Below are the full terms and conditions for the Living Gifts scheme. The document was drawn up by Tearfund’s legal specialists and we have been advised to place it on our website.
While this document may look frightening, most of the terms and conditions exist to protect you (for example, to give assurances about how we will handle the information you give to us) and to protect Tearfund (for example, if people attempt to defraud Tearfund through this scheme).
For terms and conditions for use of our online services (eg our websites) and how we store your data click here.
These are the terms and conditions on which Tearfund provides the Living Gifts scheme and on which donations are made as part of the scheme.
The parties and the relationship between them
1. The parties under these terms and conditions are Tearfund, the donor and the voucher holder. When the donor makes a donation on these terms and conditions, Tearfund will hold the money on trust for the donor. The terms of the trust depend on whether the donation is made for allocation to a Living Gifts scheme project (as described below) or for Tearfund’s general charitable purposes. When the donor makes a donation for a project a contract is formed on these terms and conditions, under which Tearfund must supply a voucher and provide a voucher allocation service for the donor or other voucher holder. The voucher holder can exercise certain of the donor’s rights under the trust and the contract.
2. Tearfund is the provider of the Living Gifts scheme. It is a company registered in England and Wales with number 994339 and a charity registered in England and Wales with charity number 265464. Tearfund’s address is 100 Church Road, Teddington TW11 8QE. The donor is the person who makes any donation to Tearfund as part of the Living Gifts scheme, to which these terms and conditions will apply. The voucher holder is any person who holds the voucher described below, or has access to the unique reference number on the voucher (whether or not the voucher holder has the donor’s permission).
Goods and services provided by Tearfund
3. The voucher is a document supplied by Tearfund in printed or electronic format that contains a unique reference number for each donation made by the donor for Living Gifts scheme projects. (Those projects are described below.) Tearfund will not supply any voucher for any other donation made as part of the Living Gifts scheme.
4. Tearfund’s services are to administer the voucher scheme and to provide a voucher that can be used by the donor as a gift for another person, and that the voucher holder can use on these terms and conditions.
Living Gift scheme projects
5. A Living Gift scheme project is any project promoted by Tearfund as being part of the Living Gifts scheme. Tearfund reserves the right to include any project in the scheme at any time and to withdraw any project from the scheme at any time. This is because each project’s funding requirements are set by Tearfund in advance, and if a project achieves its required funding no further donations are required.
Payment of donations
6. Donations sent to Tearfund by post must be made by a valid Sterling cheque drawn on an account in the donor’s name. Donations submitted to Tearfund online or by telephone must be made by a valid debit/credit card held by the donor for a Sterling account in the donor’s name.
Amount of donations for Living Gifts scheme projects
7. Tearfund invites donations for Living Gifts scheme projects in the fixed amounts published by Tearfund from time to time. A given donation must be for the sum of the fixed amounts pledged by the donor in the order form submitted to Tearfund. If the donor’s donation exceeds the sum required Tearfund will treat the surplus as being a donation for Tearfund’s general charitable objects and not a donation to be allocated to any Living Gifts scheme project.
8. The amount of the donor’s donation to Tearfund will not be printed on the voucher or accompanying documentation.
Donations for Living Gift projects
9. In the case of each donation made by the donor to be allocated to any Living Gifts scheme project, Tearfund will hold the donation in a holding account, on trust for Tearfund’s general charitable purposes. The donation may be allocated on conditions 12 to 15 inclusive set out below. Pending allocation Tearfund may hold the donation in the holding account but may not use those funds in any other way.
10. Tearfund will use tax reclaimed under the Gift Aid scheme relating to Living Gifts scheme donations for any purpose within Tearfund’s charitable objects, including its administrative costs and expenses in providing the Living Gifts scheme.
