Terms of service

SendGather is operated by Rope Labs LLC. These terms are between us and the organization whose coordinator creates an account.

People who are asked to contribute something do not have an account and do not agree to these terms. Their relationship is with the organization that asked them.

Whoever creates an organization is told, at the moment they create it, that doing so accepts these terms and the acceptable use policy. We record which version was in force and when — the version in force is shown at the top of this page.

Organizations created before this was recorded have no such record, and we do not claim otherwise.

Signing in is by emailed link — there are no passwords. Whoever receives mail at an allowlisted address can sign in, so keeping that mailbox secure is the organization’s responsibility. Owners can require an authenticator app in addition.

Each organization has one owner, who cannot be removed and who controls who else has access.

What an organization collects belongs to it. We store and process it to run the service, and for nothing else — we do not use it to train anything, and we do not sell it. An organization can download everything it holds at any time.

You decide who to ask, what to ask them for, and what to do with the answers. We provide the tool; the relationship with the people you ask is yours, and so are the promises you make them.

You will indemnify us against any claim, loss or cost — including reasonable legal fees — brought by somebody else and arising out of what your organization collects through the service, who it asks, or how it uses what it collects, including a breach of these terms or the acceptable use policy.

This does not cover a claim caused by our own breach, negligence or wrongdoing. We will tell you promptly about any claim we want covered, let you take over defending it, and not settle it without asking you.

In plain terms: if somebody objects to being asked, or to what was asked of them, that is between them and the organization that asked — not between them and us. It is the same line the whole product is built on, and this is where it becomes a term rather than a design principle.

The acceptable use policy forms part of these terms. The short version: only ask people your organization already has a relationship with, and do not use it as a mailing list — not for marketing, and not for anything else the acceptable use policy does not cover.

A recipient can ask not to be emailed by your organization. When they do, we stop sending to them for you and you cannot override it. You can start again only if they ask you to, and we record that you did. It applies to your organization alone.

The service is paid for with credits, bought in advance. One credit is used for each person a request is sent to — so asking fourteen people uses fourteen credits, whether you ask them once or chase them ten times. Reminders are free. Adding people to your address book is free. Only asking costs.

A ballot costs one credit for each motion or election put to each voter. Putting three motions to nine people uses twenty-seven credits, because each of those people is being asked to decide three separate things. We price it that way rather than per ballot so that putting three motions on one paper costs the same as sending three, and you are never charged for choosing the arrangement that is easier for your voters to read. As with a request, reminding people costs nothing, and the cost is shown with its arithmetic before you send.

An election is one of those things however many people stand. Electing two trustees from four nominees is one decision put to each voter, so a paper with two elections on it costs nine people eighteen credits — the same as two motions. A contested election never costs more than an uncontested one, because charging by the candidate would put a price on somebody else standing.

What a credit buys is the ask, not the delivery of an email. A request is sent, the links become live, and we then attempt an email to each person. If an email fails — a full mailbox, a receiving server having a bad day — the request has still been made and the credit is still used. Every recipient’s link stays available to copy or send yourself, and you can retry delivery. We say this plainly because it is the one place expectations can reasonably differ.

The exception is an address that does not exist: we give that credit back. If the receiving server tells us permanently that there is no such mailbox, nobody was asked, so the credit returns to your balance automatically and appears on your credit history. It happens once per person per request, and only for that permanent answer — a mailbox that is merely full may well work on the retry, so it is not refunded. We also stop sending to that address until you correct it or tell us it is working. On a ballot we give back what that person cost you — one credit for each motion or election they were asked to decide, not one — since a mailbox that does not exist was asked none of them.

A request that repeats can be set to send itself, and each of those sends uses credits like any other. If you put a monthly ask to forty people on a schedule and let it send automatically, that is forty credits a month for as long as it runs, with nobody present to approve each one. You can turn automatic sending off, cancel any single scheduled copy, or stop the schedule altogether, and the copies are prepared as drafts you can look at first if you would rather they were. We tell you what a repeat will cost when you set it up.

