Local Charities Worldwide
Terms & Conditions
Last Updated December 2020
Please, read our terms and conditions carefully.
By applying to be, and continuing to be, a partner of Local Charities Worldwide, a charity, social enterprise or similar organization (also called a “charity” for the purposes of these terms and conditions) is agreeing to all of the following terms and conditions. If the charity does not wish to be bound by these terms and conditions, the charity should not continue to use any of the Local Charities Worldwide services (as defined below). Local Charities Worldwide operates in a number of countries globally, and our terms and conditions are in accordance with international laws and apply to all our charity partners, wherever they are located.
Charities that meet our registration criteria and follow our partnership application process (as defined below) become an official “charity partner” of Local Charities Worldwide, which allows them to use and benefit from all of Local Charities Worldwide services. The following terms and conditions govern a charity partner’s use of all Local Charities Worldwide services.
Local Charities Worldwide may change or update these terms and conditions at any point in time. It is the charity partner’s responsibility to access, read and understand these terms and conditions before filling in a partnership application form with Local Charities Worldwide, or making use of Local Charities Worldwide services. The latest version of these terms and conditions will govern any future usage by the charity partner of the Local Charities Worldwide services, and supersede and replace all previous versions.
1. Local Charities Worldwide: status, purpose & services.
1.1 Local Charities Worldwide is a non-profit organization officially registered in 2020 with the Chamber of Commerce of the Netherlands, under kvk n° …….
1.2 Local Charities Worldwide is a media and publishing organization operating an international information website and search platform (referred to as either “website” or “platform” hereafter), https://localcharitiesworldwide.org/ which exists to promote small local charities around the world and assist them with their communication and fundraising efforts, in order to help them get more visibility and support for their charitable causes.
1.3 The services provided by Local Charities Worldwide are subject to future modification and/or diversification. As of today, these services are:
- Promotion of charity partners. Local Charities Worldwide designs, writes, publishes and highlights on its platform a detailed and visual profile for each charity that has agreed to enter a partnership with us. The charity partner’s profile is easily findable, freely accessible and redirects the reader to the charity partner’s own website. Local Charities Worldwide also promotes its charity partners with featured posts, blog articles and other promotional campaigns in English, shared on Local Charities Worldwide’s website, social media pages and other online or offline channels, including but not limited to email contacts (newsletter), eventual networking or fundraising events we attend or organize, and word-of-mouth.
- Information for individuals. Local Charities Worldwide aims to publish charity-related news, and to make information otherwise difficult to find (namely, information in English about small local charities who need urgent support), widely accessible, known and visible. Individual users / givers anywhere in the world can visit Local Charities Worldwide‘s platform to access verified and truthful information about charitable causes that they care about, and to find legitimate and accountable small local charities to support.
2. Charity partner: registration criteria.
2.1 A charity partner is defined by Local Charities Worldwide as: a charity that was either contacted by Local Charities Worldwide or that contacted us themselves (we do not list charities which we haven’t spoken to directly); a charity that can prove that they meet all of the following registration criteria; and, a charity of which the duly authorised representative has correctly filled in the partnership application form. A charity that doesn’t satisfy all three of these requirements will not be considered a partner and will therefore not enjoy the rights and advantages brought by a partnership with Local Charities Worldwide (as defined below in item 3. of these terms and conditions: partnership agreement).
2.2 The registration criteria required by Local Charities Worldwide are subject to future modification. As of today, these criteria are:
- Official status. We require a charity partner to either be legally registered as a charity with the relevant institution (Chamber of Commerce or similar) in their country of origin, or to be an official non-profit subsidiary / division of a registered company or official collective or federation. We do not list individual charity initiatives that do not have a recognized status of any kind.
- Charitable purpose. A charity partner must work to achieve one or more of the charitable purposes as defined by the law, including but not limited to: advancing health, education, religion, culture or public welfare; advocating for social justice and human rights; preventing or relieving the suffering of animals; protecting the natural environment.
