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Terms of Use

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Terms of Use

These Terms of Use were last revised on June 3, 2020.

Welcome to www.water.org (“Website”), operated by Water.org, a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (“Water.org”, “we”, “our”, or “us”).

Please read these terms and conditions (“Terms”) and our Privacy Policy carefully before using the Website and our Services. Please note that our Website is available only to individuals that can form legally binding contracts under applicable law.

1. Introduction

These Terms and Conditions (“Terms”) apply to any use of our Website by any donator, fundraiser or user of our Website. By accepting these Terms you acknowledge that you have read, understood and agree to be bound by the Terms. You may not use our Website and Services (defined below) unless you agree to these Terms.

If you are entering into the Terms on behalf of a corporate entity or organization, you represent that you are authorized to accept the Terms on such entity’s behalf, in such scenario the words “you” and “your” shall refer to such entity.

2. Changes

These Terms may be changed by us at any time. If you are registered as user, you will be deemed to accept the amended Terms.

3. Description of Services

Water.org is a global nonprofit organization working to bring water and sanitation to the world and our Website provides opportunities to make donations online to support, establish fundraisers and participate in our programmatic solutions (the “Services”).

A more detailed description of our Services can be found on our Website.

4. No Legal Advice or Attorney-Client Relationship

Information contained on or made available through the Website is not intended to and does not constitute legal advice, recommendations, mediation or counseling under any circumstance and no attorney-client relationship is formed. We do not provide accounting, tax or financial advice and you should not rely on any information given on our Website to determine the accounting, tax or financial consequences of making a donation using our Services.

5. Use of the Services

To use our Services, you will need to follow the procedures as set out on our Website, and you may only use the Services and our Website for lawful purposes. In order to use the Services, you will have to provide us with certain information. All such information is governed by our Privacy Policy.

5.1 When you donate

When you make any charitable gift in cash or in-kind (“Donation”), you will have to follow the procedures as set out on our Website when you click the “Donate” button and provide us with certain information. You agree that:

  • All information submitted by you is current, complete, accurate and truthful;
  • Your Donation is explicitly provided as an unrestricted gift and we make no representation, warranty, covenant or guarantee that a Donation will be used for any particular geographic region, project, community, village, or person, and that the Donation; and
  • We retain control over your Donation and that your Donation may be used for administrative, governance and program activities including, but not limited to: (i) new partner certification, (ii) partner development, (iii) community mobilization, education, training, and management, (iv) hygiene education and sanitation construction, (v) construction of water facilities, (vi) project monitoring and evaluation, and (vii) general program and informational outreach or any other activity consistent with the mission of the organization.

Details of the procedures for payment and how we will process your Donation are displayed on our Website.

If your donation is accepted, we will confirm your Donation via the email address you give us. The Donation will then be processed by the date set out in the confirmation email. You represent and warrant that if you are donating to Water.org that (i) any credit information you supply is true and complete, (ii) charges incurred by you will be honored by your credit card company, and (iii) you will pay the charges incurred by you at the posted prices, including any applicable taxes.

All Donations are final unless exceptional circumstances are proven. In the event of false use of your credit or debit card or equivalent card, please contact us at [email protected]. We will abide by local legislation regarding reimbursement of Donations.

5.1.1 Security – donations

You may donate money to us directly or through a variety of online payment sites, including Donately and Paypal (“Payment Providers”). We only use Payment Providers we know and trust, however, when you use the Payment Providers your personal information, including your credit card information, is handled by the Payment Provider and according to their respective privacy policies and terms. We encourage you to read and understand these before you donate.

5.2 Creating a fundraiser / Participating in our community

When you create a fundraiser, you will have to follow the procedures as set out on our Website when you click the “Start my fundraiser” button and register you as a user. You agree to provide your true identity (First Name and Last Name) and that all information submitted by you is current, complete, accurate and truthful.

The username you provide in connection with your account may be used to attribute you in connection with any content you submit to any Services.

