NGO terms

1. This agreement

These terms are an agreement between the company that runs Goodzera (“Goodzera”, “we”) and the organization that creates a Goodzera workspace (“you”, “the NGO”). The person who accepts them confirms they are authorized to bind the organization. Our terms of use and privacy notice also apply to your use of Goodzera. If they conflict with these terms on a matter between you and us, these terms apply.

2. Who can fundraise

To fundraise on Goodzera you must be a nonprofit organization established in Nigeria, registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), with:

• a bank account in Nigeria in the organization’s own name;
• a named, contactable representative authorized to act for it;
• registration with the Special Control Unit against Money Laundering (SCUML) where the law requires it for your organization;
• purposes and activities that are lawful in Nigeria.

Goodzera decides whether to approve an organization and may decline an application, with a reason.

3. Verification and keeping details current

Before you can receive gifts, Goodzera staff check your organization details, your CAC registration certificate and your bank account evidence against the documents you upload, and link a payout account with the payment provider to that evidence. We check documents by hand; we do not look you up in public registries automatically. You can add more evidence later, such as SCUML registration, tax identification, audited accounts and policies, to strengthen your trust profile.

You confirm that everything you submit is true, complete and your own, and that documents are genuine. You must tell us promptly about any change, such as a new legal name, registration number, bank account or representative, or a regulatory action against you. Changes to your legal name, registration number or payout account are reviewed again before gifts can resume to the new details.

4. Trust score, ratings and alerts

Your public trust score is calculated only from evidence our staff have verified and from your activity on Goodzera, using the published method on How we rate. It is shown as zero to four stars, or “Not yet rated” when there is not enough evidence. Ratings cannot be bought or negotiated. Evidence expires on the dates the method sets, and your score is recalculated when evidence changes.

We may add a public alert to your profile, with a reason, for example while we look into a complaint. Only organizations rated three or four stars with no active alert can appear in curated “Where to give now” lists.

5. Fees and waivers

• Processing fee. Donors see one processing fee and choose whether to cover it. If they do, you receive the full gift for cards issued in Nigeria. If they do not, the payment provider’s charge and any platform fee come out of the gift.
• Platform fee. Goodzera’s platform fee is 2.5% of each gift. It applies only when Goodzera has switched it on and your organization has no active waiver. It starts switched off.
• Waivers. Goodzera may waive the platform fee for your organization, for example as a founding partner, for a set period or until it ends the waiver. We will tell you before a waiver ends or before the platform fee starts to apply to you.
• No surprises. The fee rate that applied is stored with every gift, and a change applies only to payments started after it. Your workspace shows the full breakdown of every gift.

The fees page sets out the calculation with worked examples.

6. Payouts

You authorize Goodzera to set up a payout account (a subaccount) with our payment provider in your organization’s name, linked to your verified bank account, and to instruct the provider to split each payment between the NGOs in it. When a payment is confirmed, the provider settles your share directly to your bank account, normally on the next working day, under the provider’s settlement terms. Goodzera does not hold donor funds for you; its account receives only platform fees, when they apply.

Payouts may be delayed or held where the provider, a bank or the law requires it, where a payment is under fraud or anti-money-laundering review, or while your organization is suspended. Gifts are recorded in your workspace only after the provider’s confirmation has been verified.

7. Refunds, disputes and chargebacks

• Until a gift is paid out to you, Goodzera staff may refund it to the donor under our refund policy. You do not need to agree.
• After payout, a refund needs your agreement, which we record with the case. Please answer refund requests promptly and in good faith.
• Refunds reduce your totals and your campaign’s amount raised. Both the original gift and the refund stay in your records.
• If a donor disputes a payment with their bank, you agree to help us respond, including by providing evidence of the gift and its use. If a gift that has been paid out to you is reversed by the provider or a bank, you agree to repay that amount, and you agree that it may be recovered from your later payouts where the provider allows.

