Welcome
These Terms of Use ("Terms") are an agreement between you and A Race Against Blindness, an Arizona nonprofit corporation recognized as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code ("RAB," "we," "us"). They govern your use of araceagainstblindness.org, fundraiser.araceagainstblindness.org, donor.araceagainstblindness.org, the Education Rewards portal, and the other sites, portals and services we operate (together, the "Sites").
You accept these Terms when you click a button that refers to them (for example, Donate, Enter, Sign in, Subscribe or Submit) or when you otherwise use the Sites. If you do not agree, please do not use the Sites. Each fundraiser also has Official Rules; if these Terms and the Official Rules conflict about a fundraiser, the Official Rules control, except that our Privacy Policy always controls how we handle personal information. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal information, and our SMS and Mobile Messaging Terms govern text messages; both are part of these Terms.
1. Who may use the Sites
Anyone may read our educational content. You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority where you live, to donate, enter a fundraiser, open a donor portal account, subscribe to text messages, or apply for a grant. Our fundraisers are open only to residents of the United States and Canada as the Official Rules provide; some jurisdictions are excluded and the fundraisers are void where prohibited. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13; if you are a parent sharing information about your child, Section 7 and our Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy apply.
2. Donor portal and other accounts
The donor portal signs you in with a one-time link or code sent to your email; there is no password. Keep your email account secure, and tell us promptly if you believe someone else has used your portal access. You may hold one portal account, tied to the email you used to donate; you may not create accounts for others or transfer yours. You are responsible for keeping your contact information accurate; if we cannot reach you at the email or phone on file, you may miss winner notifications. We may suspend or close accounts that violate these Terms or the Official Rules, that we reasonably believe are fraudulent, or that have been inactive for an extended period, and we will tell you when we do unless the law prevents it.
3. Donations and fundraiser entries
Donations are voluntary gifts to RAB. When you donate through the fundraiser store, Shopify processes your payment on our behalf in US dollars. Each fundraiser's Official Rules describe how donations relate to sweepstakes entries, the free method of entry available to everyone, eligibility, dates, prizes and how winners are chosen by an independent sweepstakes administrator. No donation or purchase is necessary to enter or win. Every entry has the same chance of winning whether it was obtained with a donation or for free.
Entries are a record, not a product. We issue entries electronically and you can view them in the donor portal. Entries are not transferable, have no cash value, and may be voided if a donation is refunded, reversed or disputed, or if you violate the Official Rules.
Tax treatment. Donations made in connection with a fundraiser may not be deductible as charitable contributions; please consult your tax advisor.
Refunds. Our Donation, Refund and Delivery Policy explains when we refund a donation. Please contact us before disputing a charge with your bank; a chargeback voids the related entries.
Receipts and acknowledgments. We email a receipt for every donation. Contact us if you need a corrected receipt or a year-end summary.
4. Educational content and medical information
The Education Hub, our blog, videos and other content are provided for general education about inherited retinal diseases and related research. They are not medical advice, do not create a physician-patient relationship, and are not a substitute for consultation with your own eye-care professional or physician. Never delay or disregard professional medical advice because of something you read on the Sites. If you think you have a medical emergency, call your local emergency number.
Our educational content is reviewed by a physician before publication, and some articles are drafted with the help of software tools before that review. Research and news summaries describe published findings and do not constitute endorsements.
Clinical trial listings. Trial information on the Sites is retrieved live from ClinicalTrials.gov, a database of the US National Library of Medicine. We may filter listings by condition. ClinicalTrials.gov data are provided by study sponsors; neither NLM nor RAB warrants their accuracy or completeness, and a listing is not an endorsement of a study or a recommendation to enroll. Discuss any trial with your physician and contact the study team directly through the links provided.
Directories. Our lists of specialists, genes, conditions and community resources are compiled from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Inclusion is not a recommendation.
5. Research grants (Grants Portal)
Researchers who submit a Letter of Inquiry or proposal represent that the information is accurate, that they have authority to submit it, and that it does not infringe anyone's rights. Applications are confidential and are shared only with RAB staff, board members and scientific reviewers bound by confidentiality. Submitting an application does not create any entitlement to funding; RAB decides in its sole discretion and may decline, defer or fund with modifications. Applicants keep their intellectual property; RAB may publish the names, institutions, project titles and lay summaries of funded projects and may use application materials for review and administration. Funded projects are governed by a separate grant agreement.
