Terms of Service & Privacy Policy

We value the privacy of our donors and never sell, share, or trade your personal information. 

LEGAL NOTICE

TERMS OF SERVICE
PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF SERVICE CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS WEBSITE. YOUR USE OF OUR SITE OR YOUR PROVISION TO US OF ANY CONTENT OR PERSONAL INFORMATION CONSTITUTES YOUR AGREEMENT TO THESE TERMS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE PRIVACY POLICY (THE “PRIVACY POLICY,” WHICH ARE PART OF THE TERMS OF SERVICE AND ARE INCORPORATED HEREIN), ALL AS AMENDED FROM TIME TO TIME. DO NOT USE THIS SITE OR PROVIDE CONTENT OR PERSONAL INFORMATION IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OR IF YOUR JURISDICTION WILL NOT HONOR THEM.

DATE OF LAST REVISION: October 5, 2022

Welcome to the Steppingstone website (the “Site”). These Terms of Service (the “Terms”) are an agreement between Steppingstone (the “Organization”) and you and govern your access to and use of the Site and all information on or submitted through it. By accessing or using this Site, you agree to be legally bound by these Terms. If you are using this Site on behalf of any entity, you represent and warrant that you are authorized to accept these Terms on such entity’s behalf, and that such entity agrees to indemnify you and the Organization for violations of these Terms. For purposes of these Terms and the Privacy Policy, references to “you” means both the individual accessing or using the website and any entity or individual employer or principal for whom you act as an agent. If you do not agree to these Terms of Service, do not use this website.

This website is owned and operated by the Organization. Whenever these Terms refer to “we,” “our,” or “us,” we are referring to the Organization. We reserve the right to change or modify any of the terms and conditions contained in these Terms at any time and in our sole discretion. Any changes or modifications will be effective immediately upon posting of the revisions to this website. Your continued use of this website following the posting of changes or modifications will constitute your acceptance of such changes or modifications. Therefore, you should review the Terms and applicable policies from time to time to understand the terms and conditions that apply to your use of the website. If you do not agree to the amended terms, then you must stop using this website.

You are required to comply with, and to ensure compliance with, all laws, ordinances and regulations applicable to your activities on the Site.

The Organization shall, under no circumstances, be liable for any access to, use of, or reliance on the Site or content accessed through the Site by you or anyone else. This limitation of liability applies regardless of whether such access, use, or reliance was authorized or unauthorized.

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless the Organization from and against any and all losses, damage, liability and costs incurred in connection with any claim, damage or loss related to or arising out of: your use of the Site, any assistance or services provided by us or third parties, any alleged unauthorized use of the Site, or any breach or alleged breach by you of these Terms. You agree to fully cooperate in the defense of any of the foregoing. We reserve the right to control exclusively, at our expense, the defense of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you. If your obligation to indemnify is limited due to the requirements of federal, state or local laws, you shall be responsible for the negligent acts and omissions of your agents and employees causing harm to third parties or persons not a party to these Terms.

Any and all claims, causes of action or disputes between you and the Organization arising out of or related to the Terms, the Privacy Policy, or content accessed through the Site shall be governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts without regard to conflict or choice of law principles. You and the Organization hereby agree that any such claims, causes of action or disputes shall be brought exclusively in courts located within the county of [Suffolk, Massachusetts] . If any provision of the Terms is found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be unenforceable, all other provisions of the Terms shall remain in full force and effect.

Copyright
The contents of this Web site, including (but not limited to) all written material, images, photos, code, and design are protected under international copyright and trademark laws. You may not copy, reproduce, modify, republish, transmit or distribute any material from this site without express written permission. Embedded or shared content (such as Youtube videos or links to articles) is used according to the terms of host domains and copyright law with respect to its creators.

Trademark
Steppingstone® is a federally registered trademark owned by Steppingstone Foundation, Inc. Any unauthorized use is expressly prohibited.

Agent for Notification of Copyright Infringement

As required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, the following contact is designated for notification of potential copyright infringement regarding this Web site hosted by Steppingstone:

​communications@steppingstone.org

​If you believe this website hosted by Steppingstone infringes a copyright, please provide the following information to the person identified above (17 U.S.C. § 512):
- A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or authorized agent;
- Identification of the copyrighted work(s) claimed to have been infringed;
- Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of the infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the material;
- Information regarding how we may contact you (e.g., mailing address, telephone number, e-mail address);
- A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
- A statement by you that the information in your notification is accurate, and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.

Notice and Takedown Procedure

It is expected that all users of the Steppingstone website will comply with applicable copyright laws. However, if Steppingstone is notified of claimed copyright infringement, or otherwise becomes aware of facts and circumstances from which infringement is apparent, it will respond expeditiously by removing or disabling access to the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity. Steppingstone will comply with the appropriate provisions of the DMCA in the event a counter notification is received by its designated agent.

