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TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Terms and Conditions

Welcome to Pillars!

This page explains our terms and conditions. When you use Pillars, you agree to all the rules on this page. Some of them need to be expressed in legal language, but we’ve done our best to offer you clear and simple explanations of what everything means.

 

Welcome to Pillars. By using this website (the “Site”) and services (together with the Site, the “Services”) offered by Pillars, Inc. its and their parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, agents, representatives, consultants, employees, officers, and directors — collectively, “Pillars,” “we,” or “us”), you agree to these legally binding rules (the “Terms”). You’re also agreeing to our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy, and agreeing to follow any other rules on the Site, like our Community Guidelines and rules for starting Causes.

 

We may change these terms from time to time. If we do, we’ll let you know about any material changes, either by notifying you on the Site or by sending you an email. New versions of the terms will never apply retroactively — we’ll tell you the exact date they go into effect. If you keep using Pillars after a change, that means you accept the new terms.

 

Pillars is for your personal, non-commercial use, except as distinguished below.

 

About Creating an Account

To sign up for a Pillars account, you need to be 18 or over. You’re responsible for your account and all the activity on it.

 

You can browse Pillars without registering for an account. But to use some of Pillars’ functions and access certain content, you’ll need to register, give a degree of personal information, set a password, and subscribe to a particular Cause. When you do that, the information you give us has to be accurate and complete. Don’t impersonate anyone else or provide names that are offensive or that violate anyone’s rights. If you don’t follow these rules, we may cancel your account.

 

You’re responsible for all the activity on your account, and for keeping your password confidential. If you find out that someone’s used your account without your permission, you should report it to support@pillarsofus.com.

 

To sign up for an account, you need to be at least 18 years old. If necessary, we may ask you for proof of age.

 

Things You Definitely Shouldn’t Do

This section is a list of things you probably already know you shouldn’t do — lie, break laws, abuse people, steal data, hack other people’s computers, etc.

 

Several people use Pillars – at least seven. We expect all of them to behave responsibly and help keep this a nice place. Don’t do any of these things on the Site:

 

  • Don’t break the law. Don’t take any action that infringes or violates other people’s rights, violates the law, or breaches any contract or legal duty you have toward anyone.
  • Don’t lie to people. Don’t post information you know is false, misleading, or inaccurate. Don’t do anything deceptive or fraudulent.
  • Don’t propose prohibited courses of action. Don’t suggest any actions that are illegal, violate any of Pillars’ policies, rules, or guidelines, or violate any applicable law, statute, ordinance, or regulation.
  • Don’t victimize anyone. Don’t do anything threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, libelous, tortious, obscene, profane, or invasive of another person’s privacy.
  • Don’t spam. Don’t distribute unsolicited or unauthorized advertising or promotional material, or any junk mail, spam, or chain letters. Don’t run mail lists, listservs, or any kind of auto-responder or spam on or through the Site.
  • Don’t harm anyone’s computer. Don’t distribute software viruses, or anything else (code, films, programs) designed to interfere with the proper function of any software, hardware, or equipment on the Site (whether it belongs to Pillars or another party).
  • Don’t abuse other users’ personal information. When you use Pillars — and especially if you create or join a successful Cause — you may receive information about other users, including things like their names or email addresses. This information is provided for the purpose of participating in a Pillars Cause: don’t use it for other purposes, and don’t abuse it.
  • We also need to make sure that the Site is secure and our systems function properly. So don’t do any of these things — most of which boil down to “don’t mess with our system.”
  • Don’t try to interfere with the proper workings of the Services.
  • Don’t bypass any measures we’ve put in place to secure the Services.
  • Don’t try to damage or get unauthorized access to any system, data, password, or other information, whether it belongs to Pillars or another party.
  • Don’t take any action that imposes an unreasonable load on our infrastructure, or on our third-party providers. (We reserve the right to determine what’s reasonable.)
  • Don’t use any kind of software or device (whether it’s manual or automated) to “crawl” or “spider” any part of the Site.
  • Don’t take apart or reverse engineer any aspect of Pillars in an effort to access things like source code, underlying ideas, or algorithms.