Donations for Tearfund’s general purposes
11. When the donor makes a donation for a Living Gifts scheme project there will also be an opportunity to make a donation for Tearfund’s general charitable purposes. Tearfund will hold each general donation the donor makes and any related tax reclaimed under the Gift Aid scheme for any purpose within Tearfund’s charitable objects. Tearfund’s charitable objects can be seen at http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/first.asp.
Allocation of donations to Living Gifts scheme projects
12. The voucher for a donation made as part of the Living Gifts scheme will tell the voucher holder how the donation can be allocated to a Living Gifts scheme project, and the expiry date of the voucher.
13. If the voucher holder does not allocate the donation to a Living Gifts scheme project on or before the voucher’s expiry date, Tearfund can use the donation for its general charitable purposes.
14. The voucher’s expiry date may be extended at Tearfund’s absolute discretion at the voucher holder’s request received by Tearfund on or before the expiry date printed on the voucher. There will be no further extension and the duration of the extension will be at Tearfund’s absolute discretion.
15. The voucher holder may use any of the means made available by Tearfund to notify Tearfund of how to allocate the donation, at any time on or before the expiry date of the voucher. Allocation decisions must be properly and validly made. That means providing all information requested by Tearfund and ensuring the information is received by Tearfund. Tearfund will not be obliged to act on any allocation notice that is incomplete, misleading or wrongly completed. Upon receiving notice from the voucher holder asking Tearfund to allocate the donation to a particular Living Gifts scheme, Tearfund will hold the donation on trust for the purposes of that particular project and will transfer the donation from the holding account to an account for that project.
Authority for Tearfund and the voucher holder
16. The donor hereby authorises the voucher holder or Tearfund to allocate each donation made by the donor in accordance with these terms and conditions. Tearfund is entitled to assume the person who acts as voucher holder is duly authorised or permitted by the donor.
Delegation by Tearfund of powers and responsibilities
17. Tearfund may delegate performance of the operation of the Living Gift scheme or any part of it to Dataforce Group Ltd or to employees of Tearfund or Dataforce. This includes receiving, processing or fulfilling payments or personal information from the donor or the voucher holder (whether received by post, online or by telephone).
18. Tearfund will retain management control and legal responsibility for the scheme and Tearfund’s delegates. Tearfund accepts responsibility for ensuring that Dataforce will account fully and properly to Tearfund for all payments made by the donor that are processed by Dataforce.
Delivery and security of the voucher
19. Tearfund recommends that donors ask Tearfund to despatch the voucher to the donor. It is the donor’s responsibility to tell Tearfund or postal or internet service providers if there is a problem with despatch.
20. Delivery timescales Tearfund will use reasonable effort to deliver vouchers within the timescales it publishes from time to time. Tearfund cannot guarantee delivery within its published timescales and recommends that donors make use of any electronic delivery methods offered by Tearfund instead of the post to avoid disappointment.
21. Delivery methods Tearfund may use any postal carrier or e-mail provider to deliver vouchers. Tearfund will decide in its absolute discretion what delivery methods, such as post or e-mail, it will offer from time to time to send the vouchers. The donor’s choice of delivery method, once made, may not be changed.
22. Addressee Tearfund will forward the voucher to the name and address supplied by the donor as part of the process of making the donation. It is the donor’s responsibility to ensure the name and address provided to Tearfund are correct.
23. Vouchers in transit For vouchers delivered by post, Tearfund will despatch the voucher in a reasonably strong sealed envelope. For vouchers delivered by e-mail Tearfund will despatch the voucher from its own servers. Tearfund will not be responsible if any envelope becomes opened in transit, or any transmission is intercepted or otherwise made available to or accessed by someone other than the addressee, unless due to the negligence of Tearfund or its employees or other delegates. Tearfund will not be responsible for any act or omission of any postal or internet service provider or its staff.
24. Keeping the voucher number secure Anyone who has access to the voucher or the unique reference number on a voucher will be able to allocate the donor’s donation to a Living Gifts scheme project. From the time the voucher is delivered by Tearfund it is the responsibility of the donor and any other voucher holder to keep the voucher and the unique reference number on it safe and secure.
