Contribute Terms and Conditions for Campaigns

CONTRIBUTE IS AN ONLINE CREDIT AND DEBIT CARD CONTRIBUTIONS PLATFORM LOCATED AT CONTRIBUTE.NYCVOTES.ORG (“THE WEBSITE”) CREATED AND MAINTAINED BY THE NEW YORK CITY CAMPAIGN FINANCE BOARD (“CFB”) AS PART OF ITS NYC VOTES INITIATIVE.

BY USING THIS WEBSITE, YOU AGREE TO THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS THAT GOVERN THE USE OF THE WEBSITE AS WELL AS THE SERVICES ACCESSED FROM IT.

For comments or suggestions regarding these Terms and Conditions or any information contained on the Website, please contact us at contribute@nyccfb.info.

General Information

Contribute is designed to enable candidates running for New York City mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president, or city council, who have registered a candidate committee with the CFB to solicit and accept campaign contributions by credit and debit card online. It is anticipated that the Website will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, except for scheduled maintenance periods. However, unexpected outages that prevent users from using the Website may occur, and the CFB does not guarantee its availability.

By using the Website, you are consenting to these Terms and Conditions, our privacy policy, and Contribute’s use of cookies to enhance the User experience. Your use of this Website is also governed by your CFB registration, in which you have agreed to comply with the New York City Campaign Finance Act (“Act”) and the CFB Rules (“Rules”). If you access the Website from any non-U.S. territory, please note you do so at your own risk and are responsible for compliance with any local laws. Your use of "robots," "spiders," malware, malicious codes or programs, bots, scraping, trolling, automated programs, or any use that adversely affects the Website, users of the Website, or Website or server bandwidth is strictly prohibited.

Definitions

In these Terms and Conditions

“Account” refers to the Campaign bank account into which contributions raised on the Website will be deposited by Stripe, the campaign’s payment processor.

"Agreement" refers to these Terms and Conditions and the Privacy Policy, as well as the Campaign’s registration with the CFB.

"Business Days" means Monday through Friday, except for City of New York holidays.

“Campaign” refers to: a) a candidate for nomination for election or election to mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president, or city council who has registered a campaign committee with the CFB, and who uses, or whose agents use the Website to raise contributions; b) any authorized committee of such candidate, as defined in the Act; c) the treasurer of any such authorized committee; and d) any agent of such candidate, authorized committee or treasurer.

“Financial Institution” refers to the bank that holds or issues your Account.

“Fundraising Event(s)” refers to event(s) which campaigns list on Contribute in order to raise contributions.

“Site Content” or “Content” refers to the material, including without limitation information, data, text, editorial content, design elements, look and feel, formatting, graphics, images, photographs, videos, music, sounds and other content contained in or delivered via Contribute or otherwise made available by the CFB in connection with Contribute.

“Stripe” means Stripe, the payment processor associated with the Website. In order to use the Website, Campaigns must connect with Stripe.

“Terms and Conditions" refers to the terms and conditions stated herein, or as amended by us from time to time.

"Users" collectively refers to Campaigns, contributors, and third parties using Contribute.

"You" and "your" refer to the Campaign user of the Website and the Campaign whose log in information they are using, whether such user is an authorized or unauthorized agent of a Campaign.

"We," "our" and "us" refer to the CFB.

"Your Content" is any material without limitation information, data, text, editorial content, design elements, look and feel, formatting, graphics, and other content that you contribute, provide, post or make available using Contribute.

Disclaimers

We disclaim, for our vendors and ourselves all warranties, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose with respect to the quality, content, accuracy, completeness, currency, freedom from interruption, freedom from computer virus, and freedom from errors or omissions. In no event shall we or any of our vendors be liable for (a) errors caused by you, including but not limited to your supplying incorrect or incomplete information, errors in Your Content, or your failure to protect your data or log in information while using the Website or (b) to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, any and all damages, including indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages including, but not limited to, damages for lost contributions, disclosure of confidential information or loss of privacy arising out of or in any way related to your use of, or inability to use the Website. We encourage all users of the Website to be vigilant and to carefully protect their private and confidential data and log in information. By using this Website, you expressly agree that your use of the Website and any information contained herein is at your sole risk.

Scheduled maintenance periods, unexpected service outages, and periods of unavailability may occur. In no event, will we or our vendors be liable to you for your inability to use the Website during such periods or outages.

