Pay It ForwardData policy
Exactly what data we collect, how we use it, and the promise that your membership data is never sold.
Last updated September 9, 2026
What we collect
Membership payments
Your email and payment details are handled by Stripe. We never see or store your full card number. We keep the charge amount, fee breakdown, timestamp, status, and your email so we can send receipts and publish accurate fund totals.
Member record
When your $5 payment succeeds, we create a member record with a random ripple code, your email, the referral code that brought you in (if any), and a record of whether your payment was refunded or disputed.
Grant requests
What you enter on the grant form: recipient name, contact email, description, public proof link, location, and whether you are a member. This is used to review the request and follow up with you.
Site usage and attribution
Aggregate page views, referrer, country, device type, UTM tags, and invite-link opens. We use this only to understand how people find Pay It Forward and how the grant pool grows. No advertising trackers and no cross-site personal profiles.
Support emails
If you reply to one of our emails or use a contact form, we keep the conversation so we can resolve refunds, grant questions, or membership issues.
How we use it
- Process your one-time $5 membership and email your receipt and member link.
- Count how many people joined through your ripple link so you can see your impact.
- Review grant requests, ask follow-up questions, and issue public grants.
- Publish the monthly Ripple Report using totals only — never individual emails.
- Prevent duplicate memberships, refund abuse, and payment fraud.
- Send you membership-related updates such as vote openings, grant announcements, and referral milestones.
What we never do
- We do not sell your data. Membership data is not for sale, rent, or trade. It is not monetized through data brokers or partner lists.
- We do not run ads or build advertising profiles. There are no ad pixels, retargeting tags, or audience lists.
- We do not share member details with other members. Because there are no referral payouts, there is no reason — and no mechanism — to expose your email or personal information to other members.
- We do not use your data for unrelated purposes. Your information is used only to run Pay It Forward: payments, grants, reports, and member support.
Who else touches your data
- Stripe — payment processing, refunds, and dispute handling.
- Our hosting and database provider — running the site and storing records under access controls.
- Our email provider — sending receipts, member links, grant confirmations, and notifications.
We do not publish your email address on the site. The public grant ledger shows recipient names, amounts, dates, and locations — only what is needed to verify that grants were really sent.
Cookies and analytics
We use first-party cookies and URL parameters (such as ?ref= and utm_source) to attribute referrals and measure invite-link performance. This is aggregate, first-party data only. We do not use third-party analytics that build cross-site profiles.
How long we keep it
- Payment records are kept for as long as required for accounting, tax, and public fund transparency.
- Member records are kept while your membership is active and for a reasonable period afterward to support refunds, disputes, and ledger accuracy.
- Grant requests are kept while under review and for a reasonable period afterward in case follow-up is needed.
- Analytics data is retained in aggregate form and individual visitor identifiers are not stored indefinitely.
Your choices
- Unsubscribe from emails at any time using the link in every email we send.
- Reply to any email from us to reach a real person for corrections, data questions, or deletion requests.
- Keep your member link private. It is not indexed by search engines, but anyone who has it can view your member page.
Changes and contact
If this policy changes materially, we will update the date above and note it in the monthly Ripple Report. Questions? Reply to any email from us, or reach out through the contact form.