These terms apply to everyone who uses Pledglings, which is operated by Pledglings, [registered address] ("we", "us"). Section 2 is for organisers, section 3 is for supporters, and the rest applies to everyone. Our privacy policy explains how we handle personal data.
Questions about these terms go to [email protected].
1. What Pledglings is
Pledglings is a platform for running online duck races to raise money. Organisers set up a race; supporters adopt ducks, donate and sponsor; and the race is run live on a page anyone with the link can watch.
We provide the software. The race, and the fundraising behind it, belong to the organisation running it. Payments are made to that organisation, not to us.
2. Organising a race
Your account
You must be 18 or over and entitled to act for the organisation you set a race up for. Keep your login to yourself. You are responsible for what happens under your account and for the organisers you invite.
Fees
Each race costs a one-off fee of £35, paid when you create it. We take no percentage of entry fees, donations or sponsorship. There are no subscriptions. The fee is not refundable once the race has been created, unless we are unable to provide the race.
Payments to your organisation
To take payments, your organisation must connect a Stripe account and accept Stripe's Connected Account Agreement. Supporters' payments are made to that account, and Stripe pays them out to your bank. Stripe's processing charges are deducted from each payment. We do not set, mark up or absorb them. Your organisation is the seller of record for every payment to its race and is responsible for refunds, disputes and chargebacks on them.
Running the race lawfully
You are responsible for running your race within the law that applies to you. That includes fundraising and charity regulation, and, if your race awards prizes, the rules on lotteries and prize draws. In Great Britain a race with prizes is usually run as a free draw, which is why every race page offers a free postal entry route. Keep that route open and honour entries made through it. If you are unsure, check with the Gambling Commission or the Fundraising Regulator before you launch.
You are responsible for any prizes you advertise, for awarding them to the winners the race produces, and for any Gift Aid claims or tax matters.
The finishing order
Every race is simulated, and the result is final once the race has been run. We do not change a result after the race, and you may not ask supporters to accept a different one.
3. Supporting a race
When you adopt a duck, donate or sponsor, you are paying the organisation running that race, and the payment is a gift to it. Pledglings is not a party to it.
- Contributions to Pledglings. At checkout you can add an optional contribution to us. It pays for the service and is not a gift to the organisation. You can set it to zero. If your payment is refunded, the contribution is refunded with it.
- Refunds. Because a donation is a gift, it is not usually refundable. If you think you were charged by mistake, contact the organisation that ran the race, or us and we will pass it on.
- Free entry. Where a race has prizes, you can enter without paying by sending the printed form on the race page to the organisation.
- Prizes. Prizes are offered and awarded by the organisation running the race, not by us.
4. What you put on a race
Duck names, messages, supporter names and sponsor banners are shown publicly, often on a big screen in a room with children in it. You must not submit anything that is offensive, hateful, sexual, threatening, misleading, or that infringes anyone else's rights, and banners must be yours to use.
We check submissions automatically before payment and may ask you to reword them. The organiser, or we, may remove anything from a race at any time. We are not required to refund a payment because content attached to it was removed.
You keep ownership of what you submit, and give us permission to display it on the race, in its replay and on any screen the organiser shows it on.
5. Using the platform fairly
Do not try to break, overload or get around the security of the platform, interfere with a race, scrape it, or use it to raise money for anything unlawful or for a cause that is not what it claims to be. We may suspend a race or an account that does, and report it where the law requires.
6. Our responsibility to you
We work to keep races running reliably, but the service is provided as it is, and we cannot promise it will never be interrupted. Test your race on the equipment you plan to use, well before the day.
To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect losses, lost fundraising or lost profits, and our total liability to an organiser for a race is limited to the fee paid for it. Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot be limited by law, and nothing affects your statutory rights as a consumer.
7. Ending things
You can stop using Pledglings and ask us to close your account at any time. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms. Payments already made to an organisation stay with it.
8. Changes and the law
We may update these terms, and will change the date at the top when we do. If a change materially affects organisers, we will email them before it takes effect. A race already paid for runs on the terms in place when it was created.
These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and its courts have jurisdiction, though if you live elsewhere in the UK you may also bring a claim in your local courts.