Terms of service

1. Who we are

SponsorshipNow is a product of ULU Studio Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 17259257 and registered office at Swan Building, 20 Swan Street, Manchester M4 5JW ("we", "us"). You can contact us at info@patronnow.app.

2. What SponsorshipNow is

SponsorshipNow is an online service that lets an organisation present sponsorship opportunities, send proposals to businesses and people who may sponsor it ("Sponsors"), record agreed terms, issue invoices, take payments through Stripe, record what it delivers and share reports. "You" means the organisation and the people who use SponsorshipNow for it.

SponsorshipNow provides the tools. Every sponsorship agreement is between the organisation and the Sponsor: the organisation is the contracting party. We are not a party to it, we do not act as agent for either side, and we do not guarantee that any sponsorship will be found, delivered or paid.

3. Accounts and eligibility

You must be at least 18 and have authority to act for the organisation you register. Keep your sign-in details secure; you are responsible for activity under your account. You can add two-factor authentication in your security settings, and we recommend it for anyone who manages money.

Each organisation decides who is on its team. Admins manage money, payments, the plan, the team and settings. Staff can view the organisation's sponsors, opportunities, enquiries, agreements and money, and follow up enquiries, but cannot change money, the team or settings. Tell us at info@patronnow.app straight away if you think an account has been misused.

4. The organisation's obligations

The organisation is responsible for:

• the accuracy of what it publishes and proposes, and having the right to offer the benefits it describes;
• delivering what it agrees, and the invoices it issues;
• having a lawful basis for the personal data it puts into SponsorshipNow, including the permission of anyone who appears in its images;
• when it records a person for sponsorship, as the controller of that person's data: obtaining and keeping a record of the person's permission and, for someone under 18, the permission of a parent or guardian with parental responsibility; and the safeguarding of anyone under 18 it presents, under its own safeguarding policy;
• complying with the law and rules that apply to it, including tax and, where relevant, charity or governing-body rules.

Accounts are for adults, and the service is not directed at children. An organisation may present someone under 18 for sponsorship only as described in our privacy policy. Before an organisation's public page goes live we check that the organisation is genuine. That check is not a check that what it publishes is accurate.

5. Sponsors

A Sponsor never needs a SponsorshipNow account. Proposal, invoice and report links work without one. To accept or decline a proposal, the Sponsor confirms their email address with a one-time code. Accepting creates an agreement with the organisation on the terms shown at that moment, which both sides can view afterwards. Those terms change only if both sides accept a new proposal.

6. Payments and fees

Sponsorship payments. A Sponsor pays the organisation online by card or Pay by Bank through Stripe. The payment is made on the organisation's own Stripe account and settles there; we never hold the money and never see card or bank details. Stripe's terms apply to the organisation's Stripe account; for UK organisations Stripe's contracting entity is Stripe Payments UK Limited.

Our fees. Our fees are those on the pricing page at the time of the payment:

• Free plan: no subscription, and a 4% commission on each online sponsorship payment, capped at £250 per payment;
• Paid plan: £20 a month or £200 a year, with no commission on online payments.

The Sponsor pays the invoice amount and nothing more. Our commission and Stripe's processing fee are taken from that payment before it reaches the organisation's Stripe balance. Stripe sets its processing fee and charges it directly; we add nothing to it. Before payment, SponsorshipNow shows the organisation an estimate based on UK-card processing. The final amount received depends on Stripe’s actual processing cost. Payments made outside SponsorshipNow, such as a bank transfer the organisation records against an invoice, carry no fee.

ULU Studio Ltd is not registered for VAT, so no VAT is added to our plans or fees. If that changes, we will give at least 30 days' notice before charging VAT.

7. Plans, cancellation and refunds

Plans are paid by card through Stripe to ULU Studio Ltd. A monthly plan renews each month and an annual plan each year until an Admin cancels it from the organisation's billing page. Cancelling stops the next renewal; the plan stays active until the end of the period already paid for. A change between monthly and annual takes effect at the next renewal. If a renewal payment fails, the organisation has seven days from the end of the paid period to update its card before the plan lapses.

Our refunds and cancellation page explains what happens to sponsorship and plan payments when something changes, and forms part of these terms.

8. Acceptable use

You must not use SponsorshipNow for anything unlawful, misleading or harmful; to send unsolicited messages; to upload material you do not have the rights to; to try to reach other users' data; or to interfere with the service. We may suspend or remove accounts and content that break these terms, and will tell you why unless the law prevents it.

9. Content and intellectual property

You keep ownership of what you upload. You give us the licence we need to store, display and share it as the service requires, for example showing your public page or sending a report to a Sponsor. SponsorshipNow, its software, design and brand belong to ULU Studio Ltd.

10. Data and how we process it for you

Our privacy policy explains the personal data we are responsible for. For the sponsor, enquiry, agreement and person data an organisation puts into SponsorshipNow, the organisation is the controller and we process that data on its behalf. This section is the agreement between us for that processing.

• Subject matter and duration: providing SponsorshipNow to the organisation, for as long as it uses the service and until the data is deleted after it closes its account.
• Nature and purpose: storing, organising, displaying and sending the organisation's records, and producing its proposals, agreements, invoices and reports.
• Types of personal data: names, email addresses, phone numbers and roles of sponsor contacts and enquirers; acceptance records; invoice and payment records; delivery evidence, including images; and, where the organisation presents a person for sponsorship, that person's details, images and recorded permission, and for someone under 18 the name and relationship of the parent or guardian who gave permission and the month the young person turns 18.
• People concerned: the organisation's sponsors and their contacts, people who send it enquiries, its team members, the people it presents for sponsorship, including under-18s, and their parents or guardians.
• Instructions: we process the data only to provide the service as the organisation uses it, or as the law requires. We will tell the organisation if we think an instruction breaks data protection law.
• Confidentiality and security: only people who need access to run the service have it, and they are bound to keep it confidential. Our security page describes how the data is protected.
• Sub-processors: DigitalOcean (hosting and database, London), Brevo (sending email), Backblaze (encrypted backups) and Google Workspace (our mailbox, for messages you send us). We will tell the organisation's Admins before adding or replacing a sub-processor; an organisation that objects can close its account.
• Help with requests and incidents: we will help the organisation answer requests from the people whose data it holds, and tell it without undue delay if we become aware of a breach affecting its data.
• Deletion: when an organisation closes, its workspace is disabled at once and its data is deleted 30 days later, except the records described in section 13 that must be kept. Backup copies expire within 35 days after that.
• Records: we will give the organisation the information it reasonably needs to show that this processing meets data protection law.

11. Availability and changes

We aim to keep SponsorshipNow available at all times but cannot guarantee it. We may change or withdraw features, and will give reasonable notice of changes that materially reduce the service. We will give at least 30 days' notice of any change to our fees.

12. Liability

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law. Otherwise, we are not liable for loss of profit, business or data, or for indirect or consequential loss, and our total liability to you in any twelve-month period is limited to the greater of the fees you paid us in that period and £100. We are not responsible for an organisation's or Sponsor's performance of a sponsorship agreement.

13. Ending the agreement

An Admin can close the organisation at any time from its settings. The workspace is disabled at once, an Admin can reopen it within 30 days, and after that its data is deleted. To delete your own sign-in account, email info@patronnow.app. We may close an account that seriously or repeatedly breaks these terms.

Some records outlast closure because the law or the other party relies on them: issued invoices, payment records, accepted agreements and the history of who did what. We keep them, with personal details reduced to what they need, for as long as the privacy policy says.

14. General

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction. If part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest still applies. We may update these terms; the date at the top shows the current version, and we will email account holders about material changes before they take effect.