General Terms of Use

Table of Contents

1. Scope

The Internet platform betterplace.org (“platform”) is operated by gut.org gemeinnützige AG (gut.org gAG, Schlesische Strasse 26, D-10997 Berlin). gut.org gAG is a social enterprise and a sponsorship corporation that is recognized for tax purposes. Our current articles of association and the current exemption notice are available in our Transparency Area. All funds are used exclusively for non-profit, charitable and church purposes in accordance with the organization’s articles of association, as defined by the German Tax Code (AO).

These General Terms of Use apply to all users and visitors of the platform and regulate the rights and obligations of those visiting the platform and use of the available functionalities.

In addition to these General Terms of Use, the Additional General Terms of Use for Tax-Privileged Organizations and Projects also apply to organizations and projects.

The Privacy Policy for the platform is also to be noted in addition to these General Terms of Use.

2. Definition of terms

The terms used in the General Terms of Use are defined as follows:

  • “General Terms of Use” – These General Terms of Use
  • “Additional General Terms of Use” – Additional General Terms of Use for Tax-Privileged Organizations and Projects
  • “Platform” – The online donation platform www.betterplace.org operated by gut.org gAG
  • “betterplace.org” – Where “betterplace.org” is used as a standard term below, this involves a legal relationship with gut.org gAG as operator of the platform.
  • “Non-profit’ - Also refers to charitable and religious purposes as defined in the AO in addition to non-profit purposes as defined in the German Tax Code (AO).
  • “Registered User” – Natural or legal person (a legal person is, for example, an organization or a company) which is registered on the platform.
  • “Visitor” - Natural or legal person who accesses and uses the platform website without being registered.
  • “User” – Registered user and visitor of the platform (natural or legal person).
  • “Sponsor” – User who makes a donation on the platform. The Sponsor can deduct taxes from their donation.
  • “Donations” – Cash donations that are tax deductible.
  • “Anonymous sponsor” – User who makes a donation on the platform without being identified to the general public.
  • “Organization” – Registered user of the platform (legal persons only). The organization raises donations for their project on the platform in accordance with the Additional General Terms of Use. The organization is the entity managing the project and is solely responsible for its project. Organizations can only be domestic tax-privileged corporations, domestic legal persons under public law or public services in accordance with Section 10 b para 1, sentence 2, No. 1 2nd Alt. EStG (Income Tax Act) under domestic law and based in Germany.
  • “Project” refers to a specific initiative of an organization with an objective defined in the “project description”. This objective is to be achieved through cash donations.
  • “Authorized representative” - Only natural persons who use the platform as an authorized representative of the organization for the organization on its behalf. Authorized representatives include project managers, managers, authors and contact persons. The scope of the possible use of the platform varies depending on the role of the authorized representative on the platform (e.g. project manager, manager, authors).
  • “Project manager” - Only natural persons who, as the authorized representative of the organization, manage, execute and are responsible for the content of a project on the platform on the organization’s behalf and in accordance with the General and Additional General Terms of Use in order to raise funds for the project and thus for the organization. They are also responsible for the use of the donations received in accordance with the General and Additional General Terms of Use. They are named as a contact person on the respective project page.
  • “Project description” The organization’s description of the project on the platform to inform the platform’s users, sponsors, and visitors about the project. This requires accurate, complete, realistic and detailed information about the proposed project. In particular, it includes information on the project’s goal and the purpose of the donations raised and information on the time frame and project location. The intended purpose may only serve tax-privileged purposes according to Sections 51 et seq. AO (Tax Code) and must be consistent with the purpose of the organization as stated in its articles of association.
  • “Fundraising campaign” and “fundraiser”: a “fundraising campaign” is an initiative where a registered user acts as a “fundraiser” for a project they have selected and encourages people to donate money on the platform. The fundraiser can also be the project manager of the respective project. Normally, however, this is a user who wants to support the project with their activities as an external party.
  • A “donation recipient” is a project, organization or fundraising campaign for a project which advertises for sponsorship on the platform and which betterplace.org is able to support via donation decisions in its capacity as a sponsorship organization.
  • “Partner” : Customer of betterplace.org

3. Registration as user, conclusion of contract and rights of use

3.1. Registration as user and conclusion of contract

Registration as a user is free of charge.

The user registers by filling out the registration form on the platform and clicking on the “Register” button. By completing the registration process, the user makes a binding offer to conclude a contract for the use of the platform. After registration, the user immediately receives a confirmation from betterplace.org via e-mail. The contract for the use of the platform is concluded when the user clicks on the confirmation link in the e-mail.

