We value the support that the public provides for the mission of Amazon Offsets by visiting our website, giving what they are able, and telling others about it. So that we may better assist you, you may be asked to list your name, address, and other information if you wish to participate in Amazon Offsets or apply for available financial aid. Our policy with regard to your personal information is listed below.
Information We Collect About Our Donors and Applicants
Amazon Offsets asks applicants who are requesting assistance to register with the organization, which requires applicants to provide their names, physical addresses, email addresses, and telephone numbers.
Additionally, as a part of our application process, we may request that applicants provide us with a series of documents in support of their applications for assistance. These documents will vary from case to case but generally will include, at minimum, a copy of a state-issued photo ID, proof of income, proof of employment, proof of housing cost, or other types of documentation as deemed necessary to verify the details of a particular application for assistance.
State and federal laws regarding the retention of documents by non-profit organizations require that we keep any documentation submitted to us by an applicant during the application process for a period of seven years.
Amazon Offsets collects, encrypts, and securely stores this information for the sole purposes of a) contacting those people whom the organization believes it can assist; b) controlling against fraudulent activity; and c) communicating with both our donors and our applicants, as necessary and appropriate, unless an individual has specifically requested that they receive no correspondence from the organization.
Amazon Offsets does not use other software or hardware techniques to collect other information that could be used to personally identify visitors to Amazon Offsets without their knowledge.
Protecting Your Personal Information
Amazon Offsets has a strict policy of protecting your personal information.
Amazon Offsets will take all reasonable steps to protect its users' personal information and to protect them from unwanted correspondence/solicitation made as a result of a visit to or decision to register with Amazon Offsets. Our website and database are secured with state-of-the-art digital certificates and can be accessed only from certain authorized computers physically located in our office. For this reason, any personal data that you submit to Amazon Offsets is maintained as securely as current technology will allow. However, it is important to remember that, by their very nature, transmissions made via the Internet can never be absolutely secure.
With regard to our donors, Amazon Offsets will never sell, rent, share, or disclose personally identifiable information regarding our donors to any commercial entities, marketing firms, or non-profit entities.
With regard to our applicants, Amazon Offsets will not sell, rent, share, or disclose personally identifiable information regarding our applicants to any commercial entities, marketing firms, or non-profit entities except a) in the event that such information is formally requested from us by a legal entity or law enforcement agency; or b) it is necessary to share such information in order to fund a request for assistance. In the event that it is necessary to share an applicant's personal information with a third party in order to fund an application for assistance, we will do so only with the explicit, written consent of the parties involved.
Publicly Sharing Your Comments
Amazon Offsets receives many requests for help every month, along with letters asking general questions, commenting on Amazon Offsets, or with information from persons who have received assistance from the organization. The details of these requests for help and other comments and questions may be shared freely among Amazon Offsets' board, as necessary and appropriate. Likewise, Amazon Offsets makes it possible for applicants who have received help from Amazon Offsets to post a short note to Amazon Offsets' testimonials page.
However, the choice to make the details of an application for help public or to post a testimonial is made on an individual basis by our applicants themselves. Amazon Offsets will not post or permit the posting of information in any way that specifically identifies the sender(s) of that information under any circumstances.
Disclosure of your Donors’ Information to Other Entities
Please note that as a matter of policy, Amazon Offsets does not, under any circumstances, share, rent, sell, or otherwise disclose personal information related to the identities of our donors or our applicants with entities - commercial or non-profit - outside of the organization, except as noted above.
If you wish for your information never to be shared (including in marketing materials), you may elect this option during the registration process by selecting the 'Give Anonymously' option. Information related to people who have elected this option will never be shared by Amazon Offsets under any circumstances.
Terms of Use and Service
Amazon Offsets operates primarily as an online entity but is physically based in Pennsylvania. Amazon Offsets is a non-profit, charitable organization, exempt from federal income tax in the United States under section 501(c)(3) of the United States Tax Code. Amazon Offsets is duly registered with State Charitable Solicitations Boards.