After registration you will be able to provide us with information about your fundraiser (“User Content”). In this connection, you agree, that:

  • You will provide current, complete, accurate and truthful information;
  • You represent, warrant, and agree that no User Content posted or otherwise shared by you on or through any of the Services, violates or infringes upon the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, or other personal or proprietary rights, breaches or conflicts with any obligation, such as a confidentiality obligation, or contains libelous, defamatory, or otherwise unlawful material;
  • You ensure to log out of your account at the end of your session to avoid anyone else using it;
  • Your account information is kept secret and ensure that the access details do not become known to any third party as you are liable for any misuse of the Services by way of your account information;
  • You must notify us in the event of any unauthorised access to your account or any changes to your account information; and
  • You grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable and fully sublicensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such User Content throughout the world in any media.

We reserve the right, without limitation, to ban or disable your use of the Services, remove offending User Content, suspend or terminate your account, stop payments to any such fundraiser, freeze or place a hold in donations, and report you to law enforcement authorities or otherwise take appropriate legal action including seeking restitution. Water.org will not be liable for any loss or damage arisen from your failure to comply with this section.

6. Limited License; Permitted Uses

You are granted a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license (a) to access and use the Website and Services strictly in accordance with these Terms; (b) to use the Website and Services solely for internal, personal, non-commercial purposes (c) to print out discrete information from the Website and Services solely for internal, personal, non-commercial purposes and (d) stored, distributed or otherwise used for lawful, informational, non-commercial purposes relating to providing humanitarian relief and development programs provided that you maintain all copyright and other policies contained therein. No print out or electronic version of any part of the Website or its contents may be used by you in any litigation or arbitration matter whatsoever under any circumstances.

7. Third Party Content

Third party content may appear on the Website and/or Services and may be accessible via links. We are not responsible for and assume no liability for any mistakes, misstatements of law, defamation, omissions, falsehood, obscenity, pornography or profanity in the statements, opinions, representations or any other form of content on the Website. You understand that the information and opinions in the third-party content represent solely the thoughts of the author and is neither endorsed by nor does it necessarily reflect our belief.

We reserve the right to investigate complaints or reported violations of the Terms and to take any action we deem appropriate, including but not limited to reporting any suspected unlawful activity to law enforcement officials, regulators, or other third parties and disclosing any information necessary or appropriate to such persons or entities relating to your profile, email addresses, usage history, posted materials, IP addresses and traffic information.

8. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold us and our partners, agents, officers, directors, employees, subcontractors, successors, assigns, third party suppliers of information and documents, attorneys, advertisers, product and service providers, and affiliates (collectively, "Affiliated Parties") harmless from any liability, loss, claim and expense, including reasonable attorney's fees, related to your violation of these Terms or use of the Website and/or Services, including any liabilities in connection with state or federal taxes.

9. Copyright and Trademarks

The content, organization, graphics, design, compilation, magnetic translation, digital conversion and other matters related to the Website are protected under applicable copyrights, trademarks and other proprietary (including but not limited to intellectual property) rights. The copying, redistribution, use or publication by you of any such matters or any part of the Website is strictly prohibited however, you can copy text for your own private use. You do not acquire ownership rights to any content, document or other materials viewed through the Website. The posting of information or materials on the Website does not constitute a waiver of any right in such information and materials.

Water.org and others Water.org, including WaterCredit Initiative, are our service marks or registered service marks or trademarks. Other product and company names mentioned on the Website may be trademarks of their respective owners.

10. Copyright Infringement

We respect the intellectual property of others, and we ask you to do the same. If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please notify us at e-mail ([email protected]) with the following information:

a) An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;
b) A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;
c) A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the Website;
d) Your address, telephone number, and email address;
e) A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
f) A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

As a user of our Website, you confirm and agree that upon receipt of a notice, we may immediately remove the identified material from our Website without liability to you or any third-party.

11. Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy is a part of the Terms and we use, store and process information about you in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

12. Termination

We may terminate your account and terminate your access to the Website and Services.

Without limiting the foregoing, the following will result in your termination of your use of the Website and Services:

  • Violation or abuse of these Terms;
  • A request by law enforcement or public authorities;
  • A request from you; or
  • Long periods of inactivity.

As a user you can also disable/delete your account at any time.

You further agree that all terminations are in our sole discretion and that we are not responsible to you or any third party for the termination of your account or access to the Website and/or Services. Cancellation of your account will result in the deactivation of all pages associated with the account. If the reasons for why we terminated your account are resolved, we will reactivate your account all pages associated with it.