Only registered users are entitled to use the restricted area of the platform.

The subject of the usage relationship for registered users includes all rights and obligations during the use of the available functionalities of the platform

3.2. Usage authorization

3.2.1. Natural person as user - Only users with full legal competency and those acting with the consent of their legal representatives are authorized for use. However, the minimum age of the user is 16 years old in all cases.

3.2.2. Legal person as user (organization or company) - The registration of a legal person (organization or company) and a project of an organization may only be carried out by an authorized representative. The authorized representative who registers, manages, performs and/or is responsible for the content of a project or organization on the platform assures that he/she has been authorized to do so by the organization or company and that the details of the organization, the project, including the project description, and the project reports and stakeholders or information about the company are accurate. He or she shall confirm this authorization upon request by betterplace.org by providing appropriate evidence. Until notified otherwise, he or she shall remain authorized to bindingly respond to all questions regarding the organization’s webpage and its projects or the company on the platform and to submit and receive the required statements to and from betterplace.org.

3.2.3. betterplace.org reserves the right to refuse the registration of a user without giving a reason, even if all prerequisites for inclusion as a user have been fulfilled.

4. Obligations and secondary duties of the user and exemption

4.1. The user is fully responsible for his or her conduct on the platform, all content posted by him or her and its accuracy. Before actually participating or posting content, the user must confirm that his or her conduct and content do not breach the General Terms of Use or rules of betterplace.org, statutory regulations, good morals or third-party legal rights (e.g. trademark law, the right to bear a name, copyright and data protection law, youth protection regulations, general personal rights, competition law). In particular, the user undertakes to obtain the required approval of participants/affected parties/beneficiaries, for example the photographers and the depicted or mentioned individuals, before posting text and images and to provide betterplace.org with evidence of this at any time upon request. The user releases betterplace.org from any third party claims arising from a breach of this obligation.

4.2. With regard to his or her conduct when using the platform, the user shall take into consideration that the betterplace community (i.e. the entire community of users and the operators of betterplace.org) work together on the basis of mutual respect and fair and reasonable relationships. Sensitivity and respect towards the differing opinions of others is in particular required for issues related to world views and religious or political beliefs.

4.3. It is illegal to directly post, provide links to or otherwise facilitate access to the following content on the platform:

  1. Material which endangers or impairs young people and their development, especially violent, pornographic or otherwise immoral content
  2. Content that promotes or glorifies hate, violence or any form of discrimination
  3. False statements of fact and offensive statements
  4. Vulgar and obscene language, disrespectful, provocative and aggressive communication with other users
  5. Misleading content
  6. Calls for boycotts or non-peaceful or otherwise illegal activity
  7. Content that violates public safety and order
  8. Content that has the effect that the sponsor’s donation to betterplace.org is not a donation in the tax sense; e.g. users must not promise or appear to provide some form of consideration in return (granted either by themselves or a by third party) for a donation, nor may they have made a commitment to third parties (e.g. their customers) to share royalties with non-profit organizations (betterplace.org, organizations registered on the platform and their projects) (key phrase: “charity shopping”). Furthermore, the donation must not be directly and causally connected with a benefit granted by the donation recipient betterplace.org or a third party in any other way.
  9. betterplace.org does not tolerate communication and advertising measures that are not approved by betterplace.org in advance, which include, for example, a link between the sales and donations of the user, a direct economic connection between the donation and the product and / or the marketing of the donation, or if reference is made to a tax-privileged entity when making the payment in order to improve its image.
  10. All forms of product advertising and approaching other individual users for the purpose of selling products
  11. Content containing statements which do not comply with the provisions of the General Terms of Use. Accordingly, content must not, for example, contain the statement or give the impression that:
  12. it is not betterplace.org, but rather the organization as the entity managing the project selected by the sponsor in the donation process who is the recipient of the donations made on the platform, or
  13. betterplace.org shall pass on the donations raised via the platform to the selected organization without any decision-making authority of its own.
  14. Content that is not compatible with the principles of betterplace.org in the current version, which we communicate transparently on the platform.

4.4. To ensure that the the sponsor’s donation to betterplace.org is a donation in the tax sense, the donor is also obliged to refrain from communication with content prohibited in accordance with Section 4.3. letters i to l even when not on the platform.