How Causes Work

Pillars provides a platform (the Site) for communities based around Causes.  When users subscribe to a Cause, they are paying distinct amount of money each month to gain access to an exclusive community centered around that Cause.  The money is allocated in the following ways:

  • $2.00 of the subscription (regardless of the total amount) goes to Pillars, Inc. directly for administrative and service costs.
  • The remaining amount of the subscription, which is at least $2.00 but can vary greatly depending on the subscription amount, is used by Pillars to facilitate lobbying efforts related to and in support of the aim or goal of that particular Cause. This could include, but is not limited to:
    • Contracting lobbyists;
    • Registering lobbyists;
    • Paying lobbyists;
    • Political campaign donations;
    • Charitable donations;
    • Political advocacy;
    • Public Awareness and Advertising Campaigns;
    • Costs associated with or related to any of the above.
  • A small payment processing fee, which varies by subscription amount.

The exclusive community to which the subscriber pays to gain access corporately and collectively decides the direction and particular actions of the Cause through community discussions, town hall meetings, and occasional votes.  For example, if a particular piece of proposed legislation is having trouble gaining traction due to a provision in the bill which is staunchly opposed by a particular political party, the Cause community could vote collectively whether or not to include that provision going forward.

Pillars ultimately maintains discretion and control over the contractual relationship between Pillars and the lobbyists it hires for legal purposes – if the lobbyists were bound to follow the direction of several thousand distinct individuals under a single contract, there would inevitably be significant conflicts of interest.  However, Pillars maintains the obligation to honor the collective wishes and instructions of subscribers to a Cause (measured by a simple majority) to the extent that those wishes do not cause Pillars to violate other contractual obligations or fiduciary duties, or to adopt a position or take action(s) which would violate Federal, State, or local laws to which it is bound.

 

What You Get by Subscribing to Causes

This is important, because it’s the basis of your contractual relationship with us!

When you subscribe to a Cause, you are paying us for exclusive access to a community of other subscribers to that specific Cause.

As a member of that community, you get the right to partake in discussions, submit proposals, consider proposals, and vote on proposals for what Pillars does with the subscription money for that Cause.

For legal reasons, Pillars remains the final arbiter (decider) on what happens with the funds, BUT we pretty much will always follow what the majority of votes within a Cause decide.  If most voters want to hire lobbyist A over lobbyist B, we hire lobbyist A.  If most voters want to use extra funds to buy more of lobbyist A’s time, we do that.  If most voters want to switch lobbyist firms, we do that.  If most voters want to spend excess funds on making every billboard in Times Square a certain shade of pink for exactly 27 seconds, that’s kind of odd but we’ll probably do that.

So long as the will of the subscriber base as a whole doesn’t violate any applicable laws, violate the express purpose of the Cause itself, violate any contracts Pillars has with third parties, or violate our terms and conditions, then we are committed to honoring the will of our subscribers to the fullest extent possible.

Being a Cause Creator

The term “Creator” is a bit of a misnomer in this case, as once a user submits a Cause to Pillars they waive all rights to its content and both expressly and impliedly impart Pillars, Inc. with permission to control the content of that Cause.  No contract exists between Pillars, Inc. and a creator which would oblige Pillars, Inc. to take or refrain from taking any action related to the proposed Cause or to the Creator themself.

A Cause Creator suggests a Cause to Pillars, Inc., which Pillars reviews for any anticipated breaches of the Pillars Cause Guidelines or Terms of Service, then creates a product and community platform based around that Cause to which users may subscribe.  If after thirty (30) days the Cause has failed to generate a sufficient dollar amount in subscriptions which would permit Pillars to hire lobbyists to facilitate that Cause, then the Cause may be removed from the Pillars platform at the discretion of Pillars, Inc.

Pillars expressly reserves the right to control whether a Cause is hosted on the platform or removed, regardless of whether the initial thirty-day period has elapsed or expired.

Most of our Terms of Use explain your relationship with Pillars. This section is different — it explains the relationship between creators and subscribers of Pillars Causes, and who’s responsible for what. This is what you’re agreeing to when you create or back a Pillars Cause.

 

Pillars provides a funding platform for Causes. When a creator posts a Cause on Pillars, they are (1) inviting other people to subscribe to support that cause and (2) expressly and impliedly giving Pillars, Inc. permission to control the content of that Cause from the moment of submission. Anyone who backs a Cause is subscribing to support that Cause that Pillars, Inc. posts and forms a contract with Pillars, Inc.

