FUNDRAISING POLICY

This Fundraising Policy explains how fundraising works on OpenWorldLab ("Company," "we," "us," "our"): who may raise money, how a campaign is reviewed before it can accept a single contribution, what fees apply, how and when money moves, and the circumstances in which a contribution is refunded.

It applies to everyone who uses the fundraising features of openworldlab.org and any related products and services that link to this policy (the "Services") — both the research groups that raise funds ("Groups" or "Creators") and the people who contribute to them ("Backers").

This policy supplements, and does not replace, our Terms of Use and our Privacy Notice. Where this policy and the Terms of Use address the same subject, the Terms of Use govern; this policy describes how we operate the fundraising features in practice and how we exercise the rights reserved to us there.

We may change this policy as the Services, our payment partners, or the applicable law change. We will alert you to changes by updating the "Last updated" date above. Changes are not retroactive: a contribution is governed by the version of this policy in force when it was made. Your continued use of the fundraising features after a change is posted means you accept the revised policy.

We recommend that you print or save a copy of this policy for your records.

OpenWorldLab is a technology platform. We are not a bank, a money transmitter, a broker, a payment institution, an escrow agent, or a charity. We do not take custody of contributed funds, and we do not hold a balance on your behalf.

Payments are processed by Stripe, a regulated payment services provider. Each Group that raises money on the Services must connect its own Stripe account, verified in the Group's own name. Contributions are charged on our platform account and, for the funding models currently offered, are transferred directly to the Group's connected Stripe account as they are received, less the platform fee described in section 8.

Because of this, the practical consequences below follow, and Backers should read them before contributing:

By using the fundraising features you also agree to the Stripe Connected Account Agreement and the Stripe Services Agreement, and you authorise us to share the transaction and verification data Stripe requires.

The following terms are used throughout this policy:

A Group may only raise funds on the Services once all of the following are true:

A Group has one connected account per payment provider. It onboards once and can then run any number of campaigns. If a connected account is permanently rejected or closed by the provider, the Group must onboard a new one; we retain the record of the previous account as part of our compliance record (see section 20).

We may decline to onboard any Group, and we may decline, pause, or remove any campaign, at our discretion and without being obliged to give reasons — for example where we cannot satisfy ourselves as to identity, affiliation, or the lawfulness of the activity being funded.

No campaign can accept money until a person at the Company has reviewed and approved it. There is no self-publish path, and approval is never automatic.

A campaign passes through defined states, and only some of them can accept contributions:

Two gates apply to every submission, and both must be passed:

Every campaign is assigned a risk tier (low, medium, or high) at review, based on the screening result, the sensitivity of the field, the size of the target, and the parties involved. A higher tier means a broader review and closer ongoing monitoring, and in the highest tier can mean an immediate freeze and escalation.

Approval is not an endorsement. It does not mean we have verified every factual claim in a campaign, audited the Group's finances, assessed the scientific merit of the work, or guaranteed that the work will be done. Backers should form their own view.

Every campaign on the Services must publish, before it can go live:

Funding goals must be at least 10 and at most 10,000,000 in the campaign's currency. The lower bound is deliberately low: plenty of legitimate research asks for a small, specific sum — reagents, a licence, a single day of field time — and the platform fee is percentage-based, so a small campaign is not penalised by a fixed charge.

A Group is responsible for the accuracy of everything it publishes. Misrepresenting credentials, institutional affiliation, methodology, progress, or the intended use of funds is a breach of this policy and of our Terms of Use, and is grounds for freezing a campaign and refunding contributions.

Groups are expected to post progress updates for the duration of the work and to report honestly on how the money was actually spent, including where the work did not go as planned. Backers of a campaign are notified when it posts an update.

In addition to the restrictions in our Terms of Use and our Acceptable Use Policy, and to any restriction imposed by Stripe, a campaign on the Services may not:

This list is not exhaustive. We may decline or remove any campaign we consider inconsistent with the purpose of the Services or with our obligations to our payment partners and to the law.

A campaign chooses one funding model when it is created:

Under both models, money reaches the Group as it is contributed and is not held back until the goal is met. A Backer contributing to a campaign that ultimately falls short of its goal should not expect an automatic refund on that basis; see section 12.

An all-or-nothing model, in which contributions are held and released only if the goal is met (and refunded in full if it is not), is not currently offered. If we introduce it, campaigns using it will say so plainly on the campaign page and this policy will be updated first.