- Non-profit operations. Charities we list under the “Environment”, “Animals” and “People” pillars must be 100% tax-exempt non-profits, that is to say the entirety of their yearly income must be used for charitable actions and the maintenance of their operations (rent, wages, transport costs, etc.). Distributing dividends to shareholders or using the charity’s funds for anything that does not contribute, directly or indirectly, to the charity’s operations will be a disqualifying factor for a listing on the Local Charities Worldwide‘s platform. Organizations we list under the “Social enterprises” pillar can be for-profit businesses, but they must be able to prove that they invest a minimum of 20% of their yearly profit back into programs that maximize improvements in social or environmental well-being. Furthermore, they must be at least 5% non-profit, that is to say that 5% of their yearly profit must be used for or donated to charitable actions.
- Small and local. We define a local charity as one that is established for purposes and activities directly and exclusively benefitting the regional area (village, city, county or province) where they are located. We do not list charities operating on a national or international scale. We define a small charity as one which has a total annual budget of less than US$ 250,000. This amount can be higher if the charity is facing challenges of stability and growth, but will never excess US$ 1 million.
- English language. We ask that a charity partner be able to communicate in English (at least one person in the charity’s team should speak English), and that at least parts of the charity’s website (especially the donation page) and documents be written in English.
- Accountability and transparency. A charity partner must be accountable for the use they make of the donations they receive, and transparent about their activities. We only list charities that can show us solid evidence (photos, testimonials, local news article, etc.) of concrete local charitable actions which they are currently undertaking, or that have a detailed plan for a charitable project they need funds for. Actions older than a year old which are no longer ongoing will not qualify.
- Ambassador. Local Charities Worldwide works with humans, for humans, and we like to know the faces behind the charities we work with. A charity partner must be able to provide Local Charities Worldwide with the contact details of a duly authorised representative for the charity, someone who could act as ambassador of the charity partner on our channels, and with whom our team can have privileged contact.
2.3 Exception. All charity partners without exception must meet all above registration criteria if they wish to benefit from Local Charities Worldwide services. Local Charities Worldwide DOES NOT AND WILL NOT promote charities which haven’t been vetted by our team. This is to ensure that we do not promote and enable scammers or otherwise fraudulent websites and/or fake charities. However, Local Charities Worldwide is set up with kindness and the will to help, so we will be accommodating if a charity does not yet satisfy all our criteria but can provide references and/or evidence that they are actively working towards satisfying these criteria in the near future.
2.4 Cancellation of registration. Should it come to our attention that a charity partner already listed on Local Charities Worldwide‘s platform does not comply or has stopped complying with one or several of our registration criteria and/or with these terms and conditions, we reserve the right to immediately remove this charity partner’s profile from Local Charities Worldwide‘s platform and/or all other channels, without any liability to Local Charities Worldwide or obligation for Local Charities Worldwide to give any further explanation to the charity. The charity in question shall be notified in written (by email) of the removal.
3. Partnership agreement.
3.1 Beginning of partnership. A partnership between Local Charities Worldwide and a charity begins once the charity has filled in and sent back the partnership application form provided to them by Local Charities Worldwide, and once Local Charities Worldwide has approved the form and has vetted the charity. The commencement date of the partnership is the day the charity partner has been notified in written (by email) that they have been successfully registered. From this point forward, Local Charities Worldwide shall provide the Local Charities Worldwide services to the charity partner and the charity partner shall comply with the present terms and conditions, until the partnership is validly terminated.
3.2 Cost of partnership. All of Local Charities Worldwide services will not be monetized and will always be completely free of charge for all charity partners. Local Charities Worldwide will not ask for any financial contribution from its charity partners, for any reason, and will also not make any financial contribution into any charity as Local Charities Worldwide (the team members of Local Charities Worldwide are free individuals who may give to a charity partner whenever they want to, but they will do so in their own names and never on behalf of Local Charities Worldwide).