 

Here are the terms that govern those agreements:

 

When a Cause is first posted on Pillars, the Pillars staff has the right to edit, adjust, and otherwise assume total control of the content of the Cause in order to ensure that it complies with the Terms of Service and any applicable law. Pillars will take every reasonable measure to comply with the spirit of the Cause as it was originally created. If this is impossible, Pillars has the right to either post a Cause which does not comply with the spirit of the original Cause or to opt not to post the Cause altogether.

 

When a Cause is successfully funded, Pillars, Inc. will any and all reasonable efforts to hire a lobbyist or lobbying firm to advocate to make the changes proposed by the Cause a reality. Once Pillars, Inc. has made those reasonable efforts, it has satisfied its obligations to all subscribers and the creator. Pillars, Inc. reserves the right to determine what is “reasonable.”

 

Throughout the process, Pillars owes subscribers a high standard of effort, honest communication, and a dedication to bringing the Cause to life. At the same time, subscribers must understand that when they subscribe to a Cause, they’re helping to try and make a change in the American legal system. There may be changes or delays, and there’s a chance something could happen that prevents Pillars from being able to hire a lobbying firm to advocate for the Cause as promised.

 

If Pillars is unable to bring a Cause to life, their primary obligation shall give way to a secondary obligation.

The Secondary Obligation of Pillars, Inc. is to take the money that otherwise would have gone to support a Cause and instead reallocate the money spent in subscribing to that Cause to a different Cause which the staff of Pillars, Inc. believes each particular subscriber would support.

In such an event, Pillars update the user(s) by email and explain the reason for the primary obligation’s failing.  Pillars is entitled to take any reasonable cost of administration from these funds for the purposes of reallocation.

 

How Funding Works

This section goes over the details of backing and creating Causes — things like how money gets collected, whether subscriptions can be changed or canceled, and how subscribers can see how their money is being spent.

 

These are the terms that apply when you’re backing a Cause:

 

You are charged monthly for each Cause you support, at whatever dollar amount you have selected, plus a flat $2 administrative fee and applicable site charges and taxes. You’ll provide your payment information when you subscribe. Your payment will be collected regardless of whether the Cause has reached its fundraising goal by the fundraising deadline (60 days from posting). The exact amount you pledged is the amount Pillars will collect (plus applicable taxes and fees).

If the Cause did not reach its fundraising goal by the fundraising deadline, the money you already spent will be donated to a Charity or Nonprofit selected by you at sign-up. At that point, you will no longer be charged a subscription for that Cause.

You can change or cancel your subscription at any time, before or after the Cause’s funding deadline.

We do not offer refunds, but you may cancel any future payments.

If the Cause is fully funded by the funding deadline, you will continue to be charged a subscription on that Cause so continued lobbying efforts can be made to make that Cause a reality.

The legislative process is long and complex. Success in lobbying is measured not only in a change in the law, but in meetings, discussions, and awareness among the legislature and their staff. We encourage you to be patient while our partner advocates work behind the scenes to convince our representatives to agree with your point of view.

Pillars cannot guarantee that a Cause will become law. The United States is (ostensibly) a representative republic founded on democracy, and ultimately the law is determined by a relatively small amount of people. The only guarantee that Pillars makes to subscribers is that we will make every reasonable effort to accomplish the goal of a particular Cause.

 

Stuff We Don’t Do and Aren’t Responsible For

We don’t mediate disputes between users, nor do we mediate disputes between users and lobbyists.

 

Pillars isn’t liable for any damages or losses related to your use of the Services. We don’t become involved in disputes between users and any third party relating to the use of the Services. We don’t endorse any content users submit to the Site. When you use the Services, you release Pillars from claims, damages, and demands of every kind — known or unknown, suspected or unsuspected, disclosed or undisclosed — arising out of or in any way related to such disputes and the Services. All content you access through the Services is at your own risk. You’re solely responsible for any resulting damage or loss to any party.

 

Our Fees

Fees are charged on Cause subscriptions. We charge a flat $2 per user, regardless of whether you pay $4 or $10 or $200, in addition to any fees charged by payment processor partners.

 

Creating an account on Pillars is free.

 

We will not collect any fees without giving you a chance to review and accept them. If our fees ever change, we’ll announce that on our Site. Some funds pledged by subscribers are collected by payment providers. Each payment provider is its own company, and Pillars isn’t responsible for its performance.

 

You’re responsible for paying any additional fees or taxes associated with your use of Pillars.

 

Other Websites

If you follow a link to another website, what happens there is between you and them — not us.