User-Provided Content
Certain parts of this website may allow you to submit or upload contributions in the form of text or other files. You may also be given the opportunity to e-mail Steppingstone or its staff members. You may not upload, publish or send by e-mail obscene, abusive, pornographic, defamatory, libelous, or otherwise illegal material.

You may not submit, upload, or send content for commercial purposes, or content that solicits goods and services for profit motive or that is not in line with the mission or vision of Steppingstone.

You may not upload, submit, or send content that is abusive or threatening towards other users or individuals. You may not upload, send, or publish content that targets others based on race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, disability status, or economic status.

Any content uploaded, submitted, or e-mailed to Steppingstone or its website may be disregarded, discarded, or deleted without warning. In extreme cases where the violation of the law is in question, we may report submitted, uploaded, or e-mailed material to the proper authorities.

Certain parts of the website may solicit personal data or personally non-identifiable information. The handling of this information is governed by our Privacy Policy.

The Steppingstone website has no intention of collecting any personal data from individuals under 13 years of age without parental consent. Where appropriate, we will specifically instruct those under age 13 not to submit such information on our site and/or will take reasonable steps to ensure parental consent to such submissions.

PRIVACY POLICY
This Policy generally explains how the Site collects personally identifying information and how the Organization uses and discloses that personal information. This Policy applies to information that personally identifies you and that is not publicly available (“personal information”) collected on the Site.

USE OF THIS SITE OR PROVISION OF ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION CONSTITUTES AGREEMENT TO THIS POLICY. DO NOT USE THIS SITE OR PROVIDE INFORMATION IF YOU (AND YOUR PRINCIPAL IF YOU ARE ACTING AS AN AGENT) DO NOT AGREE WITH ALL OF THE TERMS OF USE INCLUDING THIS POLICY.

Third-Party Links
The Terms and the Privacy Policy apply only to the Site. The Site may contain links to third-party websites on the Internet (“Third Party Sites”), and such Third Party Sites have their own terms and privacy policies for which the Organization is not responsible and about which the Organization makes no representation. Your use of all Third Party Sites is at your own risk. It is your sole responsibility to evaluate the content and usefulness of the information obtained from Third Party Sites.

How We Collect and Use Your Personal Information
The Organization is committed to maintaining the confidentiality of your personal information. Personal information collected through the Site will not be released to third parties except to third parties who provide services to the Organization and to the Organization’s non-profit partners, in each case for purposes that are in furtherance of the Organization’s mission, or as required by law.

Steppingstone Site Usage Information
The Organization automatically collects some information from you through your use of the Site, including but not limited to log files, cookies, Internet tags, and web beacons. This information will be used to (a) monitor the operation, technical functions and quality of the Site, (b) compile general statistics regarding use of the Site, (c) analyze demographic information about the Site’s users, and (d) personalize content. We may also use such information for research or improvements of the Site and the services we offer you.

Cookies
Cookies are small text files employed on the Site to recognize repeat users and allow us to observe behavior and compile aggregate data in order to improve the Site for you. Cookies also allow us to count the number of unique and return visitors to our Site.

Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies. A persistent cookie consists of a text file sent by a web server to a web browser, which will be stored by the browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date (unless deleted by the user before the expiry date). A session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.

The law states that we can store cookies on your machine if they are essential to the operation of the Site, but that for all others we need your permission to do so.

Opting Out of Cookies
If you do not wish to receive cookies from us or any other website, you should be able to turn cookies off on your web browser: please follow your browser provider’s instructions in order to do so. Unfortunately, we cannot accept liability for any malfunctioning of your device or its installed web browser as a result of any attempt to turn off cookies.

To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

Information Collected by Third Parties on the Site
In order to enable visitors to make secure donations to the Organization, we have retained the services of Network For Good. When you make an online donation, you may be asked to provide certain contact information (such as your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address) and billing information (such as your credit card number and expiration date) in order to enable your gift to be processed and a confirmation to be provided to you. Steppingstone will not have access to the complete credit card information you enter. Network for Good has contracted with the Organization to use such information obtained from the Site solely for the purpose of processing the transaction and permitting you to access your transaction details. Network for Good’s privacy and security policies are available on its website. We encourage you to read Network for Good’s privacy and security policies so that you understand how it will use, protect, and disseminate the information you submit during an online donation to the Organization.

Contact Information
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the Organization’s Privacy Policy, please contact:

Steppingstone
One Appleton Street, 4th Floor
Boston, MA 02116
Phone: 617-423-6300

Changes to Our Privacy Policy
Because we will continue to implement new technologies and improve the features and services we provide, this Privacy Policy is subject to change. Amendments to this Privacy Policy may be made at any time and will be effective immediately upon the Privacy Policy being posted to the Site. Your continued use of the Site after the posting of an amended Privacy Policy constitutes your acceptance of it. For that reason, we encourage you to periodically review the Organization’s Privacy Policy.
617-423-6300