3.3 Partnership application form. The partnership application form is a digital file attached to an email sent by a member of our team to a charity that has requested a partnership, either via Local Charities Worldwide‘s website or via direct phone call / email or any other means of contact. The partnership application form acts as the official document acknowledging a partnership between Local Charities Worldwide and the charity partner that has filled it in. No further contract is needed. The partnership application form is subject to future modification and Local Charities Worldwide reserves the right to ask its charity partners to complete it or sign it again in the future, with the newest version always superseding the previous ones.
3.4 Volunteers. The charity partner understands and accepts that every team member of Local Charities Worldwide, including the founder, are unpaid volunteers who use their limited free time to run Local Charities Worldwide. As a result, Local Charities Worldwide cannot at any time be expected to operate in the same manner as a fully-staffed company, and cannot be held liable for delayed answers, etc.
3.5 Charity partner’s control over published information throughout the partnership. Local Charities Worldwide reserves the right not to share its website and social media login details and not to allow administrator or editorial access to its website or any other of its communication channels to its charity partners. However, Local Charities Worldwide commits to modify, retract or delete any information published on all of its channels (website, social media pages, newsletter, etc.) about a charity partner, at the request of the charity partner, without the charity partner having to give a reason for the changes, and within a maximum delay of 30 days.
3.6 Charity partner’s obligations throughout the partnership.
- Be law-abiding. The charity partner must ensure that all content (including text, links to third party sites and images) they supply to Local Charities Worldwide for display on the Local Charities Worldwide ‘s platform do not violate any law or regulation or be defamatory, misleading, obscene or breach any intellectual property rights of a third party or breach any right of or duty owed to a third party.
- Be transparent. The charity partner will inform Local Charities Worldwide immediately if, for any reason, it : ceases to carry on operating for charitable purposes; is found to be engaged in any corrupt or immoral practices; is subject to any investigation or inquiry which could result in the necessary authority, permit, licence, consent, approval and/or registration for it to operate as a charity in accordance with applicable local laws being suspended, revoked or withdrawn; or ceases to have the necessary authority, permit, licence, consent, approval and/or registration for it to operate as a charity in accordance with applicable local laws. The charity partner also commits to promptly provide any information reasonably requested by Local Charities Worldwide in order for Local Charities Worldwide to be able to provide the Local Charities Worldwide services effectively.
3.7 End of partnership. Both Local Charities Worldwide and a charity partner can end their partnership with immediate effect, at any time, without having to give a reason, and without any liability to them. To be valid, the termination of the partnership should be done in written (by email to info@localcharitiesworldwide.org) by the party who wishes to end the partnership and the other party should acknowledge in written (by email) that they have received this notification of termination. Unless it has been terminated, a partnership between Local Charities Worldwide and a charity will continue for an unlimited period of time. After a partnership has ended, Local Charities Worldwide will immediately delete the former charity partner’s profile on Local Charities Worldwide’s website, but may keep some information about the former charity partner published, including but not limited to blog posts or Instagram stories, only if authorized to do so, in written, by the former charity partner.
3.8 End of partnership, special case. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Local Charities Worldwide, in any event, reserves the right to withdraw the Local Charities Worldwide services (or any part of them) from public access at any time, at its complete discretion. In this case the ongoing partnership with charity partners will be automatically terminated, with immediate effect.
4. Donations and fundraising.
4.1 Intermediary. Local Charities Worldwide, as operator of the Local Charities Worldwide services, acts only as an intermediary between the charity partners and the individual users of the Local Charities Worldwide‘s website. Local Charities Worldwide does not receive, handle or manage any donation on behalf of or intended for any of its charity partners, on its purely informative website. All donations made by donors / givers are received and treated directly by the charity partners, without any control from, knowledge by or liability to Local Charities Worldwide.
4.2 Traceable donations. The charity partner must ensure that, in each case where a donor / giver is advised that his/her/their donation will be used for a specific purpose, appeal or outcome, the donation is used ONLY for that specific purpose, appeal or outcome.