 

Pillars may contain links to other websites. (For instance, Cause pages, user profiles, and comments may link to other sites.) When you access third-party websites, you do so at your own risk. We don’t control or endorse those sites.

 

Pillars partners with other companies for payment processing. When you subscribe to a Cause, you’re also agreeing to the payment processor’s terms of service.

 

Your Intellectual Property

When you post stuff on Pillars, you’re giving us permission to alter, edit, use, or copy it however we need in order to run the site, or show people what’s happening on it. (We generally just use this to promote Causes and showcase our community on the website.) You’re responsible for the content you post that we don’t edit, and you’re vouching to us that it’s all okay to use.

 

Pillars doesn’t own content you submit to us (your “Content”). But we do need certain licenses from you in order to perform our Services. When you submit a Cause for review, or launch a Cause, you agree to these terms:

 

We can use the content you’ve submitted. You grant to us, and others acting on our behalf, the worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable right to use, exercise, commercialize, and exploit the copyright, publicity, trademark, and database rights with respect to your Content.

When we use the content, we can make changes, like editing or translating it. You grant us the right to edit, modify, reformat, excerpt, delete, or translate any of your Content.

You won’t submit anything you don’t hold the copyright for (unless you have permission). Your Content will not contain third-party copyrighted material, or material that is subject to other third-party proprietary rights, unless you have permission from the rightful owner of the material, or you are otherwise legally entitled to post the material (and to grant Pillars all the license rights outlined here).

Any royalties or licensing on your Content are your responsibility. You will pay all royalties and other amounts owed to any person or entity based on your Content, or on Pillars’ hosting of that Content.

You promise that if we use your Content, we’re not violating anyone’s rights or copyrights. If Pillars or its users exploit or make use of your submission in the ways contemplated in this agreement, you promise that this will not infringe or violate the rights of any third party, including (without limitation) any privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, contract rights, or any other intellectual property or proprietary rights.

You’re responsible for the things you post. All information submitted to the Site, whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, is the sole responsibility of the person from whom that content originated.

We’re not responsible for mistakes in your content. Pillars will not be liable for any errors or omissions in any content.

Pillars’ Intellectual Property

The content on Pillars is protected in various ways. You do have the right to use it for certain personal purposes, but you can’t use it for anything commercial without getting permission first.

 

Pillars’ Services are legally protected in various ways, including copyrights, trademarks, service marks, patents, trade secrets, and other rights and laws. You agree to respect all copyright and other legal notices, information, and restrictions contained in any content accessed through the Site. You also agree not to change, translate, or otherwise create derivative works of the Service.

 

Pillars grants you a license to reproduce content from the Services for personal use only. This license covers both Pillars’ own protected content and user-generated content on the Site. (This license is worldwide, non-exclusive, non-sublicensable, and non-transferable.) If you want to use, reproduce, modify, distribute, or store any of this content for a commercial purpose, you need prior written permission from Pillars or the relevant copyright holder. A “commercial purpose” means you intend to use, sell, license, rent, or otherwise exploit content for commercial use, in any way.

 

How We Deal with Copyright Issues

We comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

 

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act lays out a system of legal requirements for dealing with allegations of copyright infringement. Pillars complies with the DMCA, and we respond to notices of alleged infringement if they comply with the law and the requirements set forth in our Copyright Policy. We reserve the right to delete or disable content alleged to be infringing, and to terminate accounts for repeat infringers. (We do this when appropriate and at our sole discretion.)

 

Deleting Your Account

You can delete your account at any time. Deleting your account won’t automatically make some content you’ve already posted go away.

 

You can terminate your account at any time through your account settings. We may retain certain information as required by law or as necessary for our legitimate business purposes. All provisions of this agreement survive termination of an account, including our rights regarding any content you’ve already submitted to the Site. (For instance, if you’ve launched a Cause, deleting your account will not automatically remove the Cause from the Site.)

 

Our Rights

To operate, we need to be able to maintain control over what happens on our website. In this section, we reserve the right to make decisions to protect the health and integrity of our system. We don’t take these powers lightly, and we only use them when we absolutely have to.

 

Pillars reserves these rights:

 

We can make changes to the Pillars Site and Services without notice or liability.

We have the right to decide who’s eligible to use Pillars. We can cancel accounts or decline to offer our Services. (Especially if you’re abusing them.) We can change our eligibility criteria at any time. If these things are prohibited by law where you live, then we revoke your right to use Pillars in that jurisdiction.