4.5. The user is obliged:

  • to provide complete and accurate information, in particular on his or her identity and age, for necessary registrations and to provide any other requested information which is necessary to achieve the purpose of the contract;
  • to refrain from registering a second time,
  • to make corrections without delay in the designated administrative function in the event of a subsequent change to the requested data,
  • to ensure that his or her username and password are not made available to third parties,
  • to prevent any use of the services of betterplace.org via his or her own account by third parties,
  • to inform betterplace.org without delay by sending an email to support@betterplace.org if your password or account have been used without authorization or if there are indications of imminent use without authorization.

4.6. The user shall comply with the legal data protection and data security requirements.

4.7. Overloading the betterplace.org platform is to be avoided. In particular, measures are prohibited which may compromise the integrity, stability and availability of the IT systems of betterplace.org.

4.8. If betterplace.org gains knowledge of prohibited content as set out in Section 4, betterplace.org is entitled to remove or block this content from the platform at any time.

4.9. The user releases betterplace.org from any third party claims arising from a breach of the obligations specified in the aforementioned Sections 4.1. to 4.7..

4.10. If the user finds content on betterplace.org which, in their opinion, violates existing laws or these General Terms of Use, the Additional General Terms of Use or principles of betterplace.org, they are requested to inform betterplace.org of this fact, e.g. by email (to: support@betterplace.org) or by post (to: gut.org gemeinnützige AG; Schlesische Strasse 26, D-10997 Berlin).

4.11. If a user is blocked, the user can no longer use the platform, even with other platform accounts, and shall not be able to re-register.

4.12 betterplace.org reserves the right to delete a user if they have not used their platform account for more than two years.

5.1. The user grants betterplace.org the right to use the content (text, images, logo, project description, project title or other content) he/she has posted on the platform for purposes which correspond to the purposes of the individual services within the scope of the platform.

In particular, betterplace.org has the right to store the content and make it publicly accessible via the platform, as well as the right to edit the content, in particular to shorten it, taking the original sense into account. When inserting the content, explicit and clearly indicated instructions to the contrary will remain untouched.

5.2. Furthermore, betterplace.org may use the content posted and published by the user on the platform on other donation platforms operated by betterplace.org, as well as donation apps and in advertising materials for the platform and betterplace.org, both online and offline - e.g. on websites of betterplace.org (gut.org gAG), including social media channels and print media.

5.3. Furthermore, betterplace.org may transfer the content posted by the user on the platform and published there via the API interface and iframes to donation websites and apps operated by their partners (partners of gut.org gAG) in order to also make the content visible to interested parties on these websites and apps of the partners and thereby reach a wider target group.

5.4. The user assures that he or she is entitled to all rights in order to grant betterplace.org the rights stipulated in Sections 5.1. to 5.3. without violating the General Terms of Use or principles of betterplace.org, the legal regulations, good morals or rights of third parties, irrespective of the type (e.g. trademark, name, copyright and data protection law, general personal rights, competition law). In particular, the user undertakes to obtain the approval of participants/affected parties/beneficiaries required for use pursuant to Sections 5.1. to 5.3., for example the photographers and the depicted or mentioned individuals, before posting the content and to provide betterplace.org with evidence of this at any time upon request. The user releases betterplace.org from any third party claims arising from a breach of this obligation.

5.5. Even after the end of your usage relationship and the end of your fundraising campaign , all fundraising campaign content published on the platform remains visible as inactive fundraising campaigns on the platform. For reasons of transparency, these remain visible on the platform as inactive fundraising campaigns so that the use of donations can be tracked by users and for documentation purposes of the use of funds.

This does not apply insofar as betterplace.org does not have the right to delete according to section 4.8. makes use of or data subjects assert their deletion rights under data protection law. Please see betterplace.org’s Privacy Policy for more details.

5.6. The content of the platform may be subject to protection rights (e.g. copyright protection rights). Visitors and users are therefore not permitted to exploit this data in any way which goes beyond the rights of use granted by betterplace.org or the respective rights holder in individual cases and must in particular refrain from copying, editing and/or distributing the data. This in particular also applies to our rights as a database manufacturer in accordance with Sections 87c et seq. of the Copyright Act (UrhG). The repeated and systematic duplication, distribution or public communication of content on our platform is contrary to the normal use of our database and affects our legitimate interests.

6. Provision of the platform

betterplace.org shall endeavor to keep the platform available and free of disruption whenever possible. The target is an availability rate of 97 per cent per year. A specific availability is not guaranteed. betterplace.org is in particular authorized to take the platform off the network, both for regular and unscheduled maintenance work. betterplace.org is entitled to change the functionality, appearance and other features of the platform as it chooses. Access to the platform is only provided for the current version. betterplace.org is not obliged to store or save versions or content on behalf of users.