In addition, in no event will we or any of our vendors be liable for any act or omission of any third party, including but not limited to your Financial Institution, any contribution system, or any provider of telecommunications services, Internet access or computer equipment or software, or for any force majeure event beyond our control including, but not limited to, fire, flood or other natural disaster, war, riot, strike, act of civil or military authority, equipment failure, computer virus, or failure or interruption of electrical, telecommunications or other utility services. We are not liable for delays caused by a mail or email service or any contribution clearinghouse system.

Using this system does not guarantee or improve the chances of a Campaign receiving public funds through the Campaign Finance Program. We are not responsible for any Website, vendor, third-party, contributor, or campaign errors that might make a particular contribution ineligible for public matching funds pursuant to the Campaign Finance Program.

Privacy of Information

These Terms include our Privacy Policy, which describes how we use your personal information. By using this Website, you acknowledge that we will receive certain Campaign information, and that you are voluntarily providing this information to us. We will not use, rent, sell, or otherwise make available to any third party any information that identifies the Campaign or contributions you receive through the Website, other than to provide Stripe the information required to process such contributions, or to comply with applicable law, rules, or regulations, including the requirements that we audit a Campaign’s contributions and post a Campaign’s contributors’ names, employers, and occupations, and the amount of their contributions on the CFB website. In addition, we also may send occasional emails with election alerts and reminders to contributors who have requested them. If you are concerned about the accuracy of any information displayed on the CFB website, you must contact the Contribute team at contribute@nyccfb.info.

You represent, warrant and agree that (a) you will at all times comply with all applicable local, state, provincial, national and other laws, rules and regulations with respect to information you collect from (or receive about) contributors, and (b) you will at all times comply with any applicable posted Contribute policies with respect to information you collect from (or receive about) contributors.

Campaign Finance Information for Public Disclosure

The Website maintains records (including information displayed through the Website as part of the contribution record) containing personal information about contributors, or information that can be identified or associated with a particular contributor, for the purposes of providing public disclosure, as part of the CFB’s routine business as an agency of the City of New York, in furtherance of its mission and duties and/or obligations to citizens of the City of New York. Examples of this information include the name of the Campaign receiving the contribution, a contributor’s address, employer, or occupation, and the amount of the contributor’s contribution. To the extent these records contain information that is not considered confidential, such information may be disclosed to the public, posted on the CFB website, or made available on the Website as part of the contribution information. If you are concerned about the accuracy of any information displayed on the CFB website, you must contact Candidate Services at contribute@nyccfb.info.

The Website does not store credit card information. Credit card transaction information may be stored by the payment processor, Stripe.

Security

To process contributions securely, we use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), a security protocol that provides data encryption, server authentication, and message integrity for connections to the Internet, to ensure that bank account numbers and personal data you provide by using the Website are not transmitted over the Internet unencrypted, and cannot be viewed by unauthorized individuals.

Using the Website

The Website is an Internet-based service that allows a Campaign to collect contributions via the Internet from contributors using their credit or debit cards. To use the Website, you must have an account with Stripe. For questions about Stripe, you may contact Stripe at https://support.stripe.com. In activating Contribute you instruct Stripe to process these contributions and to credit your Account, based on the Campaign’s agreement with Stripe and the contributor’s contribution instructions provided on the Website, subject to this Agreement.

In order to use the Website, you must provide all requested information. When using the Website, the Campaign is responsible for complying with Federal and New York State Election Law, the Act, and the Rules. Compliance is the Campaign’s responsibility. In no way does the use of the Website relieve the Campaign of responsibility for any errors, misrepresentation, or fraud related to the contributions you collect or your use of the Website. The Campaign is responsible for all Website activity using the Campaign’s log in information.

The Campaign agrees not to modify reports downloaded from the Website, other than to provide additional information specifically required to complete your disclosure obligations to the CFB.

Contribute is not the creator, organizer or owner of the Fundraising Events Campaigns may list on Contribute. Rather, Contribute allows Campaigns to manage registration and contributions to promote their Fundraising Events. The Campaign is solely responsible for ensuring that any page displaying a Fundraising Event on Contribute (and the event itself) meet all applicable local, state, provincial, national and other laws, rules and regulations, and that the goods and services described on the Fundraising Event page are delivered as described and in an accurate satisfactory manner.

You may not use Contribute to post content or engage in any conduct that violates any law, rule, or regulation, or is (in our sole evaluation, when brought to our attention) offensive, harmful, or inappropriate for general audiences, or that we believe constitutes or is likely to encourage or promote any harmful, violent, or illegal activity or outcome.

