Terms & Conditions

We're dedicated to maintaining a secure and stable service that project creators can rely on. We guarantee that our online service will be completely functional for >99% of the campaign timeframe. In the event our platform doesn't perform to expectations we have a series of service pledges in place:

We are committed to ensuring that disruptions are never responsible for the failure of a campaign. Where service disruptions occur and affect a campaign, we will do our utmost to compensate affected creators for any live time lost on a case by case basis.
If for any reason a project creator or supporter are over or incorrectly charged as a result of a technical failure by Churchstarter, we guarantee to resolve the issue and submit the refund within 7 days of the proof being produced.
We will respond to any queries directed to Churchstarter through our support channels within 3 Australian business days and we will always provide users with avenues for feedback on our service, negative or positive.
We guarantee to provide accurate information in our communications with project creators and supporters and remain transparent about all matters relating to their projects.

Terms and Conditions

Welcome to the Churchstarter Terms and Conditions (or “Agreement”). This Agreement describes the terms and conditions that govern your use of our services at https://www.churchstarter.com.au (our "Site" or “Platform”). Before you may become a member of our Site you must read, agree with and accept all of the terms and conditions contained in this Agreement and Churchstarter's policies, including its Privacy Policy (the "Policies"). These Policies change from time to time, and you agree that they form part of this Agreement. Our Privacy Policies may be accessed here: Privacy Policy. Each time you use our services you confirm your agreement to be bound by and acknowledge any changes to the Agreement (including the Policies). You also undertake to familiarise yourself with and comply with the Policies relevant to your use of our Site and the services provided under this Agreement (as may be amended from time to time). As you read this Agreement, you should also access and read the information contained in the other pages and websites referred to in this Agreement.

By accepting this Agreement (including the Policies) you agree to be bound by it and also the User Agreements and posted terms and conditions on other websites operated by Churchstarter and its related and affiliated companies, to the extent that you use those websites.

We may amend the terms and conditions of this Agreement from time to time. Amended terms will be posted on our Site. Except as stated in this Agreement, in a Policy, or as otherwise notified to you, all amended terms will automatically be effective immediately. Your continued use of the Service following the posting of any changes to the Terms and Conditions constitutes acceptance of those changes. If you do not agree with such changes to this Agreement (or any of our Policies), you must terminate your membership with Churchstarter. If, after any such changes to this Agreement or any of our Policies you continue to be a member of our Site, you will be considered by us to have accepted the varied terms as part of the Agreement.

Except as specifically described in or authorised by this Agreement, the terms of this Agreement and any of our Policies cannot be amended except in writing signed by you and Pozible.

In this Agreement where the context permits a reference to "you" includes anyone acting on your behalf or with your express or implied authority. A reference to this Agreement includes the Policies, unless stated otherwise.

Churchstarter is a Venue and a Service Provider

Churchstarter is an online crowdfunding service and acts as a venue to allow members who comply with Churchstarter's policies to offer, sell and buy certain goods or experiences within a fixed-price format. Churchstarter allows invited individuals, groups and organisations ("Project Creators") to list projects and raise funds through selling items, experiences and offering services ("Rewards") to new and existing Churchstarter members ("Project Supporters").

You agree that Churchstarter is a venue and as such is not responsible or liable for any content, for example, data, text, information, graphics, images, photographs, profiles, audio, video, items, and links posted by you, other members, or outside parties on Churchstarter. You use the Churchstarter service at your own risk.

Projects

All funds are collected for Project Creators through the PayPal online payment service and/or the Churchstarter Credit/Debit Card Merchant facility. Pozible collects and transfers these funds to the Project Creator only if the project is successfully funded before the Project Deadline.

Churchstarter shall not be liable for the interactions with any organisations and/or individuals found on or through the Churchstarter service. This includes, but is not limited to, delivery of goods and services, and any other terms, conditions, warranties or representations associated with listings on Churchstarter.

Churchstarter cannot be held liable for the actions of a Project Creator, Project Creators are nevertheless wholly responsible for fulfilling obligations both implied and stated in any project listing they create. Churchstarter does not oversee the performance or punctuality of projects. Churchstarter reserves the right to cancel a project listing and refund all associated members' payments at any time for any reason. Churchstarter reserves the right to remove a project listing from public listings for any reason.