A ballot can be scheduled to go out at a time you choose, and it spends credits when it does. Nothing is charged while it sits waiting — the credits leave when the vote actually opens, at the price above, so a paper of five motions — or five elections — put to forty voters is two hundred credits at a moment nobody is present for. You can send it yourself, change the time, or clear it and keep it a draft, at any point before it goes. If we cannot open the vote when it is due — you are short of credits, the closing time has passed, or the person who scheduled it has left the organization — we send nothing, charge nothing, and email whoever set it up to say so.

An update can be scheduled to send itself too, and it spends credits when it goes. Nothing is charged while it waits — the credits leave when the message actually goes, one for each person it reaches, so an update to two hundred people is two hundred credits at a moment nobody is present for. You can send it yourself, change the time, or clear the time and keep it a draft, at any point before it goes. If we cannot send it when it is due — you are short of credits, the person who scheduled it has left the organization, the date its links stop working has passed or is too close to be worth sending, or we did not run in time — we send nothing, charge nothing, and email whoever set it up to say so.

Credits do not expire, there is no subscription, and there is nothing to cancel. We hold no card on file. A new organization is given some credits to start with so it can run something real before paying.

“Credits do not expire” means we will not time them out — it holds for as long as the service is running. If we ever stop operating, unused credits are not refunded. We would rather say that here than imply a guarantee we cannot fund. It is also why credits are sold in small amounts: buy roughly what you expect to use rather than banking a year ahead, and there is very little sitting there to lose. What we do commit to is 30 days’ notice and working exports throughout — see Availability below.

Credits are bought as a code, which is applied to an organization. Buying from inside the app applies it for you. A code can be bought by somebody with no account — a treasurer paying on a personal card — and given to whoever runs the organization.

Prices are shown on the pricing page in US dollars. Where we are required to collect sales tax we add it at checkout, calculated from the buyer’s address and shown before you pay — it is ours to collect and remit, not something we leave to you. Credits already bought are unaffected by a later price change.

Credits are sold to organizations in the United States. We are not registered for tax elsewhere, so we decline the sale rather than take money we cannot account for.

Credits belong to the organization they were applied to and are not automatically transferable. You may ask for a transfer by writing to legal@ropelabs.io. We review every request by hand, so tell us which organizations are involved and how many credits should move.

If something has gone wrong, ask us. Write to legal@ropelabs.io and we will look at it case by case. That is a genuine offer and not a right you can hold us to — the difference matters, because we would rather be able to say yes to a real problem than write a rule that has to cover every case in advance.

If your organization is tax-exempt, tell us before you buy and we will handle it — there is a link on your organization’s credits page, or write to legal@ropelabs.io. You can attach your certificate to that form, or send it to us afterwards, and we issue the credits directly. This is done by hand, so leave us a little time.

An organization’s owner can delete it at any time, from the organization’s settings. Because this cannot be undone, it asks for the organization’s name to be typed, and then sends an approval link to the organization’s own verified address — the deletion happens when somebody reading that mailbox confirms it. Every other administrator is told while it is still pending.

Deletion is immediate and complete: every request, submission and uploaded file is destroyed, in the database and in file storage. There is no grace period and we keep no copy, so we cannot restore an organization deleted by mistake. We keep only a short record that the deletion happened.

Unused credits are lost when an organization is deleted. The confirmation says so, and states the balance, before anything is destroyed.

Files already copied to an organization’s own connected cloud folder are not touched — those are in the organization’s custody, not ours.

Download what you want to keep before deleting. Every request can be exported, and so can everything a single person has ever submitted.

We may suspend or end an organization’s access if it breaches these terms or the acceptable use policy, or if required by law. Except where the breach makes it impossible, we will give notice and an opportunity to export data first.

