Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of these terms

You affirmatively accept the applicable terms — these Terms of Service, our Privacy Policy, our Fundraising Disclaimer, and any campaign-specific Official Rules — when you:

• Submit a contestant registration
• Purchase a voting pack
• Complete a sponsorship payment
• Activate a host account
• Submit content such as videos, photos, or logos
• Use protected organizer or host features

Each of these actions includes an express acceptance step (such as a required checkbox) before you can proceed. Simply browsing the public pages of the site is subject to these general site-use terms, but transactions, registrations, uploads, and account activation always require the affirmative acceptance described above. If you do not agree, please do not use the site.

2. The platform

RaiseTheStage hosts community talent-challenge fundraising campaigns. The current campaign is the Just Charlie Talent Challenge. Campaign rules, eligibility, and voting details are described on the Rules & FAQ page.

3. Official Rules

• Every talent challenge hosted on RaiseTheStage is governed by campaign-specific Official Rules, published on that campaign's rules page.
• The Official Rules form part of these Terms.
• If there is a direct conflict between these general Terms and a campaign's Official Rules, the Official Rules control for that campaign.
• Contestants, parents and guardians, voters, sponsors, and hosts are responsible for reviewing the applicable campaign rules before participating.

For the Just Charlie Talent Challenge, the Official Rules are the Rules & FAQ page.

4. Contestants, parents, and guardians

A contestant who is a minor must be registered by a parent or legal guardian. By registering a contestant, the registering adult confirms that:

• They are the contestant's parent or legal guardian, or the contestant is an adult registering themselves.
• They are authorized to approve the contestant's participation.
• They have reviewed the media submitted with the registration.
• They consent to the approved public display of the contestant's profile as described in the Privacy Policy.
• They understand that contestant pages and shared campaign links may be publicly accessible.
• They will not instruct or permit the child to communicate privately with unknown supporters through the platform.
• They are responsible for requesting removal of the contestant's profile or media when appropriate.
• All registration information provided is accurate.

Entries are subject to organizer review. The organizer may decline, unpublish, or remove any entry that violates these Terms or the campaign rules. Guardians are responsible for the content of their contestant's submission.

5. Media and video submission rights

By submitting a video, photo, or other media, you confirm that you have all necessary rights and permissions for:

• The recording itself
• The featured performer
• Any prominently identifiable minor appearing in the media
• Any music, audio, choreography, images, trademarks, or other protected material included in the media
• Recording at the venue, where venue permission is required
• Promotional use by RaiseTheStage and the campaign organizer as described below

You grant RaiseTheStage and the campaign organizer a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, display, stream, resize, crop, compress, transcode, caption, create thumbnails from, and create short promotional excerpts of your submission, and to share approved content through campaign pages and RaiseTheStage social channels. This license is limited to operating, supporting, documenting, and promoting the campaign and RaiseTheStage, and is subject to valid removal requests.

• You keep ownership of your submission. RaiseTheStage does not take ownership of your video or media.
• You may request removal of a published submission at any time by contacting us; removal from active voting may affect standing in the campaign.
• Removal from RaiseTheStage-controlled pages may not remove copies already shared by other users or on third-party social platforms.

6. Prohibited content and conduct

The following are not permitted anywhere on the platform:

• Content that is unlawful, hateful, harassing, sexually explicit, violent, or otherwise inappropriate for a family audience.
• Content that exposes a minor's private information.
• Impersonation, fraudulent registrations, or manipulated voting.
• Attempts to interfere with the operation or security of the site.

We may moderate, remove content, refuse service, or disqualify participants at our discretion to keep the campaign safe and fair.

7. Voting and campaign mechanics

• Votes are a campaign-support and promotional mechanism. Purchasing votes is not an investment, does not create ownership rights of any kind, and does not guarantee that a contestant will win.
• Votes are credited only after successful payment verification by our payment processor.
• Refunded, reversed, disputed, duplicated, fraudulent, or unauthorized transactions may result in the removal or reversal of associated votes.
• RaiseTheStage may audit voting activity before publishing final results.
• Automated voting, bots, payment fraud, vote manipulation, coordinated abuse, and interference with platform security are prohibited.
• RaiseTheStage may freeze, correct, reverse, or remove suspicious vote activity.
• Final standings may remain provisional until payment reconciliation is completed.

8. Winner determination

Each campaign's Official Rules specify, for that campaign:

• How winners are determined
• Whether the campaign uses public voting, judging, fundraising totals, or a combination
• Campaign start and end times, and the applicable time zone
• Eligibility requirements
• Tie-breaking procedures
• Disqualification grounds
• Prize details
• Vote reconciliation
• Cancellation or technical-failure procedures

For details that apply to a specific campaign, always consult that campaign's rules page — for the current campaign, the Just Charlie Rules & FAQ.

9. Sponsors

• Sponsors are responsible for the accuracy of their business information and for having all intellectual-property rights to any name, logo, or artwork they submit.
• Sponsor placements are subject to organizer approval and may be declined or removed, including for unlawful, deceptive, offensive, or inappropriate content.
• Sponsorship does not guarantee impressions, clicks, leads, sales, or any particular business result.
• Sponsor payments are collected only after campaign-team review, under sponsor-specific terms presented before payment.

10. Payments, refunds, and disputes

Payments are processed by Stripe. We never see or store full card details. Entry fees, vote-pack purchases, and sponsorship payments are generally non-refundable once processed, subject to applicable law and the approved exceptions below. Refund requests are reviewed manually by the campaign team — refunds are not automatic.

• Duplicate charges and verified technical errors — if you were charged twice for one purchase, or a verified technical error occurred (for example, a completed payment where votes were never credited), contact us and we will review and correct it in good faith.
• Campaign cancellation — if a campaign is canceled, the campaign team will review affected payments and determine appropriate handling, which may include refunds.
• Rejected contestant submissions — if a contestant's entry is rejected during review, the campaign team will review the associated entry fee.
• Contestant withdrawal or rule violations — payments associated with a contestant who withdraws or is disqualified for rule violations are generally not refunded, subject to campaign-team review.
• Rejected sponsorship content — if sponsorship content cannot be approved for display, the campaign team will contact the sponsor to resolve or review the payment.
• Payment disputes and chargebacks — if a payment is disputed or charged back, associated votes or benefits may be reversed while the dispute is resolved.
• Refund-associated vote reversal — if a vote-pack payment is refunded for any reason, the associated votes are removed from the contestant's total.

To raise a payment issue, contact info@raisethestage.ai.

11. No guarantee of results

RaiseTheStage makes no guarantee regarding fundraising totals, campaign outcomes, prize amounts, vote counts, exposure, or any other result of participation. Participation is voluntary.

12. Disclaimer and limitation of liability

The site is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, express or implied. To the maximum extent permitted by law, RaiseTheStage and its operators shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, revenue, or goodwill, arising out of your use of the site. Where liability cannot be excluded, our total liability is limited to the amount you paid to us in the 12 months before the claim arose.

13. Governing law and venue

These Terms and any dispute relating to RaiseTheStage or the use of this website will be governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Subject to any rights that cannot legally be waived, disputes must be brought in an appropriate state or federal court located in Pennsylvania.

14. Changes and contact

We may update these Terms from time to time; the version and last-updated date above reflect the latest revision. Material changes will be reflected in an updated version number. Continued use of the site after an update constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms for site browsing; transactions always require fresh affirmative acceptance at the time of the transaction. Questions? Email info@raisethestage.ai.

These terms are provided in plain language for a community campaign and are not a substitute for advice from a licensed attorney.