7. Termination and blocking of a registered user and deletion of content

7.1. Termination

7.1.1. The usage relationship with a registered user can be terminated by betterplace.org or the registered user at any time by giving notice in writing with a notice period of 14 days.

When the termination takes effect, the registered user shall no longer be able to use the respective functionalities of the platform which he or she is currently entitled to use in accordance with the usage agreement.

If the registered user is a fundraiser, his or her fundraising activities shall end when the termination takes effect.

7.1.2. When the usage relationship is terminated, the user profile of the registered user on the platform shall be deleted. This does not apply if the registered user is an organization, a project manager, the contact person of an organization or a fundraiser. Section 5.5 applies in such cases.

Please see the Privacy Policy of betterplace.org for more details.

7.1.3. The right to extraordinary termination for cause remains unaffected.

betterplace.org is in particular entitled to extraordinary termination of the registered user’s account if he or she has seriously or repeatedly violated his or her obligations in accordance with Section 4 of these General Terms of Use.

7.1.4. If the registered user is a fundraiser, the following reasons for termination by betterplace.org are to be regarded as cause in addition to the good cause specified in Section 7.2.1.:

  • Breach of obligations in accordance with Section 11.1.1. (timely allocation of the donations to selected projects)
  • Breach of Section 11.4. (inadmissible fundraising campaign)

7.1.5. As soon as the usage agreement ends as a result of the termination by betterplace.org, the user is no longer permitted to use the platform, even with other platform accounts, and shall not be able to re-register.

7.2. Blocking and deletion

betterplace.org is entitled, irrespective of the right of termination pursuant to Section 7.1., to temporarily or permanently block the registered user from using individual or all functions of the platform. In particular, blocking concerns the respective user’s ability to post or change content on the platform, solicit and apply for donations and use the other functions made available to them on the platform. Furthermore, betterplace.org has the right to check, block or delete all content posted on the platform, even if no reason is provided.

betterplace.org will in particular make use of this right if third parties inform betterplace.org of the violation of any laws, third-party rights or the General Terms of Use or principles of betterplace.org by certain content or users and if such information does not prove to be evidently incorrect.

8. Liability

8.1. The liability of betterplace.org is excluded for all damages and liability claims, regardless of their legal grounds (e.g. defects liability, default, impossibility of performance, breach of duty or tort), except for claims

  • due to injury to life, body and health,
  • due to fraudulent intent or on the basis of a warranty,
  • due to willful intent or grossly negligent conduct of betterplace.org, its legal representatives or vicarious agents,
  • in accordance with the German Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz)

8.2. The legal regulations apply to these exceptions in accordance with Section 9.1. The above-mentioned disclaimer in accordance with Section 9.1. shall not apply in the event of a breach of essential contractual obligations (cardinal obligations), i.e. obligations whose fulfillment enables the proper execution of the agreement in the first place and on the compliance of which the respective party can usually rely.

9. Donation process and role of betterplace.org

9.1. General

The donation process within the meaning of these General and Additional General Terms of Use refers to donations made by a sponsor to betterplace.org, and where applicable towards a particular “ donation recipient”. (see the definition in Section 2).

betterplace.org strives to consider the intended donation recipient defined by the sponsor when making his/her donation on the platform or of the fundraiser on their fundraising website. However, the sponsor, fundraiser and respective organization as promoter of the project specified as the donation recipient expressly have no legal claim to the donation being passed on to the target specified by the sponsor or fundraiser.

When allocating funds, betterplace.org not only takes into account the wishes of the sponsor or the non-profit goals of the fundraiser according to their articles of association, the prevailing General Terms of Use and the principle of timely use of funds, according to which they must always use funds promptly for tax-privileged statutory purposes, and regularly report on the use of funds on the platform.

9.2. Role of betterplace.org

9.2.1. gut.org gemeinnützige AG provides the platform betterplace.org for potential beneficiaries to present projects, which can then be found by potential sponsors. gut.org gemeinnützige AG is a tax-approved sponsorship body and recipient of donations made by sponsors through the platform.

9.2.2. betterplace.org reviews the projects before their publication to assess the social purpose of their intended implementation. betterplace.org also requires the submission of a valid notice of tax exemption, a current annex to the corporation tax notice confirming the tax relief or a current notification as per Section 60a of the German Fiscal Code (AO) to ensure that the project-supporting organization is recognized as non-profit under currently applicable German tax law.

