Acceptable Use Policy

1. Who may use Aurora

Aurora is sold to nonprofit organizations in the United States — predominantly 501(c)(3) public charities — and an account must be opened by someone authorised to act for that organization.

We do not accept:

• Individuals raising money for personal causes. Aurora has no personal fundraisers and no way to create one.
• For-profit businesses raising money for themselves.
• Political campaigns, political action committees, and organizations whose primary purpose is political advocacy or lobbying.
• Organizations outside the United States, or any organization without a US bank account.

2. Your payment processor's rules apply as well as ours

Donations through Aurora are processed by Stripe or PayPal, and the money settles into your own account with them. That means their rules bind you directly, and Aurora cannot override them or appeal a decision they make about your account.

In particular: Aurora prohibits any use of the platform by a business, or for a purpose, prohibited by PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy or by Stripe's Restricted Businesses list. Both documents are incorporated into this policy by reference and apply in full, as each company publishes them from time to time. Where they differ, the stricter applies.

Both apply to you whichever processor you connected, and whether you connected one or both. A purpose either policy prohibits is prohibited on Aurora — changing processor is never a way to fund something this policy would otherwise forbid.

If you are unsure whether what you are raising money for falls inside one of those categories, ask us before you publish it rather than after.

PayPal's policy: paypal.com/us/legalhub/acceptableuse-full. Stripe's list: stripe.com/legal/restricted-businesses.

3. What you may not raise money for

No organization may use Aurora — and no need, initiative, drive, story or other content published through Aurora may be used — to solicit or receive money for any of the following. This list does not replace the processor policies incorporated in section 2; it names the categories that matter most on a platform that moves charitable gifts.

• Illegal activity of any kind, anywhere it touches, or the financing of it.
• Terrorism, terrorist financing, or support of any designated terrorist organization; violent extremism; incitement to violence; or the promotion of hatred or violence against people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, immigration status, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, or any other protected characteristic.
• Money laundering, structuring, or sanctions evasion; any transaction benefiting a person or entity subject to sanctions administered by OFAC or any other applicable authority; and any transaction with a direct or indirect nexus to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, or the Crimea, Donetsk or Luhansk regions of Ukraine.
• Money transmission, currency exchange, cryptocurrency, or any arrangement that uses Aurora to pass funds to a third party rather than to the organization that published the need.
• Raffles, lotteries, sweepstakes, prize draws, auctions with a chance element, or gambling of any kind — charitable or otherwise. A donation through Aurora must confer no entry, prize, reward, perk, good or service on the donor.
• Human trafficking or exploitation, and any content that sexualises a minor.
• Weapons, ammunition, explosives and their components; controlled substances and drug paraphernalia; products making unproven or unapproved medical claims; tobacco, vaping products and alcohol sales; adult content and services.
• Multi-level marketing, pyramid and Ponzi schemes; bail bonds; debt collection and debt settlement; counterfeit goods, and the infringement of anyone else's intellectual property.
• Anything else prohibited by PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy or Stripe's Restricted Businesses list.

4. Standards for what you publish

This covers needs, initiatives, drives, stories, images, and the text of any public request — everything Aurora puts in front of a donor on your behalf.

• Be accurate about the item, the amount, and who it is for. A need is a promise a donor acts on.
• Solicit only for your own organization. You may not raise money through Aurora on behalf of an organization you do not represent.
• Use each donation for the purpose the need describes. Where you cannot meet a need as described, tell the donors who funded it.
• Do not publish a photograph, a name, or the personal circumstances of someone you serve without their consent. Where a story names an identifiable person, Aurora requires you to record that you have their consent.
• Do not misrepresent your charitable status, whether gifts to you are tax-deductible, or your relationship with Aurora or with any other organization.
• Do not frame an appeal as an emergency, a deadline or a matching offer when it is not one.

5. Standards for donations

These apply to gifts taken through your widget, whoever makes them.

• Do not donate to your own organization to inflate apparent support, and do not solicit donations you intend to refund.
• Do not use Aurora to test card numbers, and do not knowingly accept a donation you believe to be made with stolen payment credentials.
• Aurora and its payment processors monitor for fraudulent, structured or otherwise suspicious donations, and may decline, reverse or report them.

6. The service itself

Using Aurora, you also agree not to:

• Attempt to access another organization's data, donors or records.
• Interfere with the service, the widget, or anyone else's use of either.
• Scrape donor data, create accounts automatically, or work around rate limits.
• Resell, sub-license or otherwise pass your Aurora access to another organization.

7. Reporting a breach

Anyone can report a suspected breach of this policy — a donor, a member of the public, another organization, or someone who appears in a need they did not consent to. You do not need an Aurora account to do it.

Tell us which organization it concerns and what you saw. Every report is read by a person.

Write to support@auroradonate.com.

8. What happens if you breach it

We may remove content, suspend your widget, and suspend or close your account. Where the law requires it, we may report the matter to law enforcement or to a regulator. We will tell you what the breach was, unless we are prohibited from telling you.

Two limits on that worth stating plainly. Your payment processor may act on its own terms and its own timetable, independently of anything we decide — Aurora cannot prevent, reverse or appeal a decision Stripe or PayPal makes about your account. And because Aurora never holds your donations, we cannot freeze or claw back money that has already settled to you. Suspension stops future donations, not past ones.

9. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy in a way that affects what you are allowed to do, we will email account holders and update the effective date at the top, and you will be asked to accept the updated version the next time you sign in. Continuing to use Aurora after that date means the updated policy applies.

How we handle personal information is set out separately in our Privacy Policy.