4.3 Fundraising. The charity partner will maintain the necessary authority, permit, licence, consent, approval and/or registration for it to fundraise (and, where applicable, for Local Charities Worldwide to fundraise on its behalf) in accordance with applicable local laws, and so will Local Charities Worldwide. Any funds collected during a fundraising event organised by Local Charities Worldwide will be entirely redistributed to the relevant local charities or to the specific cause that the event was fundraising for; Local Charities Worldwide will be fully transparent on and accountable for the use made of all funds it raises, be it on behalf of charity partners or otherwise specified.
5. Labels.
5.1 Local Charities Worldwide reserves the right to structure and present all the content it is permitted to publish on its website as it sees fit. For a more enjoyable user experience, we might occasionally boost or highlight certain charity partners’ profiles and certain news, by using quality standard labels and/or featured labels. For example:
5.2 The “newly listed” label will be added to every new charity partner’s profile going live, and will stay on the profile for a period of about 3 months.
5.3 The “local charity of the month” label will be added to the profile of the charity partner which has had the highest number of unique visitors in one given month, and/ or for which we have received the most positive feedback from givers.
5.4 The “volunteers wanted” label will be added to the profiles of the charity partners that have indicated being open to volunteers and having vacant volunteering positions within their teams.
6. Treatment of personal or confidential information.
6.1 Local Charities Worldwide’s engagement. Local Charities Worldwide will capture through its website or its other services personal information and/or private and confidential information, including but not limited to, a charity’s name, address and email address, a charity staff members’ names, details about a charity’s operations and performance, or an individual website’s user name and location. Personal or confidential information will be collected at all times in accordance with the privacy laws and regulatory requirements of the territory where charities and/or individual users access our website; Local Charities Worldwide will not sell or rent such information to third parties nor make any other unauthorized use of it, and will do everything in its power to protect and keep secure such information. Charities and other users of the Local Charities Worldwide‘s website should refer to the Local Charities Worldwide Privacy Policy and Cookies Policy for more details on how Local Charities Worldwide treats personal information collected through its website.
6.2 Charity partner’s obligations. To the extent that the charity partner’s use of the Local Charities Worldwide services results in access to any other user’s personal or confidential information, the charity partner will : comply with the local privacy laws in respect of the collection, use, disclosure or processing of such information; not do anything to compromise the security of such information; not sell, trade or rent such information to third parties; implement adequate security, technical and organizational measures against all unauthorized, unlawful or accidental access, processing, use, erasure, loss or destruction of, or damage to, such information in accordance with global privacy laws; use such information appropriately and only for the specific purposes as notified to the charity from time to time by Local Charities Worldwide, including by way of the applicable privacy policy available on Local Charities Worldwide’s website; and not retain any personal information for longer than is necessary.
6.3 Storage of private information. During the term of the partnership between a charity partner and Local Charities Worldwide, and for a period of five (5) years thereafter, both parties shall treat as strictly confidential all information about the other which has been acquired as a result of the use of Local Charities Worldwide’s services and which is not available under the public domain license. No party shall use or disclose to any third party such information belonging to the other party without that party’s prior written consent, except where required to do so by applicable local law or regulatory or governmental body.
6.4 Exception. The partnership application form is accepted as a formal expression of written consent to disclose a charity partner’s contact details on the Local Charities Worldwide’s website. If a charity partner does not wish this information to be disclosed they should notify us clearly, prior to confirming the partnership.
7. Intellectual property rights and copyright licence.
7.1 Ownership of copyright. ALL intellectual property rights in any material (including text, photographs and other images, trademarks and logos) contained in the Local Charities Worldwide services are either owned by Local Charities Worldwide or have been licensed to Local Charities Worldwide by the rights owner(s) so that Local Charities Worldwide can use this material as part of providing the Local Charities Worldwide services. It is strictly forbidden to copy, download, transfer, modify, use for commercial purposes or distribute any of the material published on the Local Charities Worldwide’s website without the express authorization of Local Charities Worldwide and proper attribution to Local Charities Worldwide.
