Terms and Conditions

In using this website you are deemed to have read and agreed to the following terms and conditions:

By accepting the Terms and Conditions and by using this website and affiliate domains you are deemed to have read and agreed to the following terms and conditions. THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, AS AMENDED FROM TIME TO TIME, ARE A BINDING AGREEMENT (“Agreement”) BETWEEN YOU (“You”, “Your” “End User”, “Client”) AND PUBLISH FOR CHARITY (“PFC”) AND WORDS FOR CHARITY (“WFC”), a division of PFC (PFC and WFC are also referred to as the “Company”, “Ourselves”, “We” and “Us”). Any reference to “Party”, “Parties” or “Us” refers to both you and ourselves or either of you or ourselves. All terms assigned to a party throughout these Terms may be used interchangeably. If you do not agree with these terms, do not view the website or otherwise use the services offered therein. ALL REFERENCES TO PFC SHALL INCLUDE WFC.

The following terms describe how users of the website (“Site”) who review or make donations for downloadable materials (“End Users”) can download the material (“Work”) and review the work by the person or entity who posted the work (“Author” or “Publisher”). An End User is any user who downloads, reads or previews any Work on the Site is referred to as an End User. The following also describes the rights and responsibilities of the Author and PFC.

  1. Distribution. The Author hereby grants and assigns to PFC the non-exclusive worldwide right to digitally publish, distribute, market and sell, solely for donations (“Publish”), the Work submitted by the Author; provided, that the Author hereby agrees that it shall not grant an exclusive right to the Work to any other third party for a period of one year after publication of the Work by PFC.
  2. Formatting Work. PFC has established procedures for the proper formatting of Work to be published on the Site. Each Author is strongly encouraged to review these procedures on the Site prior to submission of the Work. PFC shall only publish electronic versions of the Work and no other subsidiary format of such Work. These rules are subject to change from time to time, upon electronic or other notice to the Author and any users.
  3. Original Works of Authorship. By submitting your Work to PFC, you are representing and warranting that the Work is an original work of you, the Author. PFC takes claims of infringement seriously and shall take immediate steps upon notice of any claim of infringed party pursuant to our Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) policy, which is incorporated herein. Upon PFC’s notice, whether from a party whose work has allegedly been infringed upon or other defamed by the Author’s submitted Work, PFC shall remove the Published Work from the Site while PFC investigates the claim. PFC shall have the right, in addition to removing the Author’s Work, the right to remove any and all information pertaining to the Author from the Site pending the outcome of PFC’s investigation. If an Author learns that a third party is violating the Author’s copyright or otherwise illegally distributing the Author’s Work, the Author shall inform PFC, in writing, but it shall be the Author’s sole responsibility to seek any relief from the offending party.
  4. Promotional Rights. PFC shall have the absolute right to distribute the Work and/or samples of the Work in any format (electronic, print, etc) in order to promote PFC or its divisions, the Author and/or the Author’s Work.
  5. Indemnification by Author. Author shall defend and hold harmless PFC, its directors, officers, agents, licensees, customers, End Users, successors and assigns from, against and in respect of any and all losses, claims, liabilities, expenses, fees, including attorneys’ fees, costs, taxes and damages (collectively “Damages”) arising out of, resulting from or related to (i) the submission of Author’s Work or other materials to PFC through this Site or otherwise, including any claims of infringement made by third parties; and/or (ii) any breach of a representation and/or warranty made by the Author in this Agreement.
  6. Intellectual Property. The Author shall retain any and all intellectual property rights in the Work submitted to PFC and the Author shall be solely responsible for property filing for any copyrights or other intellectual property rights with the appropriate governmental authority. It shall be the Author’s sole responsibility and the Author hereby assumes all responsibility for obtaining any and all permissions or approvals related to the Work prior to submitting such Work to PFC. Further, it shall be the Author’s responsibility to place a copyright notice on the copyright page or other prominent place within the Work. By submitting the Work to PFC, the Author is granting a non-exclusive and perpetual license to PFC to publish the Work on its Site and/or any marketing or other materials prepared, used or authorized by PFC, regardless of the medium in which the Work appears. All parties agree that the Site and all services offered on the Site or otherwise by PFC belong to PFC, that the Work is proprietary and belongs to the Author and that the customer, except to the extent a customer is also an Author, has no rights in or to the Work, the Site or otherwise.
  7. Donations. The Author acknowledges that the Work will be offered for review on the Site to its End Users through donations made by the End Users. The Author will receive no compensation and hereby waives any right to compensation or to otherwise share in the donations by the End Users for reviewing, reading or otherwise accessing the Work. The Author shall have the right to select from a predetermined group of charities which charity will benefit from donations made by the End User to review the Author’s Work. The Author further acknowledges that the Author will not be able to make a charitable donation based on the submission of the Work to the Site. By using the Site, the End User is agreeing to make the donation in the amount set forth on the Site, as determined by PFC or such greater amount as determined by the End User at the time of the donation. Each End User shall have the right to review and accept the donation amount prior to submitting the payment. All donations are final and non-refundable. PFC shall have the absolute right to change the pricing policies. All donations made by the End-User less the service fee charged by the merchant credit card processor will be donated to the charity shown on the Site.