A suspended organization keeps access to what it has collected and can still export it for up to 60 days after suspension. Suspension stops us sending mail on an organization’s behalf. It is not a way to withhold an organization’s own data, and we will not use it as one.

We work to keep the service available but do not promise any particular level of uptime, and it may be unavailable for maintenance, for repairs, or because something a provider of ours operates has failed.

If we decide to discontinue the service we will give at least 30 days’ notice by email to the administrators of every active organization, and keep exports working throughout that period.

Unused credits are not refunded if the service is discontinued. The 30 days’ notice and the exports are what we offer instead, and they are the part that protects what an organization actually cares about — the things it has collected.

The service is provided as it is. To the fullest extent the law allows, we make no warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including any implied warranty that the service is merchantable, fit for a particular purpose, or free from error.

To the fullest extent the law allows, neither party is liable for indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, or for lost profits, revenue or data, however caused. Our total liability arising out of or relating to the service is limited to the greater of $50 USD and the total amount paid to us for credits applied to your organization in the past twelve (12) months.

Nothing here excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

The $50 USD floor is deliberate. An organization still spending the credits it was given to start with has paid nothing, and a cap of zero is not a limitation of liability but a disclaimer of all of it, which is the version a court is most likely to set aside. The twelve months is the ordinary formula, and it is measured from when credits were bought rather than when they were spent — worth knowing, because credits do not expire and an organization working through a purchase made years ago is held to the floor.

The service is operated from the United States and everything it stores is held there. You are responsible for deciding whether using it is lawful where your organization is. Sales tax on what you buy from us is ours to collect where we are registered to collect it; any other tax your organization owes on its own account remains yours.

SendGather is sold to organizations in the United States for now. We hope that changes. Until it does, the practical effect is on buying rather than using: credits are only sold into the United States, and everything else about the service works wherever you are.

It is also built for asking people who are in the United States. We have not put in place the arrangements that collecting from people in the European Union or the United Kingdom requires — see the privacy policy, which says so plainly rather than implying otherwise. If your organization needs to ask people there, this is not yet the right tool for the job, and deciding that is yours to make: you choose who to ask, and you are responsible for your own obligations to them.

Rope Labs LLC is incorporated in Delaware. These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to its conflict of law rules, and the state and federal courts located there have exclusive jurisdiction over anything not settled by arbitration under the clause below.

Talk to us first. Before starting anything formal, write to us describing the problem and what you want done about it, and give us 30 days to sort it out. Most things end here.

Then individual arbitration. If that does not resolve it, any dispute arising out of or relating to these terms or the service will be settled by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its rules for commercial disputes, by a single arbitrator, in the State of Delaware or by video, and judgment on the award may be entered by any court with jurisdiction. Each of us gives up the right to a trial in court and to a jury.

Small claims are exempt. Either of us may instead bring a claim in small claims court if it qualifies, and either of us may ask a court for an injunction to stop misuse of the service or of intellectual property without arbitrating first.

No class actions. Claims are brought individually. Neither of us will bring a claim as a plaintiff or class member in a class, collective, consolidated or representative proceeding, and the arbitrator may not combine claims or award relief to anybody who is not a party. If this paragraph is held unenforceable as to a particular claim, that claim goes to court rather than to arbitration, and the rest of this clause still applies to everything else.

You can opt out, and it costs you nothing. Write to legal@ropelabs.io within 30 days of first accepting these terms, saying your organization opts out of arbitration. Nothing else about your account changes, and we will not treat you differently for it.

The 30-day opt-out and the small-claims carve-out are here on purpose. An arbitration clause with no way out, applied to a volunteer treasurer over a few hundred dollars of credits, is the version most likely to be set aside — and the version we would least want to be holding.

We may change these terms. If a change is material, we ask an administrator of every affected organization to accept the new version before that organization carries on using the service, and we record who accepted and when. The version in force is shown at the top of this page.

Notices under these terms, and anything else legal, go to legal@ropelabs.io. If you need a postal address to serve something at, ask there and we will give you one.