Terms of service

Using Paddlit

These terms are an agreement between Paddlit and the organisation that signs up to use it (“you”). “Paddlit”, “we” and “us” mean the company that runs Paddlit.

The person who signs up ticks a box to agree to these terms for the organisation, and we record which version of these terms and our Privacy policy they agreed to, and when.

Your volunteers use Paddlit for you. Your guests and donors use the pages Paddlit makes for your events, and they buy from and give to you, not Paddlit.

Our Privacy policy explains how Paddlit handles information, including your guests'.

What Paddlit is, and isn't

Paddlit is software for running fundraising events: guest lists, tickets and tables, bidder cards in phone wallets, check-in, pledges, giving pages, the big screen, texts and emails, receipts, donor history and reports. Which parts you get depends on your plan.

Paddlit isn't a charity, a fundraiser, a bank or a payment processor. We don't raise money, hold it or decide how it's used, and Paddlit doesn't give tax, legal or accounting advice. You run your events and your fundraising.

Parts of Paddlit rely on services run by others: Stripe for payments, Twilio and the mobile carriers for texts, Amazon Web Services for hosting and email, and Apple and Google for wallet cards.

Your organisation's account

Give us accurate details when you sign up, and keep them up to date, including the email address replies should go to.

Owners can change everything in the account, including adding owners, inviting volunteers and deleting the organisation, so choose them carefully. Volunteers see and do only what the roles you give them allow.

Sign-ins use one-time codes sent by email or text, and a PIN on shared devices. Keep them private, sign out of shared devices, and remove people who no longer work with you: removing someone signs them out straight away.

To help you, our support team can see your account as an owner sees it, read-only. Each visit lasts at most 30 minutes, needs a reason, and shows in Organisation settings.

Plans, trials and payments

Plans. Paddlit's plans, their prices and what each includes are on our main page. Prices are in US dollars, and sales tax is added where it applies.

The free trial. A new organisation gets 14 days of the Standard plan free, with no card needed. If you haven't chosen a plan when the trial ends, nothing is charged: a verified nonprofit moves to the Free plan, and anyone else keeps everything but can't plan ahead (make new events, invite volunteers or send links to the whole guest list) until they choose one.

The Free plan is for nonprofits registered in the US that we've verified.

Monthly and yearly plans renew automatically at the end of each month or year until you cancel. We email your owners 30 days before a yearly plan renews. You can cancel at any time in Plan & billing: you keep the plan until the end of the period you've paid for, and it doesn't renew.

Switching between paid plans happens straight away. The difference for the rest of the period is added to, or taken off, your next bill.

An Event Pass is a one-off payment for one event. It lasts until 30 days after that event and doesn't renew.

Texting is charged as you use it, at the prices we show you before you confirm: your own number each month, registering it with the carriers, the carriers' reviews, keeping it registered, and each text. A carriers' review isn't refunded if they turn the registration down.

Sales tax is worked out by our payment processor. If your organisation is exempt, send us your exemption certificate from Plan & billing.

If a payment fails, our payment processor tries again over the following days, and Plan & billing shows what's happening. If it's still unpaid after the last try, or 14 days after it first failed if that's sooner, you can't plan ahead until it's sorted out.

Your event night never breaks. Whatever happens with your plan or a payment, an event in the next 7 days, or one that's live, keeps working with the features it had.

Taking something away from a plan. If we take a feature or a limit away from a plan, it reaches you at your first renewal at least 30 days after the change, and your owners are emailed a month ahead. Anything added to a plan reaches you straight away.

Taking payments: your money, straight to you

When you take payments in Paddlit (tickets, tables, sponsorships, gifts, and pledges collected by card), they're processed by Stripe on your own Stripe account. When you set up payments, you agree to Stripe's Connected Account Agreement, which is between you and Stripe.

You're the seller. Every payment is made to your organisation: your name is on the card statement, and the money goes from Stripe into your account and on to your bank. Paddlit never holds, receives or passes on your money, and takes no cut of it: no platform fee and no percentage. Paddlit is paid only for your plan and texting.

Card fees are charged by Stripe on your payments, at the rates shown in Getting paid. If you choose to, Paddlit asks buyers and donors to add an amount to cover the card fee; that amount goes to you.

Refunds and disputes are yours. You decide whether to refund, and you can refund from Paddlit; a refund can't be undone. If a cardholder disputes a payment with their bank, that's between you, Stripe and the cardholder, under your agreement with Stripe. Paddlit records that it happened.