Directions and restrictions
25. Any directions or restrictions published by Tearfund apart from these terms and conditions are incorporated into the terms and conditions on which the donor makes any donation as part of the Living Gifts scheme. Tearfund will publish directions or restrictions on its website and in its printed catalogue for the scheme. Directions or restrictions may apply to the following, for example:
- How the donor or the voucher holder may contact Tearfund for various purposes, or how Tearfund may contact the donor or voucher holder.
- Whether or not Tearfund will print a personal message from the donor onto the voucher.
- The available voucher designs.
- Whether or not the donor can make a donation without naming another person as recipient of the voucher.
- The maximum number of donations that can be made via Tearfund’s website.
- The available payment methods.
- The methods available for delivery of vouchers.
26. No donation made for allocation to any Living Gifts scheme project may be allocated to more than one Living Gifts scheme project.
Tearfund’s powers as trustee
27. Tearfund may exercise any of the following powers in relation to donations made as part of the Living Gifts scheme.
- Power to invest donations in any way and use the income for the purposes chosen by the donor under these terms and conditions.
- Power to put donations to Tearfund’s general charitable purposes, or the tax reclaimed under the Gift Aid scheme in relation to donations, towards the cost of its employees who operate the Living Gifts scheme or the cost of other delegates such as Dataforce.
- Power to delegate any of Tearfund’s responsibilities or powers to Dataforce or any of its or Tearfund’s employees on these terms and conditions.
- Any of Tearfund’s other corporate powers. (Tearfund will provide the donor with details of Tearfund’s corporate powers on request.)
Data protection
28. Before making a donation the donor must consent to Tearfund using the donor’s own personal data. Tearfund will only use the donor’s personal details within the terms of that consent.
29. The donor may supply another person’s personal details to Tearfund as part of the Living Gifts scheme. Those details will be used by Tearfund for purposes published by it on its website or the printed catalogue for the scheme. Tearfund relies on the donor to ensure the donor is fairly and lawfully able to pass those details to Tearfund for Tearfund to use for those purposes. Tearfund agrees not to process the other person’s details except in accordance with the donor’s instructions.
30. Tearfund will maintain appropriate technical and organisational measures against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data.
Complaints and disputes
31. If the donor or voucher holder has any complaint about the Living Gifts scheme, Tearfund or its delegates they may complain in writing or by e-mail to the addresses given on Tearfund’s website and in the printed catalogue for the scheme, or by telephone using the number given in those places.
32. If any dispute arises between Tearfund and the donor or the voucher holder in connection with the Living Gifts scheme, the parties to the dispute will attempt to settle it in good faith, initially by written or telephone correspondence. If that fails then at either party’s request the parties will settle the dispute by mediation in accordance with the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) Model Mediation Procedure. Unless otherwise agreed between the parties, the mediator will be nominated by CEDR.
33. Neither Tearfund nor the donor or voucher holder may issue court proceedings or pursue arbitration until the parties have exhausted the complaints and dispute resolution processes in paragraphs 31 and 33 above.
Scheme availability
34. The Living Gifts scheme is available to persons domiciled in the United Kingdom only.
Interpretation
35. Headings used in these terms and conditions will not affect their interpretation. References to any gender include all genders. References to the singular include the plural and vice versa. Reference to a paragraph number means the paragraph with that number in these terms and conditions.
Invalidity
36. If any provision of these terms and conditions is found by any court or other UK or EU authority of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable, that provision will, to the extent required, be deemed not to form part of these terms and conditions and the validity and enforceability of the other provisions of these terms and conditions will not be affected.
Applicable law
37. The Living Gifts scheme, these terms and conditions and each donation made on these terms and conditions will be governed by the law of the United Kingdom. These terms and conditions will be interpreted in accordance with the law of the United Kingdom. The courts of the United Kingdom will have non-exclusive jurisdiction.