Churchstarter is not responsible for any damage or loss incurred as a result of any dealings on the Churchstarter platform. All dealings are solely between you and such individuals and/or organisations. Churchstarter is under no obligation to become involved in disputes between Project Supporters and Project Creators, or between site members and any third party. In the event of a dispute, you release Churchstarter employees, partners and successors in rights from claims, damages and demands of every kind, known or unknown, suspected or unsuspected, disclosed or undisclosed, arising out of or in any way related to such disputes and our service.

Churchstarter cannot guarantee the performance or reliability of the PayPal online payment service. Additionally, because of occasional failures of some credit cards, Churchstarter cannot guarantee the full receipt of the total funds pledged to a Project Creator's project.

Project creators and Project supporters must also agree and comply with the PayPal Acceptable Use Policy.

Churchstarter cannot guarantee the full receipt of pledged funds due to occasional failures when capturing funds from debit and credit cards.

Right to Vary Format, Placement or Distribution

Churchstarter will use reasonable efforts to publish Advertising in the format and in the position specified to the Customer. However, Churchstarter reserves the right to vary the placement of Advertising within a title or website or to change the format of Advertising (including changing colour to black and white). Churchstarter will not be liable for any loss or damage incurred by a Customer arising from Churchstarter’s failure to publish Advertising in accordance with a Customer’s request.

Online Advertising Content

All online Advertising (including rich media) must comply with Churchstarter’s advertising and image specifications. Churchstarter will measure online display and banner Advertising (including impressions delivered and clicks achieved) through its ad-serving systems. Results from Customer or third party ad-servers will not be accepted for the purposes of Churchstarter’s billing and assessment of Advertising. Churchstarter is not liable for loss or damage from an internet or telecommunications failure.

Errors

Customer must promptly check proofs of Advertising (if provided to the Customer by Churchstarter) and notify Churchstarter of any errors in the proofs or in published Advertising. Churchstarter does not accept responsibility for any errors submitted by the Customer or its agent, including errors in Advertising placed over the telephone.

Payment

The Customer must pre-pay for Advertising through purchasing Churchstarter credits. Credits are purchased through the Churchstarter platform in the account section of the website. The Customer must pay for Advertising, unless otherwise agreed. Customer must pay GST at the time it pays for Advertising. Churchstarter will provide a tax invoice or adjustment note (as applicable).

Failure to Pay and Other Breach

If Customer breaches these terms, fails to pay for Advertising, Churchstarter may (in its discretion and without limitation):

cancel any provision of credit to Customer;
take proceedings against the Customer for any outstanding amounts;
recover Pozible’s costs including mercantile agency and legal costs on a full indemnity basis;
cease publication of further Advertising or terminate an agreement for Advertising not published;
exercise any other rights at law.

Confidentiality

Each party will treat as confidential, and will procure that its advertising agents, other agents, and contractors (‘Agents’) treat as confidential and will not disclose, unless disclosure is required by law:

the terms of this Agreement;
information generated for the performance of this Agreement, including all data relating to advertising schedules, budgets, forecasts, booked advertising prices;
any other information that ought in good faith to be treated as confidential given the circumstances of disclosure or the nature of the information;
any information derived wholly or partly for any information above;

Each party agrees to take all reasonable precautions to prevent any unauthorised use, disclosure, publication or dissemination of the confidential information by or on behalf of itself or any third party.

Liability

The Customer acknowledges that it has not relied on any advice given or representation made by or on behalf of Churchstarter in connection with the Advertising or other additional Churchstarter services. Churchstarter excludes all implied conditions and warranties from these terms, except any condition or warranty (such as conditions and warranties implied by the Competition and Consumer Act and equivalent State acts) which cannot by law be excluded (‘Nonexcludable Condition’).

Churchstarter limits its liability for breach of any Non-Excludable Condition (to the extent such liability can be limited) and for any other error in published Advertising caused by Churchstarter to the re-supply of the Advertising or payment of the cost of re-supply (at Churchstarter’s option). Churchstarter excludes all other liability to the Customer for any costs, expenses, losses and damages incurred in relation to Advertising published by Churchstarter, whether that liability arises in contract, tort (including by Churchstarter’s negligence) or under statute. Without limitation, Churchstarter will in no circumstances be liable for any indirect or consequential losses, loss of profits, loss of revenue or loss of business opportunity.