The CFB does not permit on Contribute, when brought to our attention, content or Campaigns that promote or encourage hate, violence, or harassment towards others and/or oneself. Specifically, we prohibit content or organizations that promote hate toward or the harassment of individuals or groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity. This prohibition extends to the public promotion of this type of prohibited behavior.

You may not distribute any written or other content through Contribute that:

• Impersonates any person or entity, including without limitation any governmental officials or public figure; falsely states or otherwise misrepresents your affiliation with any person or entity; or expresses or implies that the CFB endorses any statement you make without express written approval to do so,
• Promotes or encourages hate or dangerous content (as we've also described above),
• Defames or libels any other person,
• Invades any person's privacy, or contains a person's likeness without their permission,
• Harasses, threatens or seeks to intimidate any person (also described above),
• Is fraudulent, deceptive or tortious, or
• Is protected by copyright, trademark or trade secret law, unless you have the express prior written consent of the owner of such right.

For Fundraising Events posted on Contribute, you represent and warrant to us that you and your affiliates will obtain, prior to posting on Contribute all applicable licenses, permits, and authorizations and that each Fundraising Event and the venues where they are held will comply with all applicable laws, regulations, rules, and ordinances.

To maintain the security and integrity of Contribute, you may not do any of the following:

• Interfere with or disrupt the operation of Contribute or the servers or networks used to make Contribute available,
• Post, transmit through or release into Contribute a virus, worm, Trojan Horse, time bomb, spyware, rootkit, cancelbot, or other computer code, file, or program that is harmful or is intended to damage or hijack the operation of, or to monitor the use of, any hardware, software or equipment, or engage in trolling,
• Access, or program any technology to access Contribute through any robot or "bot," crawling or scraping technology, or other extraction technology (for any purpose),
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to Contribute, other accounts, computer systems or networks connected to Contribute, through password mining or any other means, or
• Engage in any uses of the Website that adversely affect the Website, users of the Website, or Website or server bandwidth.

Our Intellectual Property

You agree that all Contribute content may be protected by copyrights, trademarks, service marks, trade secrets or other intellectual property and other proprietary rights and laws owned by the CFB or made available to the CFB through arrangements with third parties. You agree to use the Site Content only for purposes that are permitted by these Terms and any applicable local, state, provincial, national or other law, rule or regulation. Any rights not expressly granted herein are reserved. The trademarks, service marks and logos of CFB (the "CFB Trademarks") used and displayed in connection with Contribute are registered and unregistered trademarks or service marks of CFB. Other company, product and service names used in connection with Contribute may be trademarks or service marks owned by third parties (the "Third Party Trademarks," and, collectively with CFB Trademarks, the "Trademarks"). The offering of Contribute will not be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any license or right to use any Trademark displayed in connection with Contribute without the prior written consent of CFB specific for each such use. The Trademarks may not be used to disparage the CFB, any third party or the CFB's or such third party's products or services, or in any manner that may damage any goodwill in the Trademarks. Use of any Trademarks as part of a link to or from any site is prohibited unless the CFB approves the establishment of such a link by prior written consent specific for each such link.

Limits on Use

Your use of the Website may be limited by your agreements with your Financial Institution and/or Stripe, your relationship with the CFB, and by applicable law. The CFB is not responsible for the Website not completing a transaction due to any such limit on your Account, or the terms of the Campaign’s agreement with Stripe, and it is not responsible if your Financial Institution fails to honor any credit to your Account.

Release and Indemnification

You agree to release the CFB from all damages (whether direct, indirect, incidental, consequential or otherwise), losses, liabilities, costs and expenses of every kind and nature, known and unknown, arising out of a dispute between you and a third party (including other Users) in connection with Contribute, including any contribution related to Contribute or a Fundraising Event listed on Contribute. In addition, you waive any applicable law or statute, which says, in substance: "A GENERAL RELEASE DOES NOT EXTEND TO CLAIMS WHICH THE RELEASING PARTY DOES NOT KNOW OR SUSPECT TO EXIST IN HIS FAVOR AT THE TIME OF EXECUTING THE RELEASE, WHICH IF KNOWN BY HIM MUST HAVE MATERIALLY AFFECTED HIS SETTLEMENT WITH THE RELEASED PARTY."