9.2.3. betterplace.org recommends that users should only support a donation recipient if the sponsor knows the organization or project manager or if the donation recipient has been recommended by a trustworthy person and they deem it to be suitable on the basis of the descriptions. Each sponsor is personally responsible for obtaining all the information which they may need to indicate a desired donation recipient.

9.3. Donations

9.3.1. One-off and regular donations and donation recipient

Cash can be donated in the form of one-off payments or regularly recurring payments (“regular donations”). Regular donations can be cancelled at any time with immediate effect, see dauerspende-kuendigen.betterplace.org.
When making cash donations, the desired donation recipient is usually a project on the platform. The planned use of the donations is described in the project description. For this purpose, each project contains one or more project requirements. The organization can use this, for example, to explain the specific use of the cash donations and quantify this by specifying the amount which is likely to be needed to implement the project. The project requirements must always be in accordance with the statutory provisions stated in the project description and the tax-privileged purpose according to Sections 51 et seq. of the Tax Code (Abgabenordnung). A project requirement is not binding for the organization. The only thing that is binding is the project description. A desired donation recipient can also be a fundraising campaign or an organization on the platform.
Details regarding the terms used are provided in Section 2 of these General Terms of Use. Details regarding the listing conditions for projects and organizations can be found in the Additional General Terms of Use.

9.3.2. Donation decision

betterplace.org will decide whether to forward the collected donations after an application is made by the organization to disburse such funds. betterplace.org will primarily consider the following criteria when making its decision:

  1. The organization and the project must comply with the formal requirements (proven tax relief for the organization, pursuit of statutory, tax-privileged purposes within the meaning of the Fiscal Code (AO)).
  2. At the time that the donation is paid, the organization must document the planned use of the funds with a convincing new project development.
  3. At the time that the donation is paid, the organization shall confirm that the proof of its tax relief, which it submitted to betterplace.org and upon which its publication or maintenance of its publication on betterplace.org is based, is up to date and that it will inform betterplace.org of any changes to the status of its tax relief without being requested to do so and without delay.
  4. At the time that the donation is paid, the organization shall confirm that its project still fulfils the project preconditions (project has not changed in essence and the legal requirements for non-profit status according to the Fiscal Code (AO)) (cf. also Section 5 of the Additional General Terms of Use, e.g. pursuit of statutory tax-privileged purposes, which existed at the time that the project description was drawn up and were thus the basis for the publication of the project on the platform.
  5. At the time that the donation is paid, the organization shall confirm that it will not donate the donations obtained for its project on to a foreign recipient, cf. Section 10 of the Additional General Terms of Use.
  6. betterplace.org continues to deem the project worthy of sponsorship.
    The donation is usually made within two weeks after a submitted donation request has been approved by betterplace.org. The transfer shall be made to the organization managing the project.
    Under no circumstances does a right exist to assert claims against betterplace.org for donations allocated to the projects and the project requirements. The project-supporting organization is hereby expressly informed that this donation allocation is non-binding under applicable law and can therefore not be enforced by taking legal action.
    Organizations that have received project donations from betterplace.org are to confirm the receipt of these donations to betterplace.org by providing a donation confirmation in due form which has been prepared by the organization. More details can be found in Section 9.1 of the Additional General Terms of Use.

9.3.3. Donations by an “anonymous sponsor”

The sponsor has the opportunity to make donations as an “anonymous sponsor” The sponsor provides their name, email address, postal address and bank account details during the donation process. This data is required so that the data of the “anonymous sponsor” can also be processed. Within the donation process, the sponsor can choose whether their donation should appear with or without their donated amount and their name and picture (if a picture is available) on the platform. If the sponsor decides that their donation shall be displayed with no name and picture, they shall appear as an “anonymous sponsor”.

9.3.4. Use of donations to cover costs

When a donation is made, betterplace.org shall decide whether to pass on the amount donated to betterplace.org. This decision only concerns the donation amount less the transaction costs. The amount required to finance the transaction costs (see our cost recovery list for the current amounts) is retained by betterplace.org in all cases.

9.3.5. Donations to support betterplace.org

In the case of a cash donation, there is the option of specifying that a portion of a sum or an entire sum be given to betterplace.org as a donation recipient for the pursuit of its goals as specified in the organization’s articles of association. This option is explained during the donation process. The suggested amount can be changed or completely deleted by the sponsor.

The sponsor undertakes to irrevocably make the amount he/she has specified available for his or her desired donation recipient with no deductions for any money transfer costs.

