The agreement.

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) form a binding agreement between you and afternode, a brand of Alanis Holdings LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (“afternode,” “Kindness Counts,” “we,” “us”), governing your use of the Kindness Counts platform, including the website at kindnesscounts.io and related services (collectively, the “Platform”).

By creating an account or otherwise using the Platform, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Platform.

The Platform is currently made available only to residents of California and Arizona. If you reside outside these states or outside the United States, you may not be eligible to use the Platform until we expand availability.

Organizations on paid plans. If you are an organization subscribing to a Verified, Audit-Ready, or Enterprise plan, our Organization Subscription Terms and Data Processing Addendum also apply to your use of the Platform and supplement these Terms.

You must be at least eighteen (18) years old and a resident of California or Arizona to use Kindness Counts. You must have the legal authority to enter into a binding agreement. If you are accessing the Platform on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization to these Terms.

You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials, for all activity that occurs under your account, and for keeping your contact information current. Notify us immediately at hello@kindnesscounts.io if you believe your account has been compromised.

We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms, submit fraudulent verification data, or otherwise abuse the Platform.

The following rules supplement, and do not replace, our Community Guidelines and our Attendance Policy, each of which is incorporated into these Terms by reference.

When you use Kindness Counts, you agree to:

• Provide accurate information during registration and check-in.
• Be physically present at events when checking in. Submitting false GPS data, using location-spoofing tools, or otherwise misrepresenting your presence is a fundamental violation of these Terms.
• Use the Platform only for lawful, good-faith volunteer activities.
• Respect the rights, safety, and dignity of other volunteers, event organizers, and Kindness Counts staff.

You agree NOT to:

• Submit false or misleading verification data, including faking GPS location, sharing your TOTP code with someone not present, or claiming hours you did not work.
• Attempt to circumvent the verification system, including reverse-engineering the cryptographic verification mechanism.
• Harass, threaten, defame, or impersonate any person on the Platform.
• Discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, or military or veteran status. Discrimination of this nature violates the Unruh Civil Rights Act (Cal. Civ. Code § 51) and similar protections under Arizona law.
• Scrape, copy, or systematically extract data from the Platform without our written permission.
• Use the Platform to send unsolicited bulk email or SMS, to harvest contact information, or otherwise to engage in conduct prohibited by the federal CAN-SPAM Act (15 U.S.C. § 7701 et seq.), the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (47 U.S.C. § 227), or any state anti-spam or anti-robocall law.
• Use the Platform to violate any law or regulation, including but not limited to the laws of California, Arizona, and the United States.

When we send transactional or commercial email to you, we do so in compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act, including by accurately identifying the sender, providing a valid postal address, and honoring opt-out requests within ten (10) business days.

Kindness Counts is a verification platform for volunteer hours. We provide tools to record and cryptographically verify that volunteers were physically present at events. We do not organize, supervise, host, or take responsibility for the events themselves.

The organizations using Kindness Counts (“Host Organizations”) are independent entities responsible for their own events, safety practices, training, equipment, insurance, supervision, and conduct. Kindness Counts does not endorse Host Organizations and is not responsible for any aspect of an event other than recording verified attendance.

You participate in volunteer events at your own risk. You should evaluate Host Organizations and events independently before attending.

Kindness Counts is an “interactive computer service” within the meaning of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (47 U.S.C. § 230). We are not the publisher or speaker of any information provided by Host Organizations or other users, and we are not responsible for the content of event listings, profiles, or other user-generated content.

The Platform produces verified records of volunteer hours using a proprietary verification system. Each record includes a confidence indicator and a tamper-evident reference that can be independently re-verified.

Verification is provided as a best-effort technical system, not a guarantee. We do not warrant that any verified record will be accepted by any third party, including grant funders, scholarship committees, employers, or educational institutions. Our role is to produce trustworthy records. What third parties do with those records is outside our control.

Background checks (host-enabled). Some host organizations require a background check for volunteers in specific roles, particularly roles serving vulnerable populations. When a role you apply to requires a check, we may facilitate that check through a licensed consumer reporting agency we have integrated with the Platform (currently planned: Checker). Any such check will be initiated only after we present you with a separate, standalone disclosure and authorization that complies with the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. § 1681b) and, for California residents, the Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act (Cal. Civ. Code § 1786). You may decline the check; declining may make you ineligible for the specific role but will not affect your account or your ability to use the Platform for other purposes. Background-check fees are paid by the host organization, not by you. See our Privacy Policy for how background-check information is collected, used, and retained.

