for your organization use your email account.

Give accurate information when you create an organization and keep it up to date, including a working email address for each owner.

If you think someone has used your account without permission, tell us at once at support@causefolk.com.

Volunteers

Volunteers do not need an account or a password. They sign up on an organization’s public pages, and they can sign in to that organization’s volunteer portal with a one-time code sent to their email address.

Each organization decides what it asks its volunteers, which opportunities it offers and whom it accepts. Questions about those decisions, or about the information an organization holds, should go to that organization.

A volunteer who signs in at causefolk.com can see, in one place, their activity with each organization they volunteer with on Causefolk. That view shows only what each organization already holds about them.

Volunteers who use the service must use it lawfully and follow the Acceptable use section.

Acceptable use

You must not:

• use the service for anything unlawful, or to collect or publish information you have no right to;
• send spam, or messages to people who did not agree to receive them;
• probe, scan or test the security of the service, or try to reach data that belongs to another organization;
• scrape the service or extract data by automated means other than the API;
• exceed the rate limits or try to get around them;
• use webhook endpoints to reach private networks, or try to get around the checks we apply to endpoint addresses;
• upload malicious software, or files you have no right to share.

We may remove content, or suspend access, that breaks these rules.

Your content and data

Your organization owns the content and data it enters into the service, including its volunteers’ information. You allow us to host, copy, process and display it only as needed to run the service for you.

For your volunteers’ personal data, your organization is the controller and we process that data on your instructions, as our Privacy Policy describes. You must have a lawful basis for the data you collect, and you must tell your volunteers how you use it.

An owner can download a full export of your organization’s data in Settings → Data, including application answers, uploaded documents and message logs, unless the organization is suspended; each export can be downloaded for 7 days. While your organization is open, you can also export its records through the API: volunteers, opportunities, shifts, signups, application status, hours and background-check status. Application answers, uploaded documents and message logs are not included in the API.

An owner can also ask for the organization to be deleted in Settings → Data, unless it is suspended. We delete it 14 days after the request, and any owner can cancel until then. If you cannot use Settings → Data, ask us at support@causefolk.com for an export or a deletion.

Fees, trials and billing

Where billing is enabled, a new organization starts with a free trial of 14 days. When the trial ends, the organization stays open with a paid subscription, or with complimentary access where we have granted it.

There is one plan, paid monthly or yearly through Stripe, our payment processor, at the price shown on the Billing page when you subscribe. A subscription renews automatically at the end of each period until it is canceled.

You can cancel at any time from the Billing page. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you have paid for, and the organization stays open until then. We do not refund partial periods.

Each organization has a monthly allowance of text messages, counted in segments. Where overage billing is enabled, the segments a subscriber sends beyond its allowance are billed on its next invoice at the per-message price shown at checkout.

Prices do not include taxes unless stated. You are responsible for any taxes that apply to your subscription.

If a payment fails, Stripe retries it. If every retry fails, the subscription ends and the organization is closed until it subscribes again.

We may change our prices. We will announce a price change in advance, and a new price applies from your first renewal after it takes effect.

Text messages

Where text messages are enabled, staff and volunteers can receive some notices by text. Texts go only to numbers whose owners have agreed: staff verify their own mobile number, and volunteers tick a consent box when they give theirs.

Message frequency varies. The recipient’s carrier may charge for messages and data.

Reply STOP to any text to stop receiving texts, START to receive them again, or HELP for help.

Texts can be sent only to mobile numbers in the United States and Canada. They count against the organization’s monthly allowance.

Background checks

Where background checks are enabled, an organization can connect its own Checkr account and request checks on its volunteers through it. When the organization allows it, a volunteer may also start their own check. Checkr runs each check in its own hosted flow.

The organization is Checkr’s customer. It carries the legal duties that come with background checks, including those under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and similar laws, such as disclosures, authorizations and pre-adverse and adverse action notices.

For each check we store only the Checkr identifiers and invitation link, who requested it, and its status, result, adjudication (the decision recorded in Checkr), assessment and dates. The report itself stays with Checkr.

We never decide anyone’s eligibility. The service shows the result Checkr reports and, where an opportunity requires a check, applies the organization’s rule that a volunteer must be cleared before signing up.

Integrations

Owners can create API keys to read their organization’s data and, where webhooks are enabled, register webhook endpoints that receive signed notices of changes. API keys and webhook endpoints are your organization’s responsibility.

A new API key is shown once. We store only a hash of it, so we cannot show it again. Webhook signing secrets are stored encrypted. Keep keys and secrets private, and revoke or rotate any you think has been exposed.

Your receivers must verify the signature of every webhook before they trust it.

Webhook endpoints must be public https addresses. We refuse addresses on private or internal networks, and we check each address again before every delivery.

We may suspend an API key or a webhook endpoint that abuses the service or puts it at risk. You are responsible for the data that leaves the service through your keys and endpoints.

Availability and changes

We work to keep the service available, but we do not guarantee any level of uptime. The service may be unavailable during maintenance, because of failures at our providers, or for reasons beyond our control.

We may change, add or remove features. We will announce in advance any removal of a feature that materially affects how you use the service.

Suspension and termination

We may suspend or close an organization that does not pay, or that seriously or repeatedly breaches these Terms. Where we reasonably can, we will tell its owners first and give them a chance to put things right.

You can stop using the service at any time, and cancel your subscription from the Billing page.

While your organization is open, it can export its records through the API, as the Your content and data section describes. Application answers, uploaded documents and message logs are not included in the API, and a closed organization’s API keys stop working; the full export in Settings → Data includes them and stays available after closing, unless the organization is suspended. In that case, ask us at support@causefolk.com.

After termination we keep your organization’s data until an owner deletes it in Settings → Data, you ask us to delete it, or we delete the organization. To ask us for deletion, write to support@causefolk.com.

The sections on fees owed, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnity and governing law continue to apply after termination.

Disclaimers

The service is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the extent the law allows, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.

We do not vet organizations, opportunities or volunteers. Each organization is responsible for its opportunities, its decisions about volunteers and the safety of its activities.

We do not guarantee that an email or a text will be delivered: delivery depends on providers and carriers outside our control.

Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows, our total liability arising out of or relating to the service or these Terms is limited to the fees your organization paid us in the 12 months before the event that gave rise to the claim.

We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, revenue, data or goodwill.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot be excluded or limited by law.

Indemnity

Your organization will defend and indemnify us against any claim, loss or cost, including reasonable legal fees, that arises from its content, its use of the service, its dealings with its volunteers, or its breach of these Terms or of the law.

Governing law and disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of TBD, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.

If a dispute arises, write to us at support@causefolk.com first; we will both try in good faith to resolve it informally.

If a dispute is not resolved informally, the courts of TBD have exclusive jurisdiction over it, and both parties submit to them.

Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. When we do, we change the date at the top of this page and show a notice in the organization’s admin pages.

If you keep using the service after a change takes effect, you accept the updated Terms. If you do not agree to them, stop using the service and cancel your subscription.

Contact

For questions about these Terms, write to support@causefolk.com.

Our postal address is Causefolk LLC, TBD.