The Customer indemnifies Churchstarter and its officers, employees, contractors and agents (the ‘Indemnified’) against any costs, expenses, losses, damages and liability suffered or incurred by the Indemnified arising from the Customer’s breach of these Terms and any negligent or unlawful act or omission of the Customer in connection with the Advertising.

Prohibited, Questionable, Items and Activities

You are solely responsible for your conduct and activities on and regarding to Churchstarter and any and all data, text, information, graphics, images, photographs, profiles, audio, video, items, and links (together, "Content") that you submit, post, and display on Churchstarter.

Your Content and your use of Churchstarter shall not:

Be false, inaccurate or misleading
Be fraudulent or involve the sale of illegal, counterfeit or stolen items
Infringe upon any third-party's copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other proprietary or intellectual property rights or rights of publicity or privacy
Violate this Agreement, any site policies, any community guidelines, any project guidelines, or any applicable laws, statute, ordinance or regulation (including, but not limited to, those governing export control, consumer protection, unfair competition, antidiscrimination or false advertising)
Contain items that have been identified by your local government as hazardous to consumers and therefore subject to a recall
Be defamatory, trade libelous, unlawfully threatening, unlawfully harassing, or impersonate or intimidate any person (including Churchstarter staff or other users), or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with any person, through for example, the use of similar email address, nicknames, or creation of false account(s) or any other method or device
Be obscene or contain child pornography
Contain or transmit any code of a destructive nature that may damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information
Host images not part of a listing
Modify, adapt or hack Churchstarter or modify another website so as to falsely imply that it is associated with Churchstarter;
Appear to create liability for Churchstarter or cause Churchstarter to lose (in whole or in part) the services of Churchstarter's ISPs or other suppliers
Link directly or indirectly, refer or contain descriptions of goods, experiences or services that are prohibited under this Agreement, the Privacy Policy, or other policy documents as posted on Churchstarter.
Furthermore, you may not list any item on Churchstarter (or consummate any transaction that was initiated using Churchstarter's service) that, by paying to Pozible the listing fee or the final value fee, could cause Churchstarter to violate any applicable law, statute, ordinance or regulation, or that violates the Terms of Use.

Fees

Registering as a Churchstarter member and setting up a Project on Churchstarter is free. Churchstarter charges fees to Project Creators only if their project successfully reaches their funding target.

Successful Projects

In the case of successful projects, Churchstarter will initiate a capture of all funds from Project Supporters and transfer the funds to the Project Creator directly (minus the Churchstarter fees).

Churchstarter Service Fee

5%: total funds pledged up to $100k
4%: total funds pledged between $100k - $500k (or projects issued an invitation code)
2%: total funds pledged of $500k or over

Merchant Transaction Fees (Credit Cards) Per Transaction

Australia

2.4% + 30c (Australian Card)

3.4% + 30c (International Card)

SecurePay Fees

Fees vary depending on the the location of your SecurePay account. Fees for Australian accounts are 2.7% + 30 cents for each transaction.

[Australia only] Funds collected through Credit/Debit Card are transferred to the Project Creator by electronic bank transfer.

There is a 7 day* processing period (after the end of a successful project) in which supporters who have had their pledges declined are invited to resubmit their pledge. Thereafter there is a 1-3 business days period for bank transfers to be processed to the project creator’s account. Please factor in this duration when deciding how long your project should run for.

*Note: Funds transfer might be further delayed if authorised parties require extra investigation on certain project funds, e.g. government bodies, police, financial institutions etc. Should this occurs, Churchstarter will notify the project creator(s) in writing.

Charitable Donations

Only registered Australian Not for Profits and Charities with the required fundraising licenses or exemptions may accept donations as part of their Churchstarter campaigns.

Only Not for Profits or Charities with Deductible Gift Recipient status may issue tax deductible receipts and the onus is on the Not For Profit or Charity to issue those as required. Churchstarter provides a downloadable spreadsheet in the project backend at the completion of a successful campaign with the information required to do this.

The individuals running a crowdfunding campaign must be part of or have approval from the Charity or Not for Profit to do so. Churchstarter is not responsible for unauthorised individuals beginning a campaign on behalf of an organisation, however we will remove a campaign at the request of an authorised person from the Charity or Not for Profit.

Donation processing is treated the same as Rewards and will not be processed until such time as the project reaches its crowdfunding target. The standard Pozible service and credit card fees are applicable.