You retain ownership of any content you submit to the Platform, for example, profile information, organization logos, event photos. By submitting content, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, display, and process that content as necessary to operate the Platform. You represent that you have the right to submit any content you provide and that it does not infringe any third party's rights.

We respect the intellectual property rights of others and expect our users to do the same. In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), we will respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement that comply with the DMCA. If you believe content on the Platform infringes your copyright, send a written notice to our designated agent that includes:

• A physical or electronic signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner;
• Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed;
• Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing and where it is located on the Platform;
• Your contact information (address, telephone number, email);
• A statement that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
• A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner.

Send DMCA notices to: dmca@kindnesscounts.io, subject line “DMCA Notice.”

We will terminate the accounts of users we determine to be repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances.

The Platform, its underlying technology, source code, brand, design system, and all related intellectual property are owned by afternode and its licensors. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or create derivative works from any part of the Platform except as explicitly permitted by these Terms or by us in writing.

Provider Methodology (trade secret).The Platform's verification methodology, including without limitation its algorithmic logic, cryptographic verification mechanisms, credential hashing scheme, witness corroboration logic, confidence-scoring engine, fraud detection signals, source code, and underlying technical architecture (collectively, the “Provider Methodology”), constitutes the exclusive trade secret of afternode. We do not publish the specifics of the Provider Methodology, and you acknowledge that its confidentiality is essential to the integrity of the verification system. You agree not to (a) reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code, algorithms, or internal logic of the Provider Methodology; (b) circumvent any technical or security measures of the Platform; or (c) use any information about the Platform's technical operation to develop, design, or build any product or service that competes with the Platform.

Service-generated records. The verification records the Platform creates from operation, including GPS coordinates captured at check-in and check-out, TOTP timestamps, cryptographic hashes, confidence scores, witness associations, and audit trails, are owned by afternode. Your underlying personal information within those records remains subject to your privacy rights described in our Privacy Policy.

Feedback.If you provide us with suggestions, ideas, comments, or other feedback about the Platform (“Feedback”), you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, fully paid-up, sublicensable, and transferable license to use the Feedback and to incorporate it into the Platform or any other product or service without obligation to you. You represent that any Feedback you provide is your own and does not violate any third party's rights. You waive any moral rights in the Feedback to the maximum extent permitted by law.

You may terminate your account at any time by following the deletion flow on your profile or by emailing hello@kindnesscounts.io. On termination, we delete your personal information as described in our Privacy Policy.

We may suspend or terminate your account immediately if you violate these Terms, including but not limited to submitting fraudulent verification data.

THE PLATFORM IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE,” WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, KINDNESS COUNTS DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING OUT OF COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE.

WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE PLATFORM WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE, OR SECURE, NOR DO WE WARRANT THE ACCURACY OF ANY INFORMATION SUBMITTED BY USERS OR HOST ORGANIZATIONS. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR EVENTS, INCIDENTS, INJURIES, LOSSES, OR DAMAGES OCCURRING DURING OR IN CONNECTION WITH VOLUNTEER ACTIVITIES.

Pilot and active development. The Platform is in active development and may be in a pre-commercial or pilot phase when you use it. You acknowledge and accept that service interruptions, feature changes, deprecations, scheduled and unscheduled downtime, and system errors are expected and inherent in this phase. Provider may add, modify, or remove features at its sole discretion and will use commercially reasonable efforts to communicate material changes in advance.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties; the above exclusions may not apply to you. Nothing in these Terms limits any rights you have under applicable consumer protection law that cannot be waived.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, KINDNESS COUNTS AND ITS OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AND AGENTS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES (INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOST PROFITS, LOST DATA, OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO YOUR USE OF THE PLATFORM, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

OUR TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR THE PLATFORM WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100) OR (B) THE AMOUNTS YOU PAID TO US IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS PRECEDING THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM.

Statutory carve-outs.Nothing in this Section limits liability for: (a) gross negligence, willful misconduct, or fraud; (b) violations of applicable law that, by their terms, cannot be limited by contract, including California Civil Code § 1668; (c) personal injury or wrongful death caused by our negligence; or (d) any other liability that applicable law prohibits limiting. In any jurisdiction that prohibits the limitation of certain liabilities, our liability is limited only to the maximum extent permitted by that jurisdiction's law.

