Welcome to Vtues, a platform for matching individuals with opportunities at charities, social enterprises and non-profit organisations. To protect your own interests, you must read and understand the following important Terms before using Vtues. If you are uncertain as to your rights under these Terms or you want any explanation about them please e-mail support@vtues.com
1 Introduction
1.1 We are Vtues Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 10889908. Our registered office is at First Floor, Block 2, Fromehall Mill, Lodgemore Lane, Stroud GL5 3EH
1.2 These terms and conditions of use (the Terms) explain how you may use the Vtues service. You should read these Terms carefully before using Vtues. By applying to register for an account on Vtues, you agree to be bound by these Terms and the documents referred to in them. If you do not agree with or accept any of these Terms, you should stop using Vtues immediately. If you have any questions about Vtues, please contact support@vtues.com.
1.3 Any employer that you link to by means of Vtues is referred to as “Employer”, and a charity, social enterprise or non-profit organisation using Vtues is referred to as an “Organisation”. When we refer to “Content” in these Terms, that means any content or messages posted by other users (including Employers and Organisations) on Vtues. References to “Contributions” are to uploads, profiles, posts, messages and other contributions submitted by you to Vtues.
1.4 Vtues is a platform. We cannot and do not vet the accuracy of all Content on Vtues. We do not guarantee that you will be notified of any volunteering opportunities by means of Vtues, or that those you are notified of will be worthwhile or suitable for you.
2 Changes to these Terms, and Additional Terms
2.1 We may revise these Terms at any time. The most current version of the Terms, which will always be at http://vtues.com/terms, will govern our relationship with you. We will try to notify you of any important changes, for example via your Vtues account area, or an email to the address associated with your Vtues account. By continuing to access or use Vtues after those revisions become effective, you agree to be bound by the revised Terms.
2.2 We may add to or replace these Terms with additional terms and conditions (‘Additional Terms’) which relate to specific Content or Vtues features or services. Additional Terms will be made available on relevant pages of Vtues. You should therefore check Vtues from time to time to see whether any Additional Terms apply to you. Additional Terms will prevail to the extent there is any conflict or inconsistency with any other of these Terms.
3 Intended users of Vtues
3.1 Vtues is intended for users over the age of 18 years in the United Kingdom. If you are under the age of 18 you may not use Vtues. You may not use Vtues if you are a recruitment agency, or if you intend to use it for any purposes that are intended to compete with Vtues.
5 Your use of Vtues
5.1 You are responsible for your use of Vtues and for any Content you submit. You should only submit Content that you are comfortable sharing with other users of the Vtues service. You agree that:
5.1.1 You will use your real name on Vtues and not impersonate any person;
5.1.2 any Contribution you submit for use on Vtues is your own original work; has been lawfully provided to us; and does not infringe any intellectual property rights of any third parties;
5.1.3 you have all necessary consents to provide the Contribution to us for use on Vtues; and
5.1.4 we will be entitled to disclose your name as having made the Contribution.
5.2 You agree that any personal data you supply in your Contribution may, if we choose to do so, be used and disclosed by us as described in our Privacy Statement.