Delivery, Refunds and Chargebacks

Funds collected for Successfully funded projects through the Churchstarter platform are nonrefundable and Churchstarter is not responsible for issuing refunds to Project Supporters. Churchstarter transfers the funds to the Project Creator for successful projects after the project deadline. Project Creators may initiate refunds at their own discretion. If, for any reason, Churchstarter is required to refund monies to Project Supporters, the Project Creator will fully compensate Churchstarter for the amount refunded as well as any associated costs, including but not limited to transaction or administrative costs. Please contact admin@churchstarter.com.au if you need further advice on this.

The Project Creator is wholly responsible for meeting any obligation or Reward stated or implied in their project. Churchstarter is not responsible for the delivery of Rewards stated in projects. Project Supporters should contact the Project Creator if the delivery terms are not clearly stated in the project description.

Like all Policies, we may change our fees policy and the fees for our services. We may choose to temporarily change our fees policy and the fees for our services for promotional events (for example, free service days) and such changes are effective when we post the temporary promotional event. If we introduce a new service, the fees for that service are effective at the launch of the service. Unless otherwise stated, all fees are quoted in the currency of the project. You are responsible for paying all fees associated with using our services and our Site and all applicable taxes (including any goods and services or value added taxes, which will be added to amounts billed to you, if applicable). The Churchstarter fees must never be mentioned on project listings but you may wish to consider Churchstarter fees when determining the funding goal of your project.

You understand and agree that any attempt to make any charge back or otherwise reclaim or obtain a refund of or a credit against any fees paid for the service without first having obtained prior written consent to refund shall entitle Churchstarter to deactivate your account unless and/or until such time as the fees are repaid or a credit or refund is agreed with Churchstarter. Deactivation will include all access to the service including previously purchased additional features and/or the free aspects of Churchstarter.

Furthermore, you may not list a project on our Site (or complete any transaction that was initiated using our service), if the payment to us of the service fee, would be likely to cause us to violate any applicable law, statute, ordinance or regulation, or if the item violates our current Prohibited, Questionable and Infringing Items list current at the relevant time.

The Project Creator agrees to be accountable and responsible for settling any disputes, refund requests and chargebacks from supporters. If these chargebacks are deducted from Churchstarter's account after the project funds has been transferred, The Project Creator agrees to transfer the equivalent amount plus any related fees back to Churchstarter.

Electronic Communications

The communications between you and Churchstarter use electronic means, whether you visit the Site or send us emails, or whether Churchstarter posts notices on the Site or communicates with you via email. For contractual purposes, you (a) consent to receive communications from Churchstarter in an electronic form; and (b) agree that all terms and conditions, agreements, notices, disclosures, and other communications that Churchstarter provides to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications would satisfy if it were in writing. The foregoing does not affect your non-waivable rights.

Support

Churchstarter does provide limited support for the Software or Service. However, Churchstarter may provide access to a protected forum for the User to send any questions and/or comments regarding the Software or Service. Churchstarter does not, however, make any representations or warranties as to the accuracy of any statements or advice provided in response to support postings.

Usage

Improper Usage of Churchstarter. We reserve the right to reduce, liquidate, deactivate, suspend or terminate your Churchstarter membership or access thereto if we terminate the Service or if we suspect, after investigation, that you have misused the Churchstarter service, violated the terms of this Agreement, or have otherwise used the Churchstarter service to conduct any fraudulent or illegal activity.

In the event an account is suspended or terminated for your breach of this Agreement (in each case as determined in Churchstarter's sole discretion), Pozible may suspend or terminate the account associated with such breach and any or all other accounts held by you or your affiliates, and your breach shall be deemed to apply to all such accounts.

General Terms

You and we are independent contractors, and nothing in this Agreement creates a partnership, employment relationship or agency. There are no third-party beneficiaries of this Agreement. You may not assign this Agreement or your rights and obligations hereunder, in whole or in part, to any third party without our prior written consent, and any attempt by you to do so will be invalid. Should any part of this Agreement be held invalid or unenforceable, that portion will be construed consistent with applicable law and the remaining portions will remain in full force and effect. Our failure to enforce any provision of this Agreement will not be considered a waiver of the right to enforce such provision. Our rights under this Agreement will survive any termination of this Agreement. Churchstarter will not be liable for any delay or failure to provide its services caused by a factor outside Churchstarter’s reasonable control (including but not limited to any act of God, war, breakdown of plant, industrial dispute, electricity failure, governmental or legal restraint).