9.3.7. Payment and deposit

Payments can be made using any of the options provided on the platform (e.g. credit card, direct debit, PayPal). In this regard, the special conditions of the respective service provider also apply. The donation process on the platform is secure. The data is transmitted using an encrypted connection (SSL) and is only processed by betterplace.org in connection with the donation.

If the sponsor takes part in the SEPA Direct Debit Scheme, betterplace.org shall provide the sponsor with an advance notice (Pre-Notification) before every SEPA Direct Debit (or for the first SEPA direct debit in the case of regular donations) which contains the amount due and the due date. The sponsor shall receive the preliminary information at least one day before the payment date for the SEPA direct debit. The preliminary information can be sent separately or as part of other messages.

9.3.8. Publication / review of donations

An important aspect of betterplace.org is transparency in the management of projects. The Privacy Policy, the current version of which is published on the platform, applies to the processing of donations, including their publication. In addition, the sponsor authorizes betterplace.org to review the information provided by the recipient and/or payment intermediary (“Payment Service Provider”) to check whether and to what extent a promised donation has been paid. betterplace.org is also entitled to save this information to provide details to authorities and other third parties as required by law for the duration stipulated by law.

9.3.9. Donation confirmation

A donation confirmation shall only be issued by betterplace.org if betterplace.org is provided with the information required to issue a donation confirmation, in particular name and address information. Donations for which a donation receipt can be issued are identified as such on betterplace.org.

Donation receipts are normally issued annually at the end of a calendar year with retroactive effect. There is no entitlement to claim an interim receipt.

9.4. End or cancellation of a project and repayment of donations to betterplace.org

The regulations for ending and cancelling a project and for repayment of donations to betterplace.org apply in accordance with Section 14 of the Additional General Terms of Use apply.

10. Data transfer and liability for misuse of data

10.1. Data transfer to the organization and fundraiser

10.1.1 Thank you message

The following data is transferred to the organization and the fundraiser:

  • Full name of the sponsor
  • or company
  • Donation date and time
  • Amount donated
  • The respective project or fundraising campaign specified in the donation process as the desired fundraising goal
  • If relevant, project requirements
  • Donation type (one-off donation or regular donations)
  • If relevant, frequency of donations in the case of regular donations (e.g. monthly, annually)

The organization also receives the email address of the sponsor.

The sponsor instructs betterplace.org to transmit their personal data to the organization and the fundraiser so that they can thank them once for choosing them as the desired donation recipient:

Whereas the organization may thank them once by email or once via the betterplace system for having selected them as the desired donation recipient, the fundraiser may only thank them once with a message via the betterplace system.

On the basis of these General Terms of Use, the organization and the fundraiser may use the received data solely for the respective thank-you message mentioned above and for the purpose of allocating the donation to an individual and thanking the sponsor in person if they should meet them personally. Under no circumstances may the organization or the fundraiser use the transmitted data for advertising purposes without the express consent of the sponsor.

10.1.2. Data transfer to the organization for other purposes

10.1.2.1. If the sponsor has given the appropriate consent for the use of the platform, betterplace.org shall forward the sponsor’s data to the organization selected by the sponsor as the desired donation recipient solely for the purposes stated in the respective consent. This consent shall only apply to that particular donation in each case.

For example, the data may be shared on the basis of consent so that the organization can regularly send the sponsor information about their work and the project progress (e.g. newsletters). The dataset in this case consists of the first and last name, the company name if applicable, e-mail address, address data and donation date, donation amount, desired donation recipient, project requirements, an indication of whether it is a one-off or regular donation, and the donation interval of any regular donations (e.g. monthly, yearly).

The organization is solely responsible for the legal conformity of sending its own newsletter (e.g. in terms of competition and data protection law). betterplace.org is not responsible for ensuring that the declaration of consent it obtains for the data transfer is a sufficient legal basis for a legally watertight newsletter distribution by the organization.

10.1.2.2. Furthermore, data is also transferred to the organization for the purpose of statistical evaluation to optimize the fundraising of the organization with the aim of increasing the donation volume. The transferred data includes the first name and surname of the sponsor, the company name if applicable, the e-mail address, postcode, city, date of the donation, time of the donation, donated amount, the channel via which the donation was made (e.g. organization’s website), desired donation recipient, the donation type (one-off or regular donation), the donation interval of any regular donations (e.g. monthly, yearly) and information about whether the sponsor has subscribed to the project newsletter (see project newsletter following donation in the Privacy Policy). The organization must ensure that only anonymous data is created as a result of the statistical evaluation and that no personal profiles or similar are developed. Furthermore, the organization is not permitted to reidentify the data.