5.3 You agree:
5.3.1 to be respectful to other users when making a Contribution; in particular
(a) not to deliberately post hostile messages
(b) not to befriend any other users in an abusive or exploitative manner
(c) your Contribution does not contain any material which might bring into disrepute us, Vtues or any Employer or Organisation
(d) not to promote violence, pornographic material or any activity that is illegal
5.3.2 that any Contribution you make:
(a) when it includes any opinion, is a genuinely held opinion
(b) when it includes any facts, is true and accurate (this includes the skills and experience you specify in your profile)
(c) does not contain any:
(i) violent material, pornographic material or activity that is illegal
(ii) material which is invasive of a third party’s privacy
(iii) advertising or marketing material (whether for commercial or non-commercial gain) including, but not limited to, material derived from deceptive techniques such as ‘astroturfing’, ‘flogging’ or ‘sock puppetry’
(iv) spam, junk mail, chain letters, material regarding any pyramid promotional schemes, or any similar material
(v) material which you regard as confidential, commercially sensitive or valuable
(vi) material which means that you or we are liable to any third party
(vii) material which infringes the rights of any third party
(viii) material which means that you are in breach of any duty that you have towards a third party or generally (this might include, but is not limited to, material that you are not allowed to make available such as under any contract of employment or confidentiality agreement)
(ix) viruses, Trojans or other malware
(x) statements or suggestions that we endorse any other business, product or service unless we have separately agreed to do so in writing
5.3.3 that any Contribution to Vtues will be lawfully made. In particular, you agree that any Contribution will:
(a) not be in contempt of court
(b) not be harmful, threatening, harassing or offensive
(c) not be discriminatory
(d) not have any fraudulent purpose (including, but not limited to, impersonating any other person or not being entirely truthful to us when you register as a user of Vtues)
(e) not be defamatory, derogatory or offensive
5.3.4 unless expressly permitted in law, not to reverse engineer, decompile, copy, modify, distribute, transmit, license, sublicense, display, revise, perform, transfer, sell or otherwise make available to any third party or otherwise publish, deep-link, create derivative works from or exploit in any way Vtues or any Content.
5.4 You acknowledge that you are solely responsible for keeping your password and other account details confidential – if you suspect they have been compromised, tell us immediately by means of the ‘Contact’ link on our website or email support@vtues.com. You will be responsible for all activity on your account until you notify us that your account has been compromised.
5.5 Vtues is not intended for use in connection with any sensitive personal data – you must not use Vtues to share any data about your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, or any data about your health or sex life.
5.6 We may stop or suspend your access to Vtues if you do not comply with any part of these Terms or any applicable law.
5.7 We will decide, acting reasonably, whether any Contribution breaches any of these Terms.
5.8 Vtues is not a secure means of communication and any information that you supply to us will not be kept confidential. Therefore:
5.8.1 you should not make any Contribution which you regard as being confidential, commercially sensitive or valuable (Unwanted Contributions)
5.8.2 any Contributions, including any Unwanted Contributions, made to us are deemed to be our property
5.8.3 by making a Contribution, you agree that, subject to our Privacy Statement, we may use any such information in any manner we see fit (including reproduction, transmission, publication, broadcast, and posting on any media and anywhere in the world) on a free of charge basis. We will not be subject to any obligation of confidentiality nor be liable for any use and/or disclosure of such Contributions.
5.9 You must not use Vtues for any purposes that are in direct competition with Vtues.
6 Disclaimers
6.1 Content on Vtues is not moderated by us. We do not endorse any Content on Vtues, and the views expressed in any Content are not necessarily the views of Vtues Ltd.
7 Relations with Employers
7.1 If you use Vtues to link to your Employer, nothing in the use of Vtues or these Terms is intended to affect your obligations to or from your Employer including in respect of your employment contract, or any policy or process mandated by your Employer.
7.2 You, not Vtues, are responsible for confirming with your Employer whether they are prepared to grant you leave in respect of any volunteering opportunity (and if leave is granted, whether it is paid or unpaid). Vtues provides you with a means to share information with your Employer regarding volunteering opportunities. We do not provide a service to obtain authorisation for you from your Employer to undertake volunteering activities.
8 Working with Organisations
8.1 If you use Vtues to link to an Organisation, nothing in the use of Vtues or these Terms is intended to affect your obligations to or from that Organisation including in respect of any volunteering terms or conditions, or any policy or process mandated by the Organisation.
8.2 The benefits of Vtues to volunteers and Organisations depends partly on volunteers doing their best to carry out their volunteering as arranged with an Organisation, to the best of the volunteer’s ability. You acknowledge that you must attend all arranged volunteering sessions to the extent that you are able, and that you must do your best to carry out the work you volunteer for.
