Terms of Service for Foundations

These Terms of Service for Foundations is related to the Nonprofit Builder website, which is operated by Imaginate Solutions Sàrl (Switzerland) (referred to henceforth as Imaginate) as a service to the participating foundations. Imaginate is the responsible entity with regards to this Terms of Service.

Please take a moment to read this document carefully. If you have any questions about it, please contact us at support@nonprofitbuilder.org.

Current foundations which are member: Oak Foundation, C&A Foundation, Packard Foundation. Last updated: 8 February 2020

1. Operator

 

The Nonprofit Builder platform is owned and operated by Imaginate Solutions Sàrl, a social enterprise registered in Coppet, Switzerland. The registration and statutes of the company can be found in the company register of Vaud Canton, here.

2. Services included in foundation-level membership

 

The Nonprofit Builder is available to foundations on a yearly subscription basis, and includes: A foundation-level account, allowing the foundation to invite 1) invite its trusted consultants to open profiles within the system, 2) to curate a pool of consultants by combining its own consultants with those invited by other foundations and 3) to share Unlimited user accounts, meaning:

  • Superuser accounts. Super-users curate the foundation’s consultant pool and invite consultants and grantees to join.
  • Staff accounts. Staff can only invite grantees to join, and only see the consultants selected for them by the super-users.
  • Grantee accounts. Grantees join for a limited period to review the consultant profiles.

Free membership for other partner organisations in its ecosystem, with whom it needs to share its pool of consultants. Single-sign-on integration, so that its staff may log in without needing to create accounts or remember passwords. Access to the resource library accessible to all foundations and all users. A private library , only for foundation staff, to store policy documents, guidance notes (not recommended for confidential or sensitive material).

Access to other upcoming initiatives we are developing in order to facilitate the organisational development of grantees, such as:

  • Ask and Expert service allowing grantees to talk to participating consultants for an hour.
  • Mentoring service, matching junior executive directors with seasoned ones.

3. Process for inviting consultants

 

Under the current practice, only member foundations may formally invite consultants to join. Other consultants and Imaginate may only propose consultants for invitation by one of the member foundations. Foundations take responsibility for inviting only consultants they have confidence in, meaning either they have worked with them directly or they were recommended by their grantees.

4. Decision-making

 

The Nonprofit Builder platform is still under formation and the foundation members will need to discuss and decide on many aspects going forwards. These decisions can relate to technical aspects such as taxonomy terms or new features, policy aspects such as vetting of new consultants, strategic aspects such as new services. These discussions will be facilitated by Imaginate (Daniel D’Esposito). Any foundation member can bring up a matter for common discussion. Decisions will be taken by consensus.

Imaginate also strives to ensure the interests of all stakeholder groups are well represented, in particular the interests of the consultants. For the platform to be a success, it is essential that they feel that it is a welcoming community space where all feel valued, listened to, and fairly treated.

5. Maintenance, customization and new features

 

Imaginate does its best to maintain a well running service. Bugs do happen however. Ideally they are fixed the same day they are found or reported, but it can take a couple of days depending how much time it takes to investigate.
Foundations can request both customisations and new features, for example custom taxonomies, new notifications, new kinds of content, etc. Such ideas are welcomes as they enhance the platform. The costs are usually covered by the membership fee and will be implemented free of charge.
As a rule of thumb, 20% of the membership fees are earmarked for developing the platform.

6. Compliance with personal data rules

 

Imaginate takes responsibility for ensuring that the Nonprofit Builder platform is in compliance with personal data rules, in particular the EU’s GDPR.

The platform is audited on a yearly basis by a specialist in legal informatics, or whenever there is a significant change to its functioning.

The platform contains no personal data that can be considered as sensitive in the meaning given to the term by the GDPR, for example it contains no data on the medical conditions of consultants, their religion or sexual orientation, etc.

7. Security

 

Imaginate takes all administrative and technical measures to ensure a good level of security: keeping software and plugins up to date, daily backups, quality hosting with malware detection and fixes, two-factor authentication for admin accounts, etc. Currently the platform does not contain sensitive information, so there is little risk of harm in case of an intrusion. Were an intrusion to happen, Imaginate will alert all foundations and consultants using the system.

8. Updating of these terms of service

 

In case of questions relating to these terms of service, an email will be sent to all foundation members to notify of the change.