Bank details and credit card data of sponsors are never stored by betterplace.org or passed on to the organization.

10.1.3. Limitation of the use of the sponsor data when data is transferred

Under no circumstances may the organization use the submitted sponsor data for anything other than the purposes intended by betterplace.org when transferring the data, in particular not for advertising purposes.

10.2. Transfer of data to partners of betterplace.org

Selected partners of betterplace.org can display selected project content published on the platform on their own fundraising websites and apps.
They receive the contact details of the authorized representative of the organization for the following purposes:

  • Coordination for possible inclusion or remaining of project content on the fundraising websites and apps of the partners and questions in this matter.
  • If necessary, consent is to be obtained from the partners for their own data processing (e.g. in relation to the inclusion of the project content)

The organizations are expressly not entitled to claim such (ongoing) inclusion of the project content.

Within the scope of a single sign-on (SSO) to improve the user experience, betterplace.org also provides the partners with information as to whether a user account has been created on the platform or whether there is currently a valid login to this user account.

Under no circumstances may the partner use the transferred data of the authorized representative of the organization for purposes other than those for which betterplace.org has transferred the data, in particular not for advertising purposes.

10.3. Indemnity

11. Special promotional formats

betterplace.org offers special promotional formats on the platform, for which the following rules apply in addition to these General Terms of Use:

11.1. Fundraising campaigns

11.1.1. Donation process in fundraising campaigns

betterplace.org gives registered users the opportunity to set up fundraising campaigns on the platform as fundraisers. In a fundraising campaign, the fundraiser selects one or more project(s) registered on the platform and, on an event-driven basis (e.g. for their birthday or a marathon), asks for the fundraising campaign and therefore the projects(s) they have selected to be jointly displayed in the donation process as their desired donation recipient.
These General Terms of Use apply to the sponsors, including the provisions of Section 9.1. and 9.2. (Donation process and role of betterplace.org).
If the fundraiser has selected more than one project for their fundraising campaign, they are asked to allocate the donations raised in their fundraising campaign as soon as possible to a specific project from their fundraising campaign as a desired donation recipient. The donation receipt in accordance with Section 9.2.9 is sent to the sponsors, not the fundraiser.
If the sponsors are not allocated in a timely manner, betterplace.org will send a reminder e-mail to the fundraiser 6 months after the last donation is received. This reminder will ask the fundraiser to allocate the donations to the desired donation recipients
If the fundraiser fails to comply with this request, betterplace.org can end the fundraising campaign two months after this reminder. betterplace.org will then, taking the desired donation recipients into account, either allocate the donations itself or the donated sum will remain with betterplace.org for the pursuit of its statutory purposes. The latter is, for example, always applicable when it is not possible to allocate donations to any of the selected projects, as the projects are, for instance, now fully funded, or have ended or were cancelled in accordance with Section 9.4.
betterplace.org aims to consider the intended donation recipient defined by the fundraiser on their fundraising website when allocating funds. However, there is expressly no legal claim to the donation being passed on to the donation recipient specified by the fundraiser, see also Sections 9.1. and 9.3.2. (Donation decision)

11.1.2. Blocking fundraising campaigns

betterplace.org is entitled to temporarily or permanently block or cancel fundraising campaigns. The blocking in particular concerns the ability to post or change content on the fundraising page on the platform, raise funds and allocate donations to the projects. betterplace.org will in particular make use of this right if third parties inform betterplace.org of the violation of any laws, third-party rights or the General Terms of Use or principles of betterplace.org by certain content or users and if the respective information does not prove to be evidently incorrect.

11.2. Doubling promotions

Doubling promotions can be launched on the platform. A doubling promotion is an initiative that aims at doubling donations from users through betterplace.org with the funds from a doubling campaign in favor of organizations registered on the platform and their projects. The doubling promotion ends when betterplace.org has used up its funds from the doubling promotion.

By selecting a project which participates in the doubling promotion during the donation process, a sponsor indicates his or her desired donation recipient. These sponsors are subject to these General Terms of Use, including the provisions of Sections 9.1. and 9.2. (Donation process and role of betterplace.org).

betterplace.org strives to consider the project selected by the user when doubling using the funds from the doubling promotion. However, the sponsor and the organization expressly have no legal claim to a doubling of the donation. This is because Sections 9.1 and 9.2 also apply to these doubling donations. (Donation process and role of betterplace.org) and Section 9.3.2. (Donation decision)

11.3. Donation championships

Donation championships can be launched on the platform. The aim of a donation championship is for the participating organizations to attract the highest possible donations with their respective projects. The winners may receive a donation from betterplace.org.