Some jurisdictions limit or prohibit certain liability limitations; in such jurisdictions, our liability is limited to the maximum extent permitted by law.

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Kindness Counts and its officers, employees, and agents from any third-party claims, liabilities, damages, losses, or expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to (a) your use of the Platform in violation of these Terms or applicable law, (b) content you submit to the Platform, or (c) your violation of any third-party right. We reserve the right, at our own expense, to assume the exclusive defense of any matter subject to indemnification by you, in which case you agree to cooperate with our defense.

Neither party will be liable for any failure or delay in performance under these Terms (other than payment obligations) to the extent caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including acts of God, natural disasters, fires, floods, earthquakes, pandemics, civil disturbances, war, terrorism, government actions, internet outages, denial-of-service attacks, or failures of third-party service providers. The affected party will use commercially reasonable efforts to mitigate the impact and resume performance as soon as reasonably practicable.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles. Subject to the arbitration provision in Section 16, any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Platform will be resolved exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Orange County, California, and you consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts. Arizona residents may alternatively bring qualifying claims in their local small-claims court as described below.

Please read this Section carefully. It affects your legal rights, including your right to bring a lawsuit in court and to participate in a class action.

1. Informal dispute resolution. Before initiating arbitration, you and Kindness Counts agree to attempt to resolve any dispute informally. The party raising the dispute must send written notice to the other party describing the claim and the proposed resolution. Notice to Kindness Counts must be sent to legal@kindnesscounts.io. The parties will engage in good-faith negotiation for at least sixty (60) days before initiating arbitration. Any applicable statute of limitations and filing-fee deadlines are tolled during this period. Compliance with this Section 16(1) is a condition precedent to filing an arbitration demand.

2. Binding arbitration.If a dispute is not resolved informally, you and Kindness Counts agree that any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Platform will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by JAMS under its Streamlined Arbitration Rules and Procedures and, where applicable, its Consumer Arbitration Minimum Standards, rather than in court. The arbitration will take place in Orange County, California, or, at your option, by phone or video conference, in English. The arbitrator's decision will be final and binding, and judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

2(a). Federal Arbitration Act. This arbitration agreement is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. § 1 et seq., which preempts any contrary state law. Disputes about the scope, enforceability, or formation of this arbitration agreement will be decided by the arbitrator, except that disputes about the enforceability of the class action waiver in Section 16(3) and the public injunctive relief carve-out in Section 16(4) will be decided by a court.

2(b). California fee-payment rule. Where you are a California consumer, California Code of Civil Procedure §§ 1281.97 and 1281.98 apply to arbitration fees we are required to pay. If we fail to pay required arbitration fees within thirty (30) days of the due date, you may, at your option, withdraw the claim from arbitration and proceed in court, and you may pursue the remedies provided by those statutes. We do not waive, and do not seek to limit, the protections those statutes provide.

3. Class action waiver.You and Kindness Counts each agree that any proceeding will be brought only in our individual capacities and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, consolidated, or representative action. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims and may not preside over any form of representative or class proceeding.

4. Public injunctive relief. Nothing in these Terms waives your right to seek public injunctive relief in court under California law (see McGill v. Citibank, N.A., 393 P.3d 85 (Cal. 2017)). Any claim for public injunctive relief must be brought in the state or federal courts located in Orange County, California, and will be stayed pending arbitration of any other claims between the parties.

5. Coordinated or mass filings (administrative coordination). If twenty-five (25) or more similar arbitration demands raising substantially overlapping factual and legal issues are filed against Kindness Counts within a ninety (90)-day period by the same or coordinated counsel, the parties agree that the demands will be administered as a coordinated proceeding for case-management purposes only: (a) claimants and Kindness Counts will each select five (5) bellwether cases (ten (10) total) to be heard first by separate arbitrators; (b) the remaining demands will be stayed pending resolution of the bellwethers, and the statute of limitations and any filing-fee deadlines on each stayed demand are tolled during the stay; (c) after the bellwethers conclude, the parties will engage in good-faith mediation for ninety (90) days before remaining demands proceed; (d) following mediation, each remaining demand proceeds individually before its own arbitrator and is decided on its own merits, without preclusive effect from the bellwether outcomes. This Section is a procedural framework only and is not a class, collective, consolidated, or representative proceeding. Each claimant retains the right to an individual arbitration on the merits of their own claim. Nothing in this Section relieves Kindness Counts of its obligation to timely pay arbitration fees under Section 16(2)(b). If a court of competent jurisdiction finds that this Section operates as an impermissible class or consolidated proceeding, this Section is severable and the remainder of Section 16 will remain in effect.