  8. Search Rights. PFC shall have the right to drive traffic to the Site and to particular Author’s on the Site through general search engine optimization services; crawlable promotional hypertest links or arrangements with third parties. PFC shall have no obligation to drive traffic to the Site or to any particular Author.
  9. Author’s Representations and Warranties. The representations and warranties contained in these Terms and Conditions extend to the Author, the Author’s licensees and Author’s successors and/or assigns. By uploading content to PFC, the Author hereby agrees that any violation of the warranties and representations expressed herein may result in the immediate removal of your account on the Site and may trigger the indemnification obligations set forth above. The Author, by submission of its Work, represents and warrants the following:
    1. The Author has the sole right, power and authority to enter into this Agreement and to grant the rights set forth herein;
    2. The Author is the sole author of the Work and the sole owner of all rights to the Work;
    3. The Author has not transferred, conveyed, assigned, pledged or otherwise encumbered its rights to the Work
    4. The Author has not entered into any other agreement, verbal or written, which would conflict with the rights granted to PFC;
    5. The Work is not a public domain work; contain word-for-word scrapes; is not a compilation from other work; does not appear anywhere else, including other sites on the Internet, authored by individuals other than the Author; is not sourced by Private Label Rights or subject to other licenses; generic; or machine-generated;
    6. The Work is a complete and finished piece of work; and
    7. The Work submitted herein will not:
      1. Plagiarize or otherwise pirate any other work or otherwise infringe on any copyright or other intellectual property or proprietary rights;
      2. Violate any other contract or agreement entered into by the Author;
      3. Violate any rights of privacy which would be libelous if published or violate any other privacy rights;
      4. Be injurious to the End Users;
      5. Violate local, state or federal rules, laws, regulations, ordinances or otherwise;
      6. Advocate or condone violence, hatred, discriminatory or racist views, through text or illustrations;
      7. Contradict the message of the charities sponsored by PFC;
      8. Advocate illegal activities;
      9. Contain spam or otherwise violate the formatting requirements of PFC;
      10. Contain any advertisements for products or services;
      11. Contain incomplete, false or misleading information; and/or
      12. Contain nude or other graphic pictures or illustration.
  10. End-Users. Any party who reviews the Site, including the Work published on the Site are considered End-Users and include authors, publishers and customers. End-Users who donate funds to review Work are considered customers and are authorized to review the Work for their personal review and enjoyments, but shall not have the right to use the work in any commercial manner or in a manner which violates the Author’s copyright protections or other intellectual property rights of the Author. PFC shall have no obligation to enforce a customer’s violation of the Author’s intellectual property or copyright protections which obligation shall belong solely to the Author. As the End User, you acknowledge that all Work published on the Site is for the personal enjoyment of the End User and may not be resold, licensed or otherwise used in a commercial manner. As a customer you have a non-exclusive, non-licensed, not-transferable, non-distributable right to use and view the Work, You may use and otherwise enjoy the Work, but may not share the information or Work with others. Each End User represents and warrants that by browsing or otherwise utilizing the Site, the End User agrees to the following representations and warranties:
    1. End User shall not violate any applicable local, state or federal laws or the Terms and Conditions contained in this Agreement;
    2. End User shall not upload any materials which violate the terms of this Agreement;
    3. End User shall not use the Site or browse materials on the Site if the End User is under the age of 18 and does not have the consent of his/her parents or legal guardians;
    4. End User shall make such donations as required to review the materials offered on the Site;
    5. End User agrees not to engage in any advertising, spam, schemes or otherwise distribute any viruses, malware or other technology that would have the effect of altering the Work or otherwise causing damage to PFC or the Site.
    6. End User agrees not to transfer, license or otherwise distribute the Work.
    7. End User agrees not in engage in abusive behavior towards other users, the charities featured on the site or the Authors.
    8. End User hereby waives any claims or causes of action against PFC and/or any charities featured on the Site.
    9. End User agrees not to republish any material from the Site.
    10. End User agrees not to use the Site in any way that causes or may cause damage to the Site or impair the availability or accessibility of the Site.
    11. End Use agrees not to use the Site in any way which is unlawful, illegal, fraudulent or harmful or in connection with any unlawful, illegal, unauthorized, fraudulent or harmful purpose or activity.
  11. Conduct on the Site. PFC wants to work with you to keep the Site operating properly. If you incur any issues while on the site, please notify PFC in writing and please include details outlining the problem incurred. PFC reserves the right to remove any comments left by End Users relating to the Site or any Work, at its sole discretion for any reason or no reason.
  12. Anti-Spam Policy and Enforcement. PFC does not engage in spam, nor does it share or otherwise sell personal contact information of its End Users with any third parties. Authors are hereby prohibited from promoting their work via spam e-mail. Authors in violation of this policy rick termination of their account, and removal of any and all Work from the Site. If you believe that you are the recipient of a spam e-mail from an Author, please forward the entire e-mail message to PFC’s customer support.