7.2 Local Charities Worldwide’s rights on a charity partner’s content. When filling in the partnership application form and sending it back to us, the charity partner thereby expressly grants to Local Charities Worldwide, its affiliates and its partners a non‑exclusive, worldwide and royalty-free licence to use its name and logo in connection with the performance and promotion of the Local Charities Worldwide services, as well as all the texts and photos and other publishable materials the charity partner has provided Local Charities Worldwide with. This licence shall terminate automatically on valid termination of the partnership between a charity and Local Charities Worldwide, with possible exceptions where authorized in written by the charity partner, in accordance with sections 3.7 and 3.8 above.
8. Records and Audit Requirements.
8.1 Local Charities Worldwide will keep and maintain proper records of its available funds and of all donations it may receive during fundraising events, as well as records which relate to its charity partners (records which the charity partners may have access to and take copies of at their own expense on request and at reasonable times), as may from time to time be required by the applicable local governmental body that has authority to audit Local Charities Worldwide‘s activities.
8.2 All charity partners are responsible to keep and maintain their own records of all their available funds and of all the donations they may receive. Local Charities Worldwide shall not in any event be held liable should a charity partner fail an audit.
9. Website and security.
9.1 Local Charities Worldwide will comply at all times with all applicable laws and applicable authority, licence, permit or registration requirements which govern its online activities, including the hosting and operating of the Local Charities Worldwide‘s website.
9.2 Local Charities Worldwide will protect the integrity of its website and all the information it contained by undertaking regular maintenance and upkeep of its website and ensuring all security certificates are up-to-date.
10. Liability.
10.1 Disclaimer. The charity partner agrees that the Local Charities Worldwide services are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis and that its use of the Local Charities Worldwide services is at the charity partner’s sole risk. Local Charities Worldwide cannot and does not guarantee that its services will not be interfered with by numerous factors outside of Local Charities Worldwide‘s control. On that basis, except as expressly set out in these terms and conditions, Local Charities Worldwide does not enter into conditions, warranties or other terms in relation to the Local Charities Worldwide services, and they are excluded to the fullest extent permissible by law.
10.2 Local Charities Worldwide’s liability. In no event shall Local Charities Worldwide be held liable for any loss or damage which the charity partner may claim to have suffered as a result of its (or any donor’s or other user’s) accessing and use of, or inability to access and use, the Local Charities Worldwide services, including but not limited to, exemplary or special damages, loss of donations, loss of any software or data, loss of opportunity, loss of or waste of management or other staff time, or for any indirect, incidental or consequential damages, however arising. Local Charities Worldwide shall not be held liable should any content or information published on its website or other channels be copied, relayed or stolen by a third-party without our consent.
10.3 Exception. Some countries do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties or limitation of liability for incidental or consequential damages, which means that some of the limitations in sections 10.1 and 10.2 may not apply to the charity partners based in those countries. In these countries, Local Charities Worldwide’s liability will be limited to the greatest extent permitted by law.
10.4 Insurance. Each party must at all times ensure that they have and that they maintain for their organization and for their staff members the adequate insurances as are required by local applicable laws. Local Charities Worldwide is not liable in any event should a charity partner not have the required insurances.
10.5 Charity partner’s liability. The charity partner shall be liable for and shall indemnify Local Charities Worldwide, its successors and assigns against any and all claims, actions, liabilities, losses, damages and expenses (including legal expenses) incurred by Local Charities Worldwide which arise (directly or indirectly) out of or in connection with any third party demand, claim or action alleging infringement of the third party’s intellectual property rights.
10.6 Dispute resolution. In the event of a dispute under these terms and conditions or concerning its subject matter, either party should give written notice to the other requesting that a meeting take place to seek to resolve the dispute. The nominated senior representatives of both parties must meet (through video call is also accepted if a meeting in person is not possible) and try to resolve the dispute in good faith. If such a meeting does not take place or if ten business days after the meeting the dispute remains unresolved, either party may pursue its rights at law. Despite the existence of a dispute, each party must continue to perform its obligations under these terms and conditions.
These terms and conditions have been written in accordance with Dutch law, European law and International law. Should any item in these terms and conditions remain unclear to you, please contact us at info@localcharitiesworldwide.org for clarifications.
Thank you and have a wonderful day!