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold the CFB and each of its and their respective officers, directors, agents, co-branders, licensors, payment processing partners, other partners and employees, harmless from any and all damage (whether direct, indirect, incidental, consequential or otherwise), loss, liability, cost and expense (including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys' and accounting fees) resulting from any claim, demand, suit, proceeding (whether before an arbitrator, court, mediator or otherwise) or investigation made by any third party (each a "Claim") relating to or arising out of: (a) your breach of these Terms (including any terms or agreements or policies incorporated into these Terms); (b) your use of Contribute in violation of these Terms or other policies we post or make available; (c) your breach of any applicable local, state, provincial, national or other law, rule or regulation or the rights of any third party; and (d) if any, your Fundraising Events (including where Fundraising Events have been posted on Contribute and/or Contribute has been used at those Fundraising Events), provided that in the case of (d) this indemnification will not apply to the extent that the Claim arises out of the CFB's gross negligence or willful misconduct. The CFB will provide notice to you of any such Claim, provided that the failure or delay by the CFB in providing such notice will not limit your obligations hereunder except to the extent you are materially prejudiced by such failure. Also, in certain circumstances, the CFB may choose to handle the Claim ourselves, in which case you agree to cooperate with the CFB in any way we request.

Termination

The CFB may terminate your right to use Contribute at any time (a) if you violate or breach these Terms; (b) if you misuse or abuse Contribute, or use Contribute in a way not intended or permitted by Contribute; or (c) if allowing you to access and use Contribute would violate any applicable local, state, provincial, national and other laws, rules and regulations or would expose the CFB to legal liability. The CFB may choose to stop offering Contribute, or any particular portion of Contribute, or modify or replace any aspect of Contribute, at any time. We will use reasonable efforts to provide you with notice of our termination of your access to Contribute, where, in the CFB's sole discretion, failure to do so would materially prejudice you. You agree that the CFB will not be liable to you or any third-party as a result of its termination of your right to use or otherwise access Contribute.

Legal Notices

Communications to us via the Website or the Contribute email address shall in no way be deemed to constitute legal or official notice to the CFB or the City of New York, its agencies, officers, employees, representatives or agents with respect to any existing, pending or future claim or cause of action against the CFB or the City of New York or any of its agencies, officers, employees, representatives or agents where notice is required by federal, state, or local law. Communications to the CFB or the City of New York via the Website or the Contribute email address shall not be deemed to constitute legal or official notice for any other purpose.

We ask all Website users to use appropriate names and language in the name spaces, address spaces and other spaces (if any) provided on the Website.

Campaigns are prohibited from using false email addresses.

All legal and official notices must be sent to:

In Case of Errors or Questions about Contributions to Your Campaign

If you dispute anything related to how contributions to your Campaign were processed, or if there has been unauthorized use of your password or of your Stripe account, you must contact Stripe immediately pursuant to the terms of your agreement with Stripe.

If you dispute a report from the Website or how contributions are reported by the Website, the Campaign must write a detailed explanation of how and why the report, or the contributions reported, are inaccurate and submit it with the report to the CFB.

If you become aware of any unauthorized use of your password or of your Contribute account, you also agree to notify the CFB immediately by emailing contribute@nyccfb.info.

Governing Law

This agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the City and State of New York (notwithstanding New York choice of law or conflict of law principles), and the laws of the United States, where applicable.

Jurisdiction

You agree that any and all claims asserted by or against the CFB or the City of New York arising under or related to this Agreement or your use of the Website (except for claims by the CFB concerning violations of the Act or Rules, including calculations of public funds to be paid or repaid, which shall solely be heard and determined as set forth in the Act and Rules) shall solely be heard and determined either in the courts of the United States located in the City of New York or in the courts of the State of New York located in the City and County of New York. You further agree that any cause of action arising out of this Agreement or your use of the Website shall be deemed to have arisen from a transaction of business in the State of New York.

Amendments

We may amend these Terms and Conditions from time to time. In such event, we will post the amended Terms and Conditions on the Website.

Liability

Should the Campaign choose to terminate or discontinue its use of the Website, it shall nonetheless remain responsible for recording and accounting for all contributions and refunds processed on the Website pursuant to the Act and Rules.

Feedback

We welcome your comments regarding the Website. Feedback can be directed to us by sending an email to contribute@nyccfb.info.

Miscellaneous

This Agreement constitutes the full agreement between you and the CFB related to the use of the Website. If any provision of this Agreement is held invalid or unenforceable, all other provisions will remain in full force and effect. The CFB, and any vendors or third party contractors partnered with the CFB to provide the Website, may choose not to exercise or to delay enforcement of any of our rights under this Agreement without losing them.

Copyright 2024 The New York City Campaign Finance Board