Terms of Service

What This Agreement Covers

Welcome to Robots for the Blind, Inc. These Terms of Service explain the ground rules for using our website and making donations. Think of this as a friendly handshake—not a legal trap.

By using this website (robotsfortheblind.org), you're agreeing to these terms. If something here doesn't make sense, please ask us before proceeding.

How You Can Use This Site

This website exists to share our mission and accept donations. You're welcome to:

• Browse and read all content
• Share our pages on social media
• Contact us with questions
• Make tax-deductible donations
• Download publicly available resources

What we ask: Please use the website in good faith. Don't try to hack our systems, scrape our content for commercial purposes, or overwhelm our contact form with spam. We're a small nonprofit—treat our digital home with respect.

Intellectual Property

The content on this site (text, images, videos, logos) belongs to Robots for the Blind, Inc. unless otherwise noted. You're welcome to share our content for personal or educational purposes, but please give us credit and link back to our site.

How Donations Work

We offer three ways to donate:

Payment Methods

• Credit Card: One-time or recurring monthly donations via Stripe. Your payment is processed immediately.
• ACH/Bank Transfer: Direct bank account donations via Stripe. ACH payments take 3-5 business days to clear.
• Wire Transfer: For larger donations, contact us at donations@robotsfortheblind.org for secure banking details.

When Donations Are Final

Once your donation is processed, it's considered final. Why? Because we're a nonprofit—every dollar goes directly to our mission. We put your contribution to work immediately: funding programs, purchasing equipment, and serving the blind community.

Recurring Donations

Monthly donations continue until you cancel. You can cancel anytime by contacting us—no questions asked, no hard feelings. Just give us 5 business days to process your cancellation before the next billing cycle.

Failed payments: If a recurring donation fails (expired card, insufficient funds), we'll notify you via email. After three failed attempts, we'll pause your subscription. You can restart anytime.

Tax Information for Donors

Robots for the Blind, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (status pending with the IRS). Your donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by U.S. law.

What You'll Receive

After each donation, we'll email you a tax receipt with all the information you need for your records:

• Donation amount and date
• Our EIN (Employer Identification Number)
• Statement confirming no goods or services were provided in exchange

Keep Your Receipts

We'll store donation records for seven years (as required by law), but we recommend keeping your own copies for your tax files.

For donations $5,000+: If you donate $5,000 or more in a single year, you may need additional documentation for your tax filing (IRS Form 8283). Contact us and we'll provide what you need.

Not tax advice: We're a robotics nonprofit, not accountants. Please consult with a tax professional about your specific situation.

How We Handle Your Information

We take your privacy seriously. Here's the quick version:

• What we collect: Only what's necessary to process donations and send tax receipts—your name, email, mailing address, and donation details.
• What we don't collect: We don't use tracking cookies, analytics services, or marketing pixels. When you visit our site, you're just visiting our site.
• How we protect it: Industry-standard encryption (TLS in transit, AES-256 at rest), limited staff access, and minimal data retention.
• Payment security: We use Stripe for all online payments. Stripe is PCI-DSS Level 1 certified—the gold standard for payment security. We never see your full card number.

For the full details, read our Privacy Policy.

Services We Use to Serve You

We partner with trusted third-party services to run our website and process donations:

• Stripe: Payment processing for credit cards, ACH, and recurring donations. Stripe's Terms and Privacy Policy apply.
• Cloudflare: Website hosting and security. Cloudflare's Terms.
• Mailgun: Email delivery for receipts and communications. Mailgun's Terms.

Using Our Contact Form

Our contact form exists to help us connect with donors, volunteers, and community members. Please use it for:

• Questions about our programs
• Donation inquiries
• Partnership opportunities
• Media requests
• General questions

Don't use it for: Spam, solicitations, abusive messages, or automated submissions. We're a small team and we read every message—please respect our time.

Response time: We typically respond within 2-3 business days. If your matter is urgent, include "URGENT" in the subject line.

Legal Disclaimers (The Boring but Necessary Part)

We need to be clear about what we can and can't promise:

Website Availability

We strive to keep this website running 24/7, but we can't guarantee perfect uptime. Scheduled maintenance, technical issues, or unexpected problems may cause temporary outages.

Information Accuracy

We do our best to keep all information accurate and up-to-date. However, program details, impact statistics, and other content may change. We're not responsible if you rely on outdated information—when in doubt, contact us for confirmation.

External Links

Our site may link to external websites (research papers, partner organizations, social media). We don't control those sites and aren't responsible for their content or practices.

No Warranties

This website is provided "as is." To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Our Liability Limits

Here's the legal reality: As a nonprofit operating on donated funds, we need to limit our financial liability.

Maximum liability: To the fullest extent permitted by Florida law, our total liability for any claims related to this website or donations will not exceed the amount you donated in the 12 months preceding the claim.

What we're not liable for: We're not responsible for indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages. This includes lost profits, lost data, or business interruption.

Exceptions: Nothing in these terms limits our liability for fraud, gross negligence, or violations of rights that can't be legally waived.

If We Disagree (We Hope We Won't)

We believe in resolving issues through honest conversation, not litigation. But if a legal dispute does arise, here's how it works:

Governing Law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, where Robots for the Blind, Inc. is incorporated. Any legal action must be filed in Florida courts.

First Step: Talk to Us

Before taking legal action, please contact us at hello@robotsfortheblind.org. Most issues can be resolved through direct communication. Give us 30 days to respond and work toward a solution.

Dispute Process

• No class actions: Any disputes must be resolved individually, not as part of a class action or representative proceeding. This keeps legal costs low so funds go to our mission.
• Small claims court: For disputes under $5,000, either party can file in Florida small claims court.
• Arbitration: For larger disputes, we may mutually agree to binding arbitration in Florida under the American Arbitration Association's rules. This is faster and less expensive than court.

When These Terms Change

We may update these Terms of Service from time to time. Here's how we'll handle changes:

Notice of Changes

If we make significant changes that affect your rights, we'll post an updated version here and note the revision date below.

Email Notification

For material changes that impact existing donors (like changes to our refund policy), we'll also send an email notification to your address on file.

Continued Use = Acceptance

By continuing to use this website after changes take effect, you're accepting the new terms. If you don't agree with the changes, please stop using the site and contact us to discuss.

Why we might change things: Our organization evolves—new programs, new technologies, new legal requirements. We'll always strive to maintain our core values of transparency and fairness.

Version history: Previous versions of these terms are available upon request.

If Part of This Agreement Fails

If any provision of these terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid by a court, that provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary, and the rest of these terms will remain in full effect.