  13. Publication Process. PFC will review all Work submitted for publication prior to such Work being published on its Site. PFC agrees to use good faith efforts to review all Work in a timely manner, but is not committing to and shall not be obligated to review any Work within any set timeframe. PFC shall have the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to reject Work or to otherwise determine that such Work shall not be published on its Site. Once the Work is submitted to PFC, PFC shall have the absolute right to Publish the Work, at any time, or from time to time and shall be under no obligation to remove the Work from the PFC (or WFC) website upon request from the Author. PFC shall also have the absolute right to remove or otherwise discontinue any Published Work from the Site, at any time or from time to time, at its sole and absolute discretion and no reason shall be provided to Author as to PFC’s reasoning. In general, PFC will Publish the Author’s Work as submitted to PFC and will not edit or otherwise modify the Work. The Author hereby understands and agrees that certain modifications may occur caused when converting the file for publication. PFC may, but shall be under no obligation to, remove content, including reviews, and accounts containing content that PFC, in its sole and absolute discretion, deems to be unlawful, offensive, threatening, libelous, defamatory, pornographic, obscene, or otherwise objectionable or violates any party’s intellectual property rights or this Agreement.
  14. No Warranties. PFC is not making any representations and/or warranties any party, including the Author and/or the End User. Further, PFC disclaims any liability for (i) defects caused by the formatting of the Work; (ii) damage caused by disasters or other Acts of God; (iii) damage to the Work caused by End Users; (iv) inaccurate publication of the Work; (v) any and all other misuse by Author or the End User. All Work and services provided on the Site are provided “AS-IS, WHERE-IS,” “AS AVAILABLE” and “WITH ALL FAULTS.” Any and all risk as to the selection and use of the services or the Work remains with the Author and the End User. PFC does not warrant the Work and hereby disclaims any warranty, to the greatest extent permitted by applicable law.
  15. Limitations of Liability. You hereby agree that it would not be reasonable to hold PFC, its divisions, successors and/or assigns liable with respect to this Site and/or the information on the Site. Although we endeavor to confirm that the information on this Site is accurate, we do not warrant the completeness or accuracy of the information contained therein. Further, we do not guaranty that the website will remain available or that the material on the website will be updated and kept current. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law we exclude all representations, warranties and conditions (including, without limitation, the conditions implied by law of satisfactory quality, fitness for purpose and the use of reasonable care and skill). Our liability is limited and excluded to the maximum extent permitted under applicable law. We will not be liable for any direct or indirect loss or damage arising under these terms and conditions or in connection with our website, whether arising in tort, contract, or otherwise. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing exclusion, we will not be liable for any loss of profit, contracts, business, goodwill, data, income, revenue or anticipated savings arising under terms and conditions or in connection with our website, whether direct or indirect, and whether arising in tort, contract, or otherwise.
  16. LIMITATION ON DAMAGES. IN NO EVENT SHALL PFC, IS DIVISIONS, SUCCESSORS AND/OR ASSIGNS BE LIABLE TO ANY AUTHOR, END-USER OR ANY OTHER THIRD-PARTY FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, EXEMPLARY, PUNITIVE OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND. IN NO EVENT SHALL PFC BE LIABLE FOR ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS OF ANY KIND.
  17. Miscellaneous Terms.
    1. Amendment to Terms of Service. PFC reserves the right to update and change the Terms and Conditions, from time to time, without notice. Any new features that augment or enhance the current Site, shall be subject to all of terms and conditions contained in this Agreement. Continued use of the Site after any such changes shall constitute your consent to the Agreement, as amended. Please check this page regularly to ensure you are familiar with the current version.
    2. Amendments or Modifications to Website and/or Community. PFC reserves the right at any time and from time to time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Site (or any part thereof), with or without notice. Further, the Site shall not be liable to you or any third party for any modification, price change, suspension, or discontinuance of the Site, or any portion thereof.
    3. Breach of Terms of Service. Violation of any of this Agreement will result in the termination of your account without a refund of any donations made. While PFC prohibits the conduct outlined in this Agreement, you acknowledge and agree that PFC cannot be responsible for the content and/or accuracy of the Work. You agree to access the Site at your own risk.
    4. Cancellation and Termination. PFC, in its sole discretion, has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Site, or any other PFC services, for any reason at any time. Such termination of your account will result in the deactivation and deletion of your account or your access to your account, and the forfeiture and relinquishment of all content in your account. PFC reserves the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason at any time. No refund will be given upon termination of an account.
    5. Waiver. The failure of PFC to exercise or enforce any right or provision of this Agreement shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.
    6. Entre Agreement. These terms and conditions, together with our privacy policy and DMCA Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and us in relation to your use of our Site, and supersede all previous agreements in respect of your use of this Site.
    7. Governing Law and Venue. This Agreement will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois and any disputes relating to these terms and conditions shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts sitting in the City of Chicago, County of Cook, State of Illinois.
    8. No Partnership. No agency, partnership, joint venture or other joint relationship is created by virtue of this Agreement or the Site.
    9. Acknowledgement. By utilizing the Site you acknowledge that you have read this Agreement, understand this Agreement and agree to be bound by all of the terms and conditions contained herein.