When a campaign reaches its end date, it closes automatically. Under the models above it is marked completed; funds already settled are unaffected, and the Group remains responsible for the commitments it made.

The Company charges a platform fee on each contribution. The standard fee is 5% of the contribution, with no fixed per-transaction component. The fee that applies to a given campaign is fixed on that campaign when it is created and is shown on the campaign page and in the contribution form before you pay.

A campaign is configured in one of two ways, and the contribution form states which applies:

In either case the contribution form shows the amount charged, the platform fee, and the amount the Group receives, before you are taken to payment.

Stripe charges its own payment-processing fee, separately from ours. That fee is set by Stripe, varies by country, currency, and payment method, and is deducted by Stripe from the funds settling to the Group. It is not ours and we do not receive it. Stripe may also charge for currency conversion, payouts, disputes, and account services under the Group's agreement with Stripe.

The fee is calculated at the moment the payment is captured and is then stored permanently on the contribution record. A later change to our fee schedule never re-prices a contribution that has already been made.

Progress toward a campaign's goal is measured in the net amount that reaches the Group. When a campaign sets its goal, we show the Group the gross it needs to raise for that net figure to arrive, so that the progress bar cannot fill while the work remains unfunded.

We may change our fee schedule for future campaigns. We will publish any change here before it takes effect, and it will not affect campaigns already created or contributions already made.

To contribute, you choose an amount, give a billing country and an email address for your receipt, and are then redirected to Stripe's hosted checkout to pay.

A contribution is a payment to the Group, not a purchase from the Company. Unless the campaign says otherwise, it does not entitle you to any good, service, reward, intellectual property right, or authorship credit.

A contribution is not confirmed by the page you land on after paying. It is confirmed when Stripe notifies us that the funds have actually been taken. Only then does the contribution count toward the campaign total, appear on the backer list, and trigger a receipt.

This matters most for delayed payment methods — bank debits, bank transfers, and similar — which can take days to complete. In the meantime the contribution is recorded as pending. If the payment ultimately fails, it is marked failed and never counts toward the campaign.

A contribution that is started but never completed is expired automatically and does not count.

Receipts are sent by email to the address you give at checkout. If you do not receive one, check the address you entered before contacting us.

Funds settle to the Group's own connected Stripe account. Stripe — not the Company — controls the payout schedule, the payout currency, the bank account funds are paid into, and any reserve or hold Stripe applies. Groups can see and manage these in their Stripe dashboard.

A Group should expect the following:

If a Group disconnects its account, or its account is closed or deauthorised, its campaigns are frozen and can accept no further contributions.

Because funds settle directly to the Group, contributions are final and non-refundable except in the circumstances set out below. Please contribute only what you are willing to give, and read the campaign before you do.

What a refund is not for. We do not refund a contribution because a project was unsuccessful, produced a negative or inconclusive result, was delayed, or changed direction. Research can fail, and the possibility of failure is part of what you are supporting. Where a Group has misrepresented its work, misused funds, or abandoned a campaign without explanation, tell us (section 19) — that is a matter for enforcement under section 14, which may include refunds.

Nothing in this section limits any right you have under mandatory consumer law in your own jurisdiction.

If you dispute a charge with your bank or card issuer (a "chargeback"), the payment is flagged and the outcome is decided by the card network, not by us. While a dispute is open, the amount is not removed from the campaign total, because a dispute is provisional; if the dispute is ultimately decided against the Group, the amount is removed.

Chargebacks are expensive for Groups: the funds are withdrawn and the card network fee is charged on top. Please contact the Group, and then us, before raising a chargeback — most concerns can be resolved with a refund far more quickly.

An abnormal rate of disputes on a campaign is treated as a fraud signal and can lead to the campaign being paused or frozen and its Group's payouts being suspended.

Disputes between a Backer and a Group about the work itself are for those two parties to resolve. We are not a party to that agreement and do not arbitrate it, though we will act on evidence of a breach of this policy.

A Group can pause its own campaign at any time and resume it later. While paused, the campaign remains public but accepts no contributions.