Use of Amazon Offsets resources, including (but not limited to) the Amazon Offsets website is subject to the following terms and conditions. By registering with or otherwise interacting with Amazon Offsets or its website, you agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions.
Purpose of Organization
Amazon Offsets exists to offer short-term financial assistance to eligible persons who apply for grants by a) duly registering with Amazon Offsets and b) requesting such assistance in accordance with the terms and conditions set forth on the Amazon Offsets website itself and to encourage personal philanthropy.
Registration with Amazon Offsets
While anyone with access to the Internet may browse the Amazon Offsets website, people who want to interact with the Amazon Offsets website are required to register with Amazon Offsets. Registrants are asked to provide their names, physical address, email addresses, and telephone numbers. This information is collected solely for the purposes of a) contacting those people whom we believe Amazon Offsets can assist; b) controlling against fraudulent activity, and c) communicating with both our donors and our applicants, as necessary and appropriate, unless an individual has specifically requested that he or she receive no correspondence from the organization.
Registration with Amazon Offsets is completely free of charge, and registrants will not ever be asked to pay any fee, in-kind or otherwise, in exchange for registration with Amazon Offsets.
Eligibility for the Receipt of Grants
Any duly registered user of the Amazon Offsets website who is a current, full-time Amazon employee and has a short-term financial need that can be met in full with a small grant from Amazon Offsets is eligible to request financial assistance from Amazon Offsets.
Amazon Offsets does not request or collect information with respect to the demographics of registrants and does not discriminate with respect to age, race, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual preference, or ethnicity in the awarding of financial assistance.
Awarding of Grants
Amazon Offsets awards grants on a regular basis to eligible persons who have requested financial or other assistance from Amazon Offsets. Such awards are made at such times as the President and/or Board of Directors of Amazon Offsets see fit and at the sole discretion of the President and/or Board of Directors of Amazon Offsets. The amounts of such awards are subject to available funding and likewise are at the sole discretion of the President and/or Board of Directors of Amazon Offsets.
The President and/or Board of Directors of Amazon Offsets do not imply, guarantee, or otherwise warrant that Amazon Offsets will be able to assist every eligible person who requests financial assistance from Amazon Offsets. Likewise, the President and/or Board of Directors of Amazon Offsets reserve the right to reject requests for assistance that are not submitted in accordance with the guidelines of Amazon Offsets or that, in the judgment of the President and/or Board of Directors of Amazon Offsets, is in any way fraudulent or misleading. Further, the President and/or Board of Directors of Amazon Offsets reserve the right to withdraw any offer made by Amazon Offsets to provide financial assistance to any otherwise eligible individual at any time and for any reason.
Likewise, if you are an applicant for assistance from Amazon Offsets, you acknowledge that by submitting an application for assistance from Amazon Offsets, you irrevocably grant your consent to any duly authorized representative of Amazon Offsets to take, without limitation, any and all reasonable steps that Amazon Offsets deems necessary in order to perform appropriate due diligence on your application for assistance.
User Content
We make all reasonable efforts to provide a safe and accurate site but make no guarantees or warranties regarding the content of the site. As such we reserve the right to restrict the use of the site in any manner deemed appropriate.
YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THIS SITE, THE CONTENT, AND THE TECHNOLOGY IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. Amazon Offsets EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, EXPRESSED AND IMPLIED, AND MAKES NO WARRANTY THAT CONTENT AND SOFTWARE WILL BE ACCURATE, UNINTERRUPTED, VIRUS-FREE, OR ERROR-FREE.
Amazon Offsets, ITS EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, AFFILITATES, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCONTRACTORS, ADVISORS, AND VOLUNTEERS, OR ANYONE ELSE INVOVELD IN THE CREATING, PRODUCTION, AND CARRYING OUT OF THE SITE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, INLCUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO: DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTIAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, DAMAGES OR LOSS OF PRODUCTS, OR ANY OTHER DAMAGES OR LOSSES RELATED TO THE USE OF THE SITE AND USER CONTENT.