Grant Program Rules, Conditions and Expectations

To participate in the Words for Charity (WFC) grant programs administered by Publish for Charity (PFC) a Grant Participant (GP) must follow all steps of the WFC program. These include but are not limited to:

  1. A GP must submit a story that meets the submission guidelines. This includes but is not limited to submission of cover art that includes the title of story and story summary. (For further details read submission requirements)
  2. If story is accepted for publishing Grant Participant must complete their Author profile page which is to include all information including a mailing address, picture of author and a short biography. Social Media links are preferred but not required.
  3. During the grant period GP will be willing to engage with the WFC team in the event we need any revisions or modifications to the stories. This can include but is not limited to, revision of liner notes / cover art, modification of the author profile, or any other reasonable requests to enhance the marketability of the Story or Author. GP is under no obligation to accept revisions or modifications offered by WFC to remain eligible for grants.
  4. If awarded a grant the GP must provide Publish for Charity with two forms of government Identification (one includes photo) before GP can be paid grant.
  5. GP understands that they may be asked to travel to Chicago (With all expenses to be paid by PFC) for filming of promotional materials that can be used thru all media, GP relinquishes any rights to said materials.

    6. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Policy

    PFC is solely a distributor of the Work featured on the Site and does not own the Work or the intellectual property rights associated with the Work. Pursuant to the Terms and Conditions agreed to by each Author, each Author has represented and warrantied to PFC that it is the sole author and owner of the Work and that they are legally authorized to submit such Work to PFC. PFC takes allegations of copyright violations very seriously. If you believe that your copyrighted material has been infringed upon, we encourage you to notify us immediatly.