6. Reviews, testimonials and winner stories
We invite donors to review us on Trustpilot and Google consistently at the same point after a donation, regardless of their experience. We never pay or give entries for reviews, never ask only satisfied donors, and never suppress reviews because they are negative. Reviews shown on the Sites are a selection; a link to our full Trustpilot profile, overall rating and review count accompanies them. Winner stories and photos are published under the Official Rules, and posts by winners or by creators who collaborate with us are asked to disclose that relationship, consistent with the Federal Trade Commission's Endorsement Guides.
7. Content you provide
When you send us survey or feedback answers, photos, videos, emails, social media posts that tag us, or other material ("Your Content"), you keep ownership, and you give RAB a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, edit for length and format, and publish it in connection with our mission and fundraising, with attribution where practical. You may ask us to stop using Your Content prospectively by emailing privacy@araceagainstblindness.org; we will honor the request except for uses already in print or distributed. Winner publicity is governed by the Official Rules. Do not include other people's personal information, or your own health information, in forms that do not ask for it. You are responsible for Your Content and represent that you have the rights to share it.
Copyright complaints. If you believe content on the Sites infringes your copyright, send a notice meeting the requirements of 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3) to our designated agent: Copyright Agent, A Race Against Blindness, 3317 S Higley Rd Ste 114-110, Gilbert, AZ 85297, privacy@araceagainstblindness.org, 855-439-0122. We respond to valid notices and terminate repeat infringers.
8. Our content and trademarks
The Sites and their text, photographs, videos, graphics, logos, typefaces, software and compilations belong to RAB or our licensors and are protected by copyright, trademark and other laws. We grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive license to view the Sites and to print or download content for personal, non-commercial use, keeping all notices intact. You may share links to our pages and quote short excerpts with attribution. You may not copy, republish, sell, scrape, or use our content to train machine-learning models without our written permission. "A Race Against Blindness" and our logos are our trademarks; do not use them to suggest sponsorship or endorsement.
9. Acceptable use
You agree not to: use the Sites for anything unlawful or to violate the Official Rules; attempt to obtain entries by fraud, automation, multiple identities or false information; access another person's account or data; interfere with the Sites' operation or security; harvest contact information; post false, defamatory, harassing or infringing material; impersonate RAB, a winner or anyone else; or use automated tools to access the Sites except search engines indexing public pages.
10. Third-party services
The Sites depend on services run by others under their own terms and privacy policies: Shopify (store and checkout, including Shop Pay), PayPal and Apple Pay, Klaviyo (email and text messages), Google (analytics, advertising, YouTube and fonts), Meta (advertising), Trustpilot (reviews), Gorgias (Help Center), Supabase and Resend (donor portal), Cloudflare (bot protection), Replit (hosting) and the independent sweepstakes administrator. We are not responsible for those services or for third-party sites we link to. Our Privacy Policy lists these providers and what they receive.
11. Electronic communications
By using the Sites you consent to receive receipts, notices, disclosures and other communications from us electronically, by email, text message (where you have consented) or posting on the Sites, and you agree that they satisfy any requirement that communications be in writing. You may withdraw this consent, request a paper copy, or update your email address by contacting us; withdrawing consent may prevent you from using the donor portal.
12. Disclaimers
The Sites and their content are provided "as is" and "as available." To the fullest extent permitted by law, RAB disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy and uninterrupted or error-free operation. RAB does not warrant that any medical, scientific or clinical-trial information is complete or current. Some jurisdictions do not allow these disclaimers, so some may not apply to you.
13. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law, RAB and its directors, officers, employees, volunteers and agents will not be liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data or goodwill, arising from your use of the Sites. RAB's total liability to you for all claims relating to the Sites will not exceed the greater of (a) the total amount you donated to RAB through the Sites in the twelve months before the claim, or (b) US $100. These limits do not apply to liability that cannot be limited by law, including liability for RAB's gross negligence or willful misconduct, and nothing in these Terms limits rights you have as a consumer that cannot be waived.
14. Indemnification
You agree to defend and indemnify RAB and its directors, officers, employees, volunteers and agents against claims, losses and reasonable attorneys' fees arising from Your Content, your violation of these Terms or the Official Rules, your violation of law, or your infringement of another person's rights. RAB may take over the defense of any matter subject to indemnification, at its own expense, and you agree to cooperate.