We may freeze a campaign — immediately, without notice, and at our discretion — where:

A frozen campaign accepts no new contributions from the moment it is frozen. We then investigate and reach one of two outcomes:

Every freeze, decision, and refund is recorded with its reason in an append-only compliance record (see section 20). We are not always able to tell a Group why a campaign was frozen, or that it was reported, where doing so is itself restricted by law.

We operate sanctions controls at every stage of a campaign's life, and they apply to Groups and Backers alike.

Fundraising is not available in, and contributions are not accepted from, comprehensively sanctioned jurisdictions. At the date of this policy those are Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Russia, and Belarus, together with the Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. This list is reviewed regularly and can change without notice as sanctions change.

In practice, that means:

You represent, each time you use the fundraising features, that you are not located in, resident in, or acting on behalf of anyone in a prohibited jurisdiction, and that neither you nor anyone you act for appears on any applicable list of sanctioned or restricted parties. Attempting to evade these controls — by proxy, misdeclared country, or otherwise — is a serious breach of this policy, and we log and act on attempts.

Location screening based on network address is an imperfect control and we treat it as one layer among several. Where a location cannot be resolved, we do not block the request outright; instead the campaign is flagged for closer review, because verification by our payment partner and our own manual review remain the decisive gates.

Approval is the beginning of our oversight, not the end of it. On an ongoing basis we:

Where monitoring raises a concern, we apply the process in section 14.

A contribution is not, by default, a tax-deductible charitable donation. Unless a campaign explicitly says otherwise and the Group is itself able to give you a valid receipt for that purpose, you should assume it is not deductible.

The Company does not issue tax receipts, charitable donation certificates, or gift-aid declarations, and does not confirm the charitable status of any Group. Any such document must come from the Group.

Groups are responsible for determining and meeting their own tax obligations on funds received, including income tax, corporate tax, VAT or sales tax where applicable, and any reporting obligation to their institution or funder. Stripe may collect tax information and issue tax forms to a Group where the law requires it.

Nothing in this policy is tax or legal advice. If the treatment matters to you, take your own advice.

How we handle personal information generally is set out in our Privacy Notice. This section covers what is specific to fundraising.

Choosing to appear as anonymous hides your name from other users. It does not make the contribution anonymous to us, to the Group's payment records, or to our payment partner: we still hold the underlying record, and are required to.

We share with Stripe the data it needs to process the payment and meet its own obligations. Groups can see the contributions made to their own campaigns, including the amounts and, where you did not choose anonymity, the name you gave.

Financial and compliance records are retained for at least 5 years, as described in section 20, even where an account, Group, or campaign is deleted. That retention overrides deletion requests to the extent the law requires us to keep the record.

If you believe a campaign is fraudulent, misrepresents its work or its people, is misusing funds, or breaches this policy, tell us through the contact page. Include the campaign link and as much specific detail as you can.

We review every report. Depending on what we find we may request information from the Group, raise the campaign's risk tier, freeze the campaign, refund contributions, terminate the campaign, remove the Group's ability to raise funds, and report the matter to our payment partners or the relevant authorities.

We cannot always tell you the outcome of a report, and we cannot act as an intermediary in a dispute between you and a Group about the work itself. Reports made in bad faith, or to harass a Group, are themselves a breach of our Terms of Use.

We keep an append-only record of the events that matter for compliance: campaign state changes, screening flags, reviewer decisions, freezes, refunds, blocked attempts, and the payment events reported to us by our provider.

Financial and compliance records are retained for at least 5 years from the relevant transaction or decision. Deleting a Group, a campaign, or an account does not delete these records: they are hidden from public view rather than erased, because we are required to be able to produce them.

We may disclose these records to our payment partners, to auditors, and to regulators, law enforcement, or a court where we are required or permitted to do so.

Subject to the limitations and exclusions in our Terms of Use, which apply in full to the fundraising features:

Nothing here excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.

We may revise this policy at any time. The revised version takes effect when it is posted, and the "Last updated" date at the top changes. Material changes to fees will be published here before they take effect and will not apply to campaigns already created or contributions already made.

It is your responsibility to review this policy periodically. Continuing to use the fundraising features after a revision is posted means you accept it.

To ask about a contribution, report a concern about a campaign, or request more information about this policy, please contact us. Questions about how we handle personal information can also be sent to privacyquery@openworldlab.org.

For anything about a specific campaign — how the work is going, how the money was spent, or a refund — contact the Group through its campaign page first. It is the Group that holds the funds and can act on those requests.