In creating your application, you are able to post your own user content, and all user content is your sole responsibility. Amazon Offsets has created secure servers and takes all reasonable measures to protect user content but cannot guarantee that other users will not misuse the user content that you share. If you have any user content that you wish to keep private do not post it to this service. Under no circumstances is Amazon Offsets responsible or liable for any user content, including but not limited to: errors or omissions in content, loss or damage to content, or any other use of content posted, emailed, or otherwise stored, hosted, or transmitted by Amazon Offsets. Amazon Offsets IS NOT RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE IN ANY WAY FOR THE MISUSE OR MISAPPROPRIATION OF ANY USER CONTENT YOU POST TO THE SITE.
You understand that any and all decisions made by you with respect to the website, programs, donations, and content are yours alone. While Amazon Offsets reasonably vets and verifies all information, Amazon Offsets does not assume any responsibility for information presented by applicants, donors, or any other third party users, and therefore, is not liable for any loss, damage, harm, expense, or other injury experienced through the use of our services or user content.
You understand by posting any user content to the site, photos, videos, written language etc. you are in no way guaranteed funding or any other benefit from Amazon Offsets. Amazon Offsets is under no obligation, and will in no way, pay or otherwise confer compensation, a benefit, consideration or anything at all in return for user content.
By posting any user content to our site, you hereby grant Amazon Offsets the irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, and fully sublicensable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, combine with other works, distribute, perform, edit, and display such user content in any form, medium, or technology now known or later developed. By agreeing to our terms of use you guarantee that you own all of the content and information you submit, or that you have the necessary permission to grant the rights of our terms of use in the content you post on behalf of a third party, and that the posting of your user content does not violate the rights (privacy, public, contract, etc.,) of any other person. You agree that you have received the necessary aforementioned rights and that you will be held liable for any royalties, fees, and other monies owing any person by reason of any user content you post via our site.
You agree that Amazon Offsets may disclose user content if required to do so in order to comply with the law or under a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to comply with a law, to respond to a claim that user content violates the rights of a third party, or to protect the rights, safety, and wellbeing of Amazon Offsets, its board, staff, users, and the public.
All of these conditions apply into perpetuity, are non-revocable, apply broadly, and without reservation. You agree that you will not use this service to:
- Transmit or otherwise upload, post, send, email, any user content that is unlawful, harmful, abusive, threatening, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, pornographic, libelous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically, or otherwise unlawful or objectionable
- Misrepresent your identity or situation in any way or the identity of a third party or entity
- Harm others, including soliciting personal information from a minor
- Disguise harmful content under misleading headers
- Transmit or otherwise upload, post, send, email any content that you do not have the right to transmit under law or that infringes on any patent, trademark, trade secrete, copy right, or other protected property right
- Transmit or otherwise upload, post, send any spam, junk mail, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or any other form of unwanted solicitation
- Transmit or otherwise upload, post, send, email anything harmful to the site, other users, the programming and systems operations, or that would interrupt the functioning of the organization in any way
- Harass, stalk, or otherwise communicate to other users in an unwanted, hostile, harassing, disrespectful, or otherwise harmful manner
Amazon Offsets retains the right at its sole discretion to remove, ban, or block anyone without notice and for any reason.
Termination of Registration
The President and/or Board of Directors of Amazon Offsets reserve the right to terminate said privileges of any duly registered user at any time and for any reason including (but not limited to) the provision of false or misleading information in any part of a request for financial assistance from Amazon Offsets.
Use of Financial Gifts to Amazon Offsets
Amazon Offsets encourages personal giving and is happy to accept any gift of any amount to Amazon Offsets. Any gifts made to Amazon Offsets, financial, in-kind, or otherwise, are greatly appreciated and shall be used by the President and/or Board of Directors of Amazon Offsets and in accordance with the guidelines set forth by the Internal Revenue Service exclusively for the following purposes:
- to provide financial assistance to persons who have requested help from Amazon Offsets; and
- to remit payment for any such reasonable expenses related to the operation of Amazon Offsets as the President and/or Board of Directors of Amazon Offsets deem appropriate, and at their sole discretion.
