Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

We collect information you give us directly, and a small amount generated by using the platform:

• •Account information — your name, email address, password (stored as a one-way hash, never in plain text), and account role (Local Member, Institution, Business, or Admin).
• •Location — the city/state you enter, and the coordinates behind it, used to show your Campaign or business on the discovery map and to power “near me” search. You control what you enter; it's never pulled from your device without your permission.
• •Campaign, sponsorship, and business profile content — anything you create or upload: Campaign titles, descriptions, and cover photos; business profile details; Sponsorship Requests and Agreements; deliverable proof (links, screenshots, photos, video); reviews; and messages tied to a Dispute.
• •Donation and payment information — the amount and optional message on a donation, and your subscription plan if you're a Business. We never see or store your full card number — that's handled entirely by Stripe (see Third-Party Services below).
• •Usage information — basic technical data like IP address and browser type, collected automatically as part of running the site (for security and troubleshooting, not advertising).

We use what we collect to:

• •Operate the core features you sign up for — Campaigns, donations, Sponsorship Agreements, and the Accountability Tracker.
• •Show your Campaign or business to the right people, including on the location-based discovery map.
• •Send account, transactional, and Campaign-related emails (verification, deliverable updates, receipts).
• •Compute Trust Score from completed Agreements, reviews, and resolved Disputes.
• •Keep the platform secure, prevent abuse, and enforce these Terms.

We don't sell your personal information, and we don't use it for third-party advertising.

GoFundLocal is built on a small number of service providers who process data on our behalf:

• •Stripe — processes donations and Business subscription payments. Stripe receives your payment details directly; we receive confirmation and transaction metadata, never your full card number.
• •Google Maps / Places — powers city autocomplete and the business discovery map. Your location search is sent to Google as part of that lookup, subject to Google's own privacy policy.
• •Resend — sends transactional email (verification links, notifications).
• •Vercel — hosts the application, our database, and uploaded files (proof screenshots, cover photos, logos).

Each of these providers only receives what they need to do their specific job, not a full export of your account.

We use a single session cookie to keep you signed in — nothing more. GoFundLocal doesn't use advertising cookies, third-party tracking pixels, or cross-site analytics.

We keep your information for as long as your account is active, plus a reasonable period afterward for legal, tax, and dispute-resolution purposes (for example, records tied to a completed Agreement or a donation). You can request deletion of your account and associated personal data at any time by contacting us — some records tied to completed transactions may need to be retained regardless, as required by law.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, export, or delete your personal information, or to object to certain uses of it. You can update most of your own information directly from your account (see /profile), or contact us for anything else.

GoFundLocal isn't directed at children, and accounts are only for people 18 or older (see Eligibility below). We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18 — if you believe a child has created an account, contact us and we'll remove it.

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account. You're responsible for keeping your password secure and for everything that happens under your account. Local Member, Institution, and Business are distinct account types with different capabilities — see How It Works for what each one can do.

A Campaign is a fundraising page for a local cause. 100% of your donation amount goes toward that Campaign's goal — GoFundLocal never takes a cut of the amount you choose to give. A processing fee (covering real payment costs) and a platform fee (supporting GoFundLocal itself) are added on top of your donation, shown clearly before you pay.

A Sponsorship Agreement is not a donation and not money GoFundLocal processes on either side's behalf. It represents a real discount on a Business's own product or service, earned as the Local Member completes and proves agreed-upon deliverables. The Accountability Tracker records that proof and each side's approvals — GoFundLocal doesn't guarantee, insure, or arbitrate the underlying business relationship beyond that record.

Donations and Business subscription plans are processed by Stripe. Business subscriptions renew monthly until canceled, and can be managed or canceled at any time from your Business dashboard's billing portal. Donations are generally non-refundable once processed, except where required by law or at our discretion.

You're responsible for what you post — Campaign descriptions, proof uploads, reviews, messages, and anything else. By posting content, you grant GoFundLocal a license to display it as part of operating the platform (showing your Campaign publicly, for example). You agree not to:

• •Post false, misleading, or fraudulent Campaign or proof information.
• •Upload content you don't have the right to share, or that infringes someone else's rights.
• •Harass, threaten, or discriminate against another user.
• •Attempt to circumvent, exploit, or abuse the platform's security, proof, or payment systems.

Campaigns can be reported by any user and reviewed by an admin; accounts that violate these Terms may be suspended or removed.

Disagreements over a specific deliverable are handled through the in-app Dispute process — either side can open one on the Accountability Tracker, and an admin reviews it and makes a fault determination. This in-app process is separate from, and doesn't limit, any legal rights you may otherwise have.

GoFundLocal is provided “as is,” without warranties of any kind. We don't guarantee that any Campaign will reach its goal, that a Business will honor a sponsorship, or that a Local Member will complete a deliverable — the Accountability Tracker and Dispute process exist to make that reliable, not to eliminate risk entirely. To the fullest extent permitted by law, GoFundLocal isn't liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the platform.

You can stop using GoFundLocal and request account deletion at any time. We may suspend or terminate an account that violates these Terms, with notice where reasonably possible.

We may update this Privacy Policy and these Terms from time to time. We'll update the “Last updated” date above when we do; continuing to use GoFundLocal after a change means you accept the update.

Some business profiles on GoFundLocal were created by us rather than by the business. We compile listings for local businesses in the areas we serve — the name, category, town and map location, drawn from public sources — so that people browsing for local sponsors find a directory that reflects the town rather than an empty page.

A listing like this is marked Unclaimed on the profile itself. It means exactly what it says:

• •Nobody from the business has signed up, confirmed the details, or written anything on it.
• •It carries no Trust Score and no reviews. Those come from completed sponsorships on this platform, and an unclaimed listing has none.
• •It cannot receive sponsorship requests, and being listed does not suggest the business endorses, is affiliated with, or has agreed to anything with GoFundLocal.

If it's your business, you decide what happens to it. You can claim the listing — free, and it doesn't require a paid plan — to correct the details and control what appears. Or you can ask us to remove it, and we will. We review claims by hand, because a listing names a real business and we aren't willing to hand one over on an unverified say-so.

To claim or remove a listing, email privacy@gofundlocal.org with a link to it. Removal requests don't need a reason and we don't ask you to justify them. We aim to action them within five business days.

For questions about this Privacy Policy or these Terms, account deletion or data requests, or anything else you need a person for, reach us at privacy@gofundlocal.org.

Having a problem with a specific sponsorship? Raise a dispute on the deliverable itself from the agreement page rather than emailing us. That routes it to an admin who reviews it against what was actually promised, and the outcome is recorded against the responsible party's Trust Score — none of which happens over email.