The sponsor indicates his or her desired donation recipient in the donation process by selecting a project participating in the donation championship. These sponsors are subject to these General Terms of Use, including the provisions of Sections 9.1. and 9.2. (Donation process and role of betterplace.org).

betterplace.org strives to consider the winning projects in their donation decision regarding the funding amounts. However, sponsors and organizations expressly do not have a legal claim to the granting of a payment to the winning project (cf. Sections 9.1 and 9.2. (Donation process and role of betterplace.org) and Section 9.3.2. (Donation decision)

11.4. Impermissible fundraising campaigns, doubling promotions, donation championships and other impermissible donation formats on the platform

11.4.1. Fundraising campaigns, doubling promotions, fundraising championships and other promotion formats on the platform are inadmissible if, as a result, the sponsor’s donation to betterplace.org is not regarded as a donation in the tax sense, e.g. promoters are not entitled to promise any consideration or prospective service in return (granted either by themselves or a third party) in return for a donation, nor may they have made a commitment to third parties (e.g. their customers) to share royalties with non-profit organizations (betterplace.org, organizations registered on the platform and their projects) (key phrase: “charity shopping”). Furthermore, the donation must not be directly and causally connected with a benefit granted by the donation recipient betterplace.org or a third party in any other way.

11.4.2. betterplace.org does not tolerate communication and advertising measures on the fundraising website or within the fundraiser’s channels of communication or a third party not on the platform (such as on the fundraiser’s or a third party’s website, in their social media channels, print media or videos) that have not been approved by betterplace.org in advance, which include, for example, a link between the sales and donations, a direct economic connection between the donation and the product and / or the marketing of the donation, or if reference is made to a tax-privileged entity when making the payment in order to improve its image.

11.4.3. Product advertising and approaching individual users for the purpose of selling products in any way is not permitted within the scope of fundraising campaigns, doubling promotions, fundraising championships and other promotion formats on the platform.

11.4.4. Furthermore, content on promotional websites containing statements that do not comply with the provisions of these General Terms of Use is also inadmissible. Accordingly, content must not, for example, contain the statement or give the impression that:

  • it is not betterplace.org, but rather the organization as the entity managing the project selected by the sponsor in the donation process who is the recipient of the donations made on the platform, or
  • betterplace.org shall pass on the donations raised via the platform to the selected organization without any decision-making authority of its own.

11.4.5. Should the fundraiser violate this Section 11.4, they shall be obliged to compensate betterplace.org for all losses resulting from this violation.

11.4.6. The validity of the other provisions of these General Terms of Use from Section 11.4.1. to Section 11.4.4. remain unaffected. For example, Section 4 and Section 5 of these General Terms of Use also apply to promoters who post content on their promotional website on the platform.

12. Donations via the API

betterplace.org can provide partners (see Section 5) with selected platform content (e.g. project content) via API so that they can display the content on their own website and enable the users of the partner’s website to select the aid projects as their desired donation recipients. The donation is displayed and published on the platform anonymously, without the sponsor’s name, as a donation from the partner’s website. These General Terms of Use also apply to sponsors who donate in this manner.

Details of the data processing of this sponsor data can be found in the Privacy Policy.

13. Changes to conditions

These General Terms and Conditions are valid from February 2022 onwards.

betterplace.org reserves the right to make changes to these General Terms of Use at any time without restriction, in particular in order to adapt them to legislative or technical changes. The changed conditions will be announced on this website no later than four weeks before their entry into force. Registered users will be informed by e-mail about upcoming changes at the latest four weeks before their entry into force. betterplace.org therefore advises you to regularly review the current version on its website. If a registered user does not object to the validity of the new conditions within four weeks after receipt of the e-mail, the changed conditions shall be deemed as having been accepted. betterplace.org will separately inform the registered user in the e-mail containing the changed conditions about the possibility of objecting and the significance of this four-week period.

For comments or questions about these General Terms of Use (belonging to betterplace.org), please contact our support team at any time:

gut.org gemeinnützige AG

– Support –

Schlesische Strasse 26

D-10997 Berlin

support@betterplace.org

14. Governing law and place of jurisdiction

14.1 The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies.

14.2. The place of fulfillment and jurisdiction for all disputes arising from this agreement is Berlin, Germany for contracts with merchants, legal entities under public law and special funds under public law.