15. Resolving disputes
Talk to us first. Most concerns are resolved by our team. Before starting any formal proceeding, you agree to send a written notice describing the problem and what you want to privacy@araceagainstblindness.org or to our mailing address, and to give us 60 days to resolve it informally. RAB agrees to do the same before bringing a claim against you.
Small claims. Either of us may bring an individual claim in small claims court instead of arbitration.
Arbitration. Please read carefully; it affects your legal rights. If we cannot resolve a dispute informally, you and RAB agree that any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Sites (except small claims and requests for injunctive relief to protect intellectual property or security) will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules and, where applicable, its Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules, before one neutral arbitrator. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this section. The arbitrator decides all issues, including the scope and enforceability of this section, except that a court decides any dispute about the Class Action Waiver below. The arbitration will take place in the county where you live, or by video or telephone, or by documents only if the claim is under $10,000 and you prefer. RAB will pay all AAA filing, administrative and arbitrator fees for claims under $25,000 unless the arbitrator finds the claim frivolous; otherwise fees are allocated under the AAA rules. Each side pays its own attorneys' fees unless the arbitrator awards them under applicable law. Opt-out: you may reject this arbitration agreement by emailing privacy@araceagainstblindness.org with your name, the email you used on the Sites and the words "Arbitration opt-out" within 30 days after you first accept these Terms; opting out does not affect any other provision. Mass filings: if 25 or more similar demands are filed by or with the help of the same counsel, the parties agree to the AAA mass-arbitration process, with claims resolved in staged batches, the statute of limitations tolled for claims awaiting a batch, no batch outcome binding anyone who was not a party to it, and either side free to take remaining claims to court if the process has not resolved them within 18 months. California residents: for claims arising in California, arbitration will take place in California and California substantive law applies, as California law requires for consumer contracts entered into, modified or extended on or after January 1, 2025 (Senate Bill 940). Class action waiver: you and RAB each agree to bring claims only in an individual capacity and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated or representative proceeding, and the arbitrator may not consolidate claims or award relief to anyone other than the individual party. If this waiver is found unenforceable for a particular claim, that claim will be heard in court under Section 16 and not in arbitration.
16. Governing law and venue
These Terms and any dispute between you and RAB are governed by the laws of the State of Arizona and applicable federal law, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except that residents of other states keep the protection of consumer laws of their home state that cannot be waived. Subject to Section 15, courts located in Maricopa County, Arizona have exclusive jurisdiction, and you and RAB consent to that venue, except that a California resident may bring a California-arising claim in California. The Official Rules of each fundraiser contain their own venue provisions for disputes about that fundraiser.
17. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms. The date at the top shows the current version. For material changes, we will email registered donors and subscribers at least 30 days before the change takes effect and ask you to accept the new Terms the next time you donate, sign in or enter; we will not apply changes to Section 15 to a dispute that arose before the change, and if you do not agree you may stop using the Sites. Earlier versions are available on request.
18. Suspension and termination
We may suspend or end your access to the Sites, or any part of them, for violations of these Terms, the Official Rules or law, or to protect RAB, donors or others. Sections 3 (as to voided entries), 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 19 survive termination.
19. General
If any part of these Terms is unenforceable, the rest remains in effect and the unenforceable part is limited to the minimum extent necessary (except as Section 15 provides for the class action waiver). Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms; RAB may assign them to a successor nonprofit that continues our mission. Neither party is liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond its reasonable control. These Terms, the Privacy Policy, the Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy, the Cookie and Tracking Notice, the SMS and Mobile Messaging Terms, the Donation, Refund and Delivery Policy and the applicable Official Rules are the entire agreement between you and RAB about the Sites. These Terms are written in English; translations are for convenience. Notices to RAB go to the address below; notices to you go to the email on file.
20. Contact
A Race Against Blindness · 3317 S Higley Rd Ste 114-110, Gilbert, AZ 85297 · privacy@araceagainstblindness.org (legal notices) · 855-439-0122 · araceagainstblindness.org/pages/help-center
A Race Against Blindness is an Arizona nonprofit corporation exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3), EIN 92-2174042.