The President and/or Board of Directors of Amazon Offsets will make all reasonable efforts to honor the requests of donors to Amazon Offsets with respect to the use of their donations, subject to the guidelines of the Internal Revenue Service. However, neither the President nor the Board of Directors of Amazon Offsets absolutely guarantees that they will be able to honor said requests
Relationship of Giving to the Grant Making Process
Because Amazon Offsets is not a resource for the truly indigent, Amazon Offsets encourages and makes it possible for all interested persons who visit Amazon Offsets or who otherwise learn of Amazon Offsets to give to Amazon Offsets, including those persons who request assistance from Amazon Offsets.
Giving and receiving at Amazon Offsets are related only in as much as the organization is able to award more (and occasionally larger) amounts of financial assistance as gifts to Amazon Offsets increase. However, the fact that an applicant for financial assistance from Amazon Offsets has made a gift, financial, in kind, or otherwise to the foundation. Amazon Offsets does not entitle said applicant to any kind of special consideration in the grant making process and does not guarantee that the applicant will receive any kind of financial assistance from Amazon Offsets. Persons inclined to give to Amazon Offsets only because they believe that, in so doing, they will better their chances of receiving financial assistance from Amazon Offsets should not give to Amazon Offsets.
Correspondence and Communication with Amazon Offsets
Amazon Offsets receives a large number of letters, e-mails, and other types of correspondence. The President and her duly appointed representatives attempt to respond to all such correspondence as appropriate but cannot guarantee that they will be able to answer all such correspondence sent to Amazon Offsets.
All correspondence sent to Amazon Offsets or any of its representatives by mail, fax, email, electronic transmission, or by any other means becomes immediately and irrevocably the sole property of Amazon Offsets and may be used for any purpose related to Amazon Offsets at the sole discretion of the President and/or Board of Directors of Amazon Offsets without further notice or compensation.
Additionally, Amazon Offsets requires that all communication with Amazon Offsets - written, verbal, electronic, and otherwise - be conducted in a reasonable and respectful manner. Respectful communication allows us to best serve our applicants and ensures that all communication results in a productive outcome for Amazon Offsets Board of Directors and - most importantly - for our applicants.
Because we find that unreasonable and disrespectful communication does not foster results that align with the goals and principles of Amazon Offsets, such communication will be deemed a violation of our Terms of Service and will result in the immediate and permanent closure of the offending person's account with Amazon Offsets.
Reproduction of Amazon Offsets Materials
The content of the Amazon Offsets website, as well as all correspondence, electronic, or otherwise, from the President, Board of Directors, or any of their duly appointed representatives on behalf of Amazon Offsets is the property of Amazon Offsets, and all rights are reserved. No part of the website or the aforementioned correspondence from the President, Board of Directors, or any of their duly appointed representatives shall be reproduced in any medium, in whole or in part, without the express written consent of the President of Amazon Offsets.
Limitation of Liability
The use of any Internet resource involves certain inherent risks. Though the President, Board of Directors, and duly appointed representatives of Amazon Offsets will take every reasonable step to safeguard the information of the persons who visit or otherwise interact with the Amazon Offsets website, duly registered users of and other visitors to the Amazon Offsets website agree to absolve and otherwise hold blameless the President, the members of the Amazon Offsets Board of Directors, and all of their duly appointed representatives from any liability arising from the use of the Amazon Offsets website or any of its resources.
Policy Revisions
Amazon Offsets reserves the right to amend these terms of use from time to time. If we make any substantial changes in the way we use your personally identifiable information, we will notify you by posting an announcement on our pages and we will provide you with an opportunity to request that such information not be used in that manner. Personally identifiable information will be subject to the protections of the privacy policy in place at the time the information is obtained.
Contact Information
If you have any questions or concerns regarding Amazon Offsets Terms of Use, please forward your question or concern to privacy@amazonoffsets.org.