6. Small-claims court alternative. Either party may bring a qualifying individual claim in small-claims court instead of arbitration if the claim qualifies under the rules of that court.

7. Equitable relief. Either party may seek emergency injunctive or other equitable relief in court to preserve the status quo pending arbitration or to enforce intellectual property rights.

8. Costs and fees. Where you are a consumer, JAMS Consumer Arbitration Minimum Standards govern allocation of arbitration fees, and Kindness Counts will pay the fees assigned to it under those standards (which generally require the company to bear most arbitration costs in consumer disputes).

9. Confidentiality. The arbitration proceeding (other than the existence of the proceeding, the award, and any judicial enforcement of it) is confidential, except as required by law.

10. Right to opt out. You may opt out of this arbitration provision by sending written notice to legal@kindnesscounts.io within thirty (30) days of first accepting these Terms, with subject line “Arbitration Opt-Out.” Opting out will not affect any other terms.

11. Severability of this Section. If the class action waiver in Section 16(3) is held unenforceable as to any claim that the parties cannot waive (including a claim for public injunctive relief), that claim will be severed and litigated in court while the remaining claims proceed in arbitration. If any other provision of this Section 16 is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in effect to the maximum extent permitted by law.

We may give notices to you by email to the address associated with your account, by posting a notice on the Platform, or by any other method permitted by law. Notices to us must be sent to legal@kindnesscounts.io or by mail to: afternode (Alanis Holdings LLC), Attn: Legal, Santa Ana, California. Notices are effective when received.

We may update these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by email at least thirty (30) days before the changes take effect, and we will update the effective date at the top of this page. Your continued use of the Platform after such notice constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you must stop using the Platform.

The following sections survive termination of these Terms: Section 7 (Your content, with respect to the license granted while the content remains on the Platform), Section 9 (Our intellectual property), Section 11 (Disclaimers), Section 12 (Limitation of liability), Section 13 (Indemnification), Section 15 (Governing law and venue), Section 16 (Informal dispute resolution; arbitration; class action waiver), Section 19 (Survival), Section 20 (Miscellaneous), and Section 21 (California consumer notice).

Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any other policies we publish, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding the Platform and supersede any prior agreements.

Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect, and the unenforceable provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable while preserving its intent.

No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision of these Terms is not a waiver of our right to do so later.

Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms without our written consent. We may assign these Terms without your consent in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.

No agency. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, employment, or agency relationship between you and Kindness Counts.

No third-party beneficiaries. These Terms are for the sole benefit of you and Kindness Counts and do not confer any rights or remedies on any third party, except that afternode (a brand of Alanis Holdings LLC), its affiliates, and their respective officers, employees, and agents are intended beneficiaries of the disclaimers, limitations of liability, and indemnification provisions of these Terms.

Headings. Section headings are for convenience only and do not affect the interpretation of these Terms.

Electronic communications and signatures.You consent to receive communications from us electronically, by email to your account address, by notice posted on the Platform, or by other electronic means, and you agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures, and other communications we provide electronically satisfy any legal requirement that they be in writing. Your electronic acceptance, including account creation, checking an “I agree” box, or continued use of the Platform after notice of changes, constitutes a valid and binding signature under the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (15 U.S.C. § 7001 et seq.) and the California Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (Cal. Civ. Code § 1633.1 et seq.).

Export and sanctions compliance.You represent and warrant that you are not, and are not acting on behalf of any party that is, located in a country subject to U.S. embargo, listed on the U.S. Treasury Department's Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List, the U.S. Commerce Department's Denied Persons List, or any similar restricted-party list, and that you will not use the Platform in violation of U.S. export control or sanctions laws.

Pursuant to California Civil Code § 1789.3, California users are entitled to the following notice. The Platform is provided by afternode, a brand of Alanis Holdings LLC, located in Santa Ana, California. To file a complaint regarding the Platform or to receive further information about its use, send a written complaint to legal@kindnesscounts.io. California residents may also reach the Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs at 1625 North Market Boulevard, Suite N 112, Sacramento, California 95834, or by telephone at (800) 952-5210.

For questions about these Terms, email legal@kindnesscounts.io. For general support, email hello@kindnesscounts.io. For DMCA notices, see Section 8.