We have the right to cancel any pledge to any Cause, at any time and for any reason.

We have the right to reject, cancel, interrupt, remove, or suspend any Cause at any time and for any reason.

Pillars is not liable for any damages as a result of any of these actions, and it is our policy not to comment on the reasons for any such action.

 

Warranty Disclaimer

We work hard to provide you with great services, but we can’t guarantee everything will always work perfectly. This site is presented as-is, without warranties.

 

You use our Services solely at your own risk. They are provided to you “as is” and “as available” and without warranty of any kind, express or implied.

 

PILLARS SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND ANY WARRANTIES IMPLIED BY ANY COURSE OF DEALING, COURSE OF PERFORMANCE, OR USAGE OF TRADE. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION (ORAL OR WRITTEN) OBTAINED BY YOU FROM PILLARS SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY.

 

Indemnification

If you do something on Pillars that winds up getting us sued, you have to help defend us.

 

If you do something that gets us sued, or break any of the promises you make in this agreement, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold us harmless from all liabilities, claims, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees and other legal costs) that arise from or relate to your use or misuse of Pillars. We reserve the right to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to this indemnification clause, in which case you agree that you’ll cooperate and help us in asserting any defenses.

 

Limitation of Liability

If something bad happens as a result of your using Pillars, we’re not liable (beyond a small amount).

 

To the fullest extent permitted by law, in no event will Pillars, its directors, employees, partners, suppliers, or content providers be liable for any indirect, incidental, punitive, consequential, special, or exemplary damages of any kind, including but not limited to damages (i) resulting from your access to, use of, or inability to access or use the Services; (ii) for any lost profits, data loss, or cost of procurement or substitute goods or services; or (iii) for any conduct of content of any third party on the Site. In no event shall Pillars’ liability for direct damages be in excess of (in the aggregate) one hundred U.S. dollars ($100.00).

 

Dispute Resolution and Governing Law

We’re located in California, and any disputes with us have to be handled in California under California State law.

 

We at Pillars encourage you to contact us if you’re having an issue, before resorting to the courts. In the unfortunate situation where legal action does arise, these Terms (and all other rules, policies, or guidelines incorporated by reference) will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California and the United States, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of law, and without application of the Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act or the United Nations Convention of Controls for International Sale of Goods. You agree that Pillars and its Services are deemed a passive website that does not give rise to jurisdiction over Pillars or its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, assigns, employees, agents, directors, officers, or shareholders, either specific or general, in any jurisdiction other than the State of California. You agree that any action at law or in equity arising out of or relating to these Terms, or your use or non-use of Pillars, shall be filed only in the state or federal courts located in Los Angeles County in the State of California, and you hereby consent and submit to the personal jurisdiction of these courts for the purposes of litigating any such action. You hereby irrevocably waive any right you may have to trial by jury in any dispute, action, or proceeding.

 

Data

Data. Everybody has some, and everybody creates it when they use services like ours and when they use ours.

To be very straightforward: we plan to sell your data. We are going to do this because it helps Congress and the Government understand what you want, and therefore helps them do a better job at representing you. So we will sell information in batches separated by region so the purchaser can get a better idea of what you want to happen, and can try and give that to you.

Our purpose is to create a deeper connection between our subscribers and their elected representatives, and we believe that selling data will help accomplish that goal.

To that end, you agree to release any and all data created by and through accessing the Site to Pillars for any purpose it deems necessary.

 

The Rest

These are our official terms and our rules for how things work. (So, if you ever see confusing or conflicting information about any of this stuff, just check these terms — they’re the last word.) Thanks so much for reading them, and for using Pillars!

 

These Terms and the other material referenced in them are the entire agreement between you and Pillars with respect to the Services. They supersede all other communications and proposals (whether oral, written, or electronic) between you and Pillars with respect to the Services and govern our future relationship. If any provision of these Terms is found to be invalid under the law, that provision will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that the Terms otherwise will remain in full force and effect and enforceable. The failure of either you or Pillars to exercise any right provided for in these Terms in any way won’t be deemed a waiver of any other rights.

 

These Terms are personal to you. You can’t assign them, transfer them, or sublicense them unless you get Pillars’ prior written consent. Pillars has the right to assign, transfer, or delegate any of its rights and obligations under these Terms without your consent. Pillars will provide you notice via email, written notice, or by conspicuously posting the notice on our Site.