Your Information

Definition. "Your Information" means any item you list as well as any information you give to us or other members in the registration or listing process, in any public message area (including the discussion boards and in feedback) or through any email feature. Your Information also includes the project information you list for sale or display on our Site, as well as any content you post on other web pages within our Site (including photographs or other images).

You are solely responsible for Your Information. We act as a passive conduit for your online distribution and publication of Your Information.

Your Information must not, in any way whatsoever, be potentially or actually harmful to Churchstarter or any third party, where "harm" includes, but is not limited to non-economic loss that will or may be suffered by Churchstarter. The Policies contain detailed statements of prohibited conduct relating to Your Information. Without limiting any provision of this Agreement, Your Information must be up to date and kept up to date and must not:

be false, inaccurate or misleading or deceptive;
be fraudulent or involve the sale of counterfeit or stolen items;
infringe any third party's copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other proprietary rights or intellectual property rights, rights of publicity, confidentiality or privacy;
violate any applicable law, statute, ordinance or regulation (including, but not limited to, those governing export and import control, consumer protection, unfair competition, criminal law, antidiscrimination and trade practices/fair trading laws);
be defamatory, libellous, threatening or harassing;
be obscene or contain any material that, in Churchstarter's sole and absolute discretion, is in any way inappropriate or unlawful, including, but not limited to obscene, inappropriate or unlawful images and, if otherwise adult in nature, shall be distributed only to people legally permitted to receive such
contain any content that is prohibited or that, in Churchstarter's sole and absolute discretion, may be prohibited content;
contain any malicious code, data or set of instructions that intentionally or unintentionally causes harm or subverts the intended function of any Church Starter website, including, but not limited to viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots, easter eggs or other computer programming routines that may damage, modify, delete, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept, access without authority or expropriate any system, data or personal information;
create liability for us or cause us to lose (in whole or in part) the services of our ISPs or other suppliers; or
link directly or indirectly to or include descriptions of goods or services that are prohibited under this Agreement;

Solely to enable Churchstarter to use the information you supply us with, so that we are not violating any rights you might have in that information, you agree to grant us a nonexclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sub-licensable (through multiple tiers) right to do and authorise the doing of all acts comprised in the copyright and to exercise the publicity, and database rights (but no other rights) you have in Your Information, in any media now known or not currently known, with respect to Your Information. Churchstarter will only use Your Information in accordance with our Privacy Policy. We need this to use and display your content.

Tax & Legal Compliance

In addition to this Agreement, you must familiarise yourself with, and comply with the Policies, domestic laws (including common law), state legislation, international laws, statutes, ordinances and regulations regarding your use of our services including listing and supporting projects. In particular, you must ensure that your activities, projects you list (which is part of Your Information), and the balance of Your Information do not violate the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (Cth), the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) and other relevant country based fair trading legislation. Notwithstanding successful conclusion of a transaction you must ensure strict compliance with any particular formalities which, if not complied with, will either render a transaction void or unlawful (eg. the sale of interests in real property ordinarily requires a written document to be created).

Project Creators alone, and not Churchstarter, are responsible for ensuring that the project listing and any other activities conducted on the Churchstarter website are lawful. Project Creators must ensure that they comply with all applicable laws in Australia and all other countries. Project Creators must also ensure that they strictly comply with this agreement and the policies which form part of the agreement.

Project Creators should comply with country, state and federal regulations.

Project Creators should be aware that funds raised using Churchstarter could be taxable income. It is the Project Creators responsibility to declare the funds and comply with local tax laws.

Reference

[[ References for Australian Tax & Legal ]]

Governing Law

These terms and conditions are governed in all respects by the laws of Australia and any action arising under them or in any way connected with the Churchstarter service may be brought only in a court in Australia, subject to any law which is expressly inconsistent with this.

Further Information

Commercially available parental control protections (such as computer hardware, software, or filtering services) may help you to limit access to material that is harmful to persons under the age of 18 years.

Disputes between you and Churchstarter regarding our services, complaints or suggestions should be reported to Churchstarter Customer Support located at support@churchstarter.com.au.

Last Updated: 05 September 2016