8. Using gifts and reporting

You must:

• use each gift for the purpose, campaign or fund the donor chose, or, for general gifts, for your charitable purposes;
• make sure everything you publish, including campaign stories, goals, outcomes and financial figures, is accurate and not misleading;
• post regular updates about your work, and post a final report on each campaign within 30 days of it closing, showing what the gifts achieved. Missing reports count against your rating;
• answer donor and Goodzera questions promptly, normally within five working days;
• keep proper records of gifts and their use, and make them available to us or to authorities when the law requires.

Goodzera does not guarantee how much any campaign will raise.

9. Supporter data and data protection

For each gift, you receive the donor’s name, email and gift details, because you must keep donor identity records. For this data you are an independent data controller under the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 (NDPA), not a processor for Goodzera. Goodzera is the controller for the data it holds to run the platform.

• Each donor chooses at checkout whether you may contact them about your work. Contact a donor about your work only if they allowed it, and stop when they ask you to. Goodzera’s update emails already include one-click unsubscribe and honour it.
• Donors who hide their name publicly are still known to you. Never publish a donor’s name or gift amount unless they agreed.
• Do not sell or rent supporter data, or use it for purposes that are not about your organization’s work.
• Keep the data secure, limit access to people who need it, keep it only as long as you need it or the law requires, and handle supporters’ requests under the NDPA. You are responsible for your own NDPA obligations, including any registration with the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) that applies to you.
• Tell us without delay if you suffer a breach involving data you received through Goodzera.

10. Content rules and takedown

You are responsible for the content you publish, including posts, images, documents and campaign pages. You must have the right to publish it, including the consent of people shown in photos, and you must protect the dignity and safety of the people you serve, especially children and vulnerable adults. You must not publish content that:

• is false or misleading, including about how gifts are used;
• is hateful, harassing, sexually explicit, violent or promotes violence;
• supports terrorism, money laundering or other unlawful activity, or political campaigning for a party or candidate;
• infringes others’ rights, or shares personal data without a lawful basis;
• contains malware, spam or links designed to deceive.

Anyone can report a post. Goodzera may hide content that breaks these rules or the law, or that we are required to remove, and we will tell you why. You grant Goodzera a free, non-exclusive licence to display your name, logo and content on Goodzera, in emails to supporters, and in Goodzera’s promotion of your campaigns.

11. The Give button on your website

You may add Goodzera’s Give button to websites you control. It works only on the domains you list in your workspace. You must not change how the checkout works, imitate it, collect donors’ payment details yourself, or suggest that Goodzera endorses anything on your website. Your website’s own content, privacy notice and any cookie notice are your responsibility. Goodzera may disable the button for a domain that breaks these terms.

12. Your legal obligations

You are responsible for complying with the laws that apply to your organization and its fundraising, including:

• the Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020, including CAC annual returns;
• anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism-financing law, including SCUML registration and reporting where it applies to you;
• any federal or state permit, licence or approval required for public fundraising in the places where you fundraise;
• tax obligations;
• the NDPA, and consumer protection law in how you describe your work.

13. Suspension and leaving

Goodzera may suspend your fundraising, close campaigns, hide content or end this agreement if you break these terms or the law, if required evidence expires or is found to be false, if we receive credible complaints of fraud or misuse, or if a regulator, court or the payment provider requires it. While suspended, your organization cannot receive new gifts. Where the law and safety allow, we will tell you why and how to respond.

You may stop fundraising at any time by contacting support. Gift records, receipts and audit records are kept after you leave, as the law requires.

14. Indemnity

You will compensate Goodzera for losses, including reasonable legal costs, arising from a claim by a donor, a regulator or anyone else that results from your breach of these terms, the content you publish, your use of gifts, or your handling of personal data.

15. Limits of liability

Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited under Nigerian law. Otherwise, and as far as the law allows, Goodzera is not liable to you for indirect losses or loss of donations, or for failures of the payment provider, banks or networks outside our reasonable control, and our total liability to you under this agreement in any 12 months is limited to the platform fees you paid us in that period.

16. General terms

We may update these terms. The version and effective date at the top show which terms apply, and we will tell your organization’s owners about significant changes before they take effect. If you keep fundraising after they take effect, the new terms apply. This agreement is governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the courts of Lagos State, Nigeria have jurisdiction over any dispute about it. Notices to Goodzera go to our support page; notices to you go to your organization’s contact email.