13. Liability

We promise that our Website and Services will be provided with reasonable skill and care.

We exclude all other express or implied terms, conditions, warranties, representations or endorsements whatsoever with regard to our Services, our Website or any information provided through our Website.

We will do our best to ensure that all materials and information published on our Website are accurate, but please note that all content, materials and information on our Website are provided “as is” without any representations or warranties, express or implied. Your use of our Website and use of all information contained within it is at your own risk. It is not our responsibility to confirm the truth of the information provided by donors, fundraisers or any other user of the Website and our Services and we cannot be held responsible for any information, confirmation or User Content on our Website.

In no event shall we be liable for any claims, penalties, loss, damage or expenses, howsoever arising, out of or in connection with your use of the Website, including, without limitation, direct or indirect loss, consequential loss or damage, loss of profit or goodwill, loss of data, loss arising from use or inability to use the Website, loss arising from any errors or omissions in the Website as a result of breach of contract, negligence, delict. Nothing in these Terms shall exclude or limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence or for any liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

If we are liable to you for any reason, our liability will be limited to the amount of any donation you have made using the Services. This limit does not apply to any liability we may have for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence or for our fraudulent misrepresentation.

You are responsible for ensuring that your computer system meets all relevant technical specifications necessary to use our Website and is compatible with our Website. You also understand that we cannot and do not guarantee or warrant that any material available for downloading from our Website will be free from infection, viruses and/or other code that has contaminating or destructive properties. You are responsible for implementing sufficient procedures and virus checks (including anti-virus and other security checks) to satisfy your particular requirements for the accuracy of data input and output.

The limitations and exclusions in this clause do not affect your non-excludable statutory rights and only apply to the extent permitted by applicable law.

14. Legal Compliance

You agree to comply with all applicable domestic and international laws, statutes, ordinances and regulations regarding your use of the Website and Services and the User Content provided therein.

Donor contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law, and donors receive no goods or services in return for their donations unless their acknowledgement so specifies. However, Water.org is not an accounting, taxation or financial advisor and you should not rely on information that is given on our website to determine the accounting, tax or financial consequences of making a donation. We strongly recommend that you consult your own advisor(s) about any accounting, taxation or financial consequences that may affect you. You can find a copies of our latest financial reports here.

15. Miscellaneous

These Terms shall be treated as though it were executed and performed in State of North Carolina United States of America and shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of North Carolina (without regard to conflict of law principles). Any cause of action by you with respect to the Website (and/or any information, Documents, products or services related thereto) must be instituted within one (1) year after the cause of action arose or be forever waived and barred. All actions shall be subject to the limitations set forth in Section 19 and Section 20. The language in these Terms shall be interpreted as to its fair meaning and not strictly for or against any party. These Terms and all incorporated agreements and your information may be automatically assigned by us in our sole discretion to a third party in the event of an acquisition, sale or merger. Should any part of these Terms be held invalid or unenforceable, that portion shall be construed consistent with applicable law and the remaining portions shall remain in full force and effect. To the extent that anything in or associated with the Website is in conflict or inconsistent with these Terms, these Terms shall take precedence. Our failure to enforce any provision of these Terms shall not be deemed a waiver of such provision nor of the right to enforce such provision. Our rights under these Terms shall survive any termination of these Terms.

16. Arbitration

Any legal controversy or legal claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or our services, excluding legal action taken by us to collect or recover damages for, or obtain any injunction relating to, Website operations, intellectual property, and our services, shall be settled solely by binding arbitration in accordance with the commercial arbitration rules of JAMS. Any such controversy or claim shall be arbitrated on an individual basis and shall not be consolidated in any arbitration with any claim or controversy of any other party. The arbitration shall be conducted in San Francisco, California, and judgment on the arbitration award may be entered into any court having jurisdiction thereof. Either you or we may seek any interim or preliminary relief from a court of competent jurisdiction in San Francisco, California necessary to protect the rights or property of you and us pending the completion of arbitration. Each party shall bear one-half of the arbitration fees and costs incurred through JAMS.