Cards on file. Only keep a guest's card if they've agreed to it, and only charge it for what they agreed to. Paddlit records each guest's agreement, and staff who add a card for a guest tick that the guest agreed, which is recorded with their name. Pledges are charged only when one of your managers or owners presses the button, never automatically.

Your payment account is yours. It's your own Stripe account, and deleting your organisation in Paddlit doesn't close it or remove its payment records. Stripe may ask you for more details under its agreement with you.

Receipts and tax

Paddlit sends a receipt after every payment, in your organisation's name, and can send your donors year-end statements.

Tax wording is only for verified 501(c)(3) organisations. Once your tax ID is verified against the IRS's list, your receipts show your EIN and the amount that's tax-deductible. Otherwise they say nothing is deductible. Tell us if your tax-exempt status changes.

You set the values. When you sell tickets, tables or sponsorships, you enter the value of what buyers get in return, such as dinner and drinks. Paddlit takes that off the price to work out the deductible amount, and adds the IRS's wording whenever someone gets something back. Those values must be your honest estimate of fair market value, and keeping them right is your responsibility.

Paddlit doesn't give tax advice: check anything you're unsure about with your accountant.

Texts and emails to your guests

Agreement to texts. Only mark a guest as agreeing to texts if they really have. You're responsible for having that agreement under the laws on texting, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Paddlit texts only guests marked as agreeing, and stops texting anyone who replies STOP.

What texts are for. Your texting number is registered with the mobile carriers for messages about your events: bidder cards, reminders, help on the night, payment links and replies to your giving word. Don't use it for anything else, such as marketing.

Registering your number. To set up your number, we register your organisation with the mobile carriers using the details you give us, which must be true and complete. The carriers decide whether to approve it. Until they do, guests' messages go by email.

Volunteers. Only invite people who expect to hear from you. Invitations go by email, and by text from Paddlit's own number when you give a mobile number.

Emails go from Paddlit's email address under your organisation's name, and replies go to you. Paddlit shows you whether they were delivered, opened and clicked, as our Privacy policy explains.

Your guests' information and your content

Your guests' and donors' information is yours to decide about. You choose what to collect and how it's used, and Paddlit handles it on your behalf to provide Paddlit to you. We don't sell it, and no other organisation sees it.

You're responsible for having it. Only add people's information if you're allowed to, tell your guests and donors how you use it, and answer their requests about it. An owner can erase a person's details in Paddlit, and we can do it for you if you ask us; the amounts you need for your accounts are kept, without their name.

Keep sensitive information out. Don't put Social Security numbers, health information, full card numbers or passwords into Paddlit, including in staff notes and chat.

Your name and logo are shown on everything Paddlit makes for you: bidder cards, event and giving pages, emails, the big screen and name stickers. Only upload logos you have the right to use, including your sponsors'.

Our name. Your guests' pages say “Powered by Paddlit”, except on plans that take it off, and your emails say they were sent by Paddlit for you.

Acceptable use

Use Paddlit only for lawful fundraising and events. Don't:

• raise money under false pretences, or for an organisation or cause you don't represent
• sell anything, or raise money for anything, that's illegal where you or your guests are, or that Stripe doesn't allow
• text or email people who haven't agreed to hear from you, or send anything misleading, harassing or hateful
• upload anything you don't have the right to use, or anything harmful, such as viruses
• try to get at other organisations' information, or get round Paddlit's limits
• pretend to be someone else

You're responsible for following the laws that apply to your fundraising, such as registering to ask for donations in the states that require it, and the rules for auctions, raffles and receipts.

Ending your account

You can leave whenever you like. An owner can delete your organisation in Organisation settings by typing its name. Deleting it stops a monthly or yearly plan from renewing, so you won't be charged for it again, and ends a plan we gave you free. If you restore your organisation before the plan's period ends (or before the date we gave it free until), the plan carries on.

Take what you need. On every plan, an owner can download everything your organisation has in Paddlit, as spreadsheets in one file, from Organisation settings, including during the 90 days after deleting it. You can also download each event's pledges, and on plans with donor history, each event's report as a spreadsheet.

What happens. Everything stops at once for your volunteers and guests. Your information is kept for 90 days, and an owner can restore it until then. After that it's deleted for good, as our Privacy policy describes, and your texting number is given up.

Changes to these terms

This page always shows the current version of these terms.

Contact us

Questions about these terms, or need help? Write to us through the contact form on our main page.