    To file a notice of infringing material on this Site, please provide a notification containing the following information:
    1. Reasonably sufficient details to enable us to identify the works claimed to be infringed (for example, Title, Author, Logo)
    2. A link to the page or image file that contains the material.
    3. Your contact information so that we can contact you.
    4. A statement that you have a good faith belief that the use of the material identified is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
    5. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the exclusive right that is alleged to be infringed.
    6. Your physical or electronic signature.

    Mail or email the notice to the following addresses.

    Address: 450 E. Waterside Drive Chicago, IL 60601
    Email: dmca@wordsforcharity.org

    Upon receipt of a written notice from an party who has been allegedly infringed or defamed by Author’s material, PFC may immediately remove such Author’s Work from the Site and further reserves the right to remove all information relating to the Author from the Site. PFC shall have the right, but not the obligation, to post the purportedly infringing or defamatory Work on the Site if the parties have reached a stipulation showing that the dispute has been resolved; a court order or a certification by an independent attorney stating that the current version does not infringe on the work of the party who filed the notice with PFC.

    Privacy Statement

    Our General Policy

    Publish for Charity (PFC) and Words for Charity (WFC), a division of PFC, recognizes the importance of protecting information we may collect from visitors to our site. Our policy is to use the information we acquire from visitors to our sites for internal purposes only and we maintain appropriate security measures to keep this information private. Your browser, however, does automatically tell us the type of computer and operating system you are using. Users can visit the site without revealing any information about themselves. If one chooses to give us personal information via the Internet for the purposes of correspondence, then it is our intent to let you know how we will use such information.

    PFC is committed to protecting your privacy. We will never sell or otherwise distribute your personally identifiable information. If you tell us that you do not wish to have this information used as a basis for further contact, we will respect those wishes.

    We do track your IP addresses, browser type, page views, clickstream and usage and keep track of the domains from which people visit us. We analyze this data for trends and statistics and may use this information to optimize the performance of the Site; protect authors and our customers and to make recommendations to our users.

    PFC takes precautions to keep the user information disclosed to us secure. To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and to ensure the appropriate use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect.

    PFC customers and Authors will receive occasional e-mails from PFC with information about the Site and the authors and charities featured on the Site. You may opt-out of these e-mails, at any time by contacting support@wordsforcharity.org. PFC will not allow third parties to send e-mail to its members unless the member has explicitly provided permission.

    The content on the PFC Site may be accessible to children. In that regard we ask for the customer’s age range at registration. Young adults and children under the age of 18 will need parental consent to continue on the Site. If a customer under the age of 18 views the Site, their information will be collected in the same manner as set forth above. If PFC learns that a child has posted information that would allow others to personally contact the child, PFC will immediately remove such information. PFC shall have no obligation to search for such information on the Site.

    PFC will allow its users to opt-out of receiving communications from PFC. If a customer has requested to receive communications and later changes their mind, they can cancel the communication at any time by clicking on the link contained in the e-mail.

    If users have questions about the types of information collected on this web site or would like to request a correction of any information collected, then please contact us at support@wordsforcharity.org

    Use of Cookies

    Certain sections of the PFC web site use "cookies" to store user information. A cookie is a small string of text that a web site can send to your browser. A cookie cannot retrieve any other data from your hard drive, pass on computer viruses, or capture your e-mail address. Cookies help us understand which parts of our web sites are the most popular, where our visitors are going, and how long they spend there. We use cookies to analyze traffic patterns so we can improve the site.

    Cookies were originally designed to help a web site distinguish a user's browser as a previous visitor and thus save and remember any preferences that may have been set while the user was browsing the site. If you are just browsing www.wordsforcharity.org, a cookie identifies only your browser but you do not have to accept the cookie to continue browsing the site. It is possible to set your browser to inform you when a cookie is being placed - then you have the opportunity to decide whether to accept the cookie.

    User Agreement

    If you have any questions about the Terms and Conditions, the DMCA Policy and/or the Privacy Policy, including the Use of Cookies, contact PFC. If you do not agree with these terms of this Agreement, you may not use the site. PFC reserves the right to change this User Agreement at any time without notice.