Terms and Conditions for Contributors

Contribute Terms and Conditions for Contributors

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 CONTRIBUTOR TERMS AND CONDITIONS THAT GOVERN YOUR 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. For any questions about how your contribution was processed, contact the campaign to which you made a contribution.

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. 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, the word "Account" is the credit or debit card account you designate to issue the contributions you make on the Website. "Agreement" refers to the terms and conditions stated herein, or as amended by us from time to time. “Campaign” refers to the campaign to which you are making a contribution. “Stripe” is the payment processor used by the Campaign to process your contribution. "Financial Institution" refers to the bank or card issuer that holds or issues your Account. The words "we," "our" and "us" refer to the CFB. The words "you" and "your" refer to the user of the Website.

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 or your failure to protect your data 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 profits, 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. 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 or clearinghouse system.

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 personal information, and that you are voluntarily providing this information to us. We will not rent, sell or otherwise make available to any third party any information that identifies you or contributions you make, other than to the Campaign to which you are contributing, or to process your contribution, or to comply with applicable law, rules or regulations, including the requirement that we post contributor names, employers, occupations, and the amount of their contributions on the CFB website. If you are concerned about the accuracy of any information displayed on the CFB website, you must contact the campaign to which you gave the contribution. Your information will be shared with both the Campaign to which you are contributing and with us, just as it would be if you made a credit or debit card contribution directly to the Campaign at a Campaign event using a credit card reader or similar device or by using the Campaign’s website.

Access to Other Information

The Website maintains records 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 missions 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 to the campaign through 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 the campaign to which you gave the contribution. Credit card transaction information may be stored by the Campaign’s payment processor.

Security

To process your contribution 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 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

Contribute is an Internet-based service that allows you to make contributions to a Campaign via the Internet using your credit or debit card. By using the Website you instruct Stripe, the Campaign’s payment processor or its authorized agent to debit or charge your Account, which allows your contribution to be forwarded to the Campaign, based on the Campaign’s agreement with its payment processor and the contribution instructions you provide on the Website, subject to this Agreement.

In order to use the Website, you must provide all requested information. Because federal law prohibits contributions by foreign nationals, you must be a United States citizen or a green card holder. The contribution must be made in U.S. dollars and is not tax-deductible. The contribution must be made from your own funds and not from funds provided to you by another person or entity. The Account must be your own and must be a personal account, not a business account.

You authorize the Campaign’s payment processor or its authorized agent to electronically order the Financial Institution to debit (i.e., make a charge against) your Account in the amount you specify and to initiate any debit or credit entries or reversals, as the case may be, to your Account as may be necessary to make the contribution and to correct any error. Your Account will show a separate transaction for the contribution to the Campaign. Once you complete a transaction on the Website, your authorization to debit or charge your Account for this specific contribution shall remain in full force.

Your contribution is considered approved when you receive an online confirmation.

In Case of Errors or Questions about Your Contribution

If you dispute anything related to how your contribution was processed, you must contact the Campaign. You agree to contact the Campaign as soon as possible if you believe that an error has occurred, or if there has been unauthorized use of your Account.

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 New York City Campaign Finance Program.

Limits on Use

You must be the person authorized to make a contribution using the credit or debit card information provided to the Campaign on the Website. You agree not to use the Website in an amount that will exceed the funds or available credit line in your Account. If you do, the Campaign has no obligation to complete the transaction and you agree that the Campaign may debit your Account for its payment processor’s returned item fee or other similar fee.

Your use of your Account may be limited by your agreement with your Financial Institution and by applicable law. Neither the Campaign nor the CFB is responsible for not completing a transaction as a result of any such limit on your Account and are not responsible if your Financial Institution fails to honor any charge or debit against your Account. At the Campaign’s payment processor’s sole discretion, it may refuse to complete any transaction, which it has reason to believe is not made by you, may violate any law, rule or regulation, or if it has reasonable cause not to honor it.

Communications/Verifications

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.

Users are prohibited from using false email addresses.

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 shall solely be heard and determined either in the courts of the United States located in the City or in the courts of the State 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 you choose to terminate or discontinue your use of the Website, you shall nonetheless remain liable for all amounts you contributed using the Website. You agree to pay all costs and expenses that the Campaign’s payment processor may incur in order to collect any amounts you owe under these Terms and Conditions.

Feedback

We welcome your comments regarding the Website. Feedback can be directed to us by 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 rights under this Agreement without losing them.