8.3 If you have any complaints or feedback regarding your experience volunteering with an Organisation, you should address this primarily to the Organisation, but please also let us know by means of the Contact page on our website or support@vtues.com. In particular, please contact us if you consider any member or personnel of any organisation has behaved in an offensive or inappropriate manner in the course of your volunteering activities.
9 Ownership, use and intellectual property rights
9.1 Vtues and all intellectual property rights in Vtues is owned by us and/or our licensors.
9.2 As between us and you, you own all rights to your Contributions. By making a Contribution, you provide us with a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual licence (which we may sub-licence to others) to reproduce and make the Contribution available for the purposes of display in Vtues and for all other purposes connected with our operation of Vtues.
9.3 Content is owned by the users who submitted it to Vtues, subject to any pre-existing rights in the Content.
9.4 We reserve all our intellectual property rights in Vtues (including, but not limited to, all copyright, trade marks, domain names, design rights, database rights, patents and all other intellectual property rights of any kind) whether registered or unregistered anywhere in the world.
9.5 Nothing in these Terms grants you any rights in Vtues other than as is necessary to enable you to access Vtues. You agree not to adjust, try to get around or side-step or delete any digital rights or other security technology embedded or contained within any Content.
10 Accuracy of information and availability of Vtues
10.1 We make no promise that either Vtues or any Content is or remains:
10.1.1 available
10.1.2 accurate
10.1.3 complete
10.1.4 up to date
10.1.5 free from any virus or malware
10.1.6 free from any bugs, errors or omissions.
10.2 Any reliance you may place on the information on Vtues is at your own risk. You should make all such reasonable enquiries as are necessary (including with any qualified third parties) and take all such reasonable steps to protect yourself if you wish to rely on any information in any Contribution. The Content is provided for your general information purposes only. It does not constitute technical, financial or legal advice or any other type of advice and should not be relied on for any purposes.
10.3 While we make commercially reasonable efforts to ensure that Vtues is available, we do not promise in any way Vtues’ continued availability at all times or uninterrupted use by you of Vtues. We may suspend or terminate the operation of Vtues at any time at our sole discretion although we will make reasonable efforts to let you know if we are going to suspend or terminate the operation of Vtues.
11 Other people’s sites
11.1 Vtues contains links and references to third party websites or services, including those of Employers or Organisations. Any such links or references are provided for your convenience only. We have no control over third party websites and accept no responsibility for any content, material or information contained in them. The display of any link and reference to any third party website does not constitute an endorsement of such third party’s website, products or services. Your use of a third party site may be governed by the terms and conditions of that third party site.
12 Limit on our responsibility to you
12.1 Except for any legal responsibility that we cannot exclude in law (such as for death or personal injury), we are not legally responsible for any:
12.1.1 losses that:
(a) were not foreseeable to you and us when this contract was formed
(b) that were not caused by any breach on our part
12.1.2 business losses
12.1.3 losses to non-consumers.
13 General
13.1 We will have no liability to you for any breach of these Terms caused by any event or circumstance beyond our reasonable control.
13.2 If any part of these Terms is unenforceable the enforceability of any other part of these Terms will not be affected.
13.3 If we choose not to enforce any right that we have against you at any time, then this does not prevent us from later deciding to exercise or enforce that right.
13.4 These contain the entire understanding and agreement between us and you in relation to your use of Vtues.
13.5 You may not transfer any of your rights and duties in these Terms to any other person. (This includes, but is not limited to, a transfer by way of assignment or sublicence.)
14 Complaints about Content
14.1 Please email us at support@vtues.com with your name and contact information, to report Content that you believe is defamatory of you, or infringes your intellectual property rights. We will share your full complaint, including your contact information, with the user in respect of whose Content you have complained.
15 Disputes
15.1 We will try to resolve any disputes with you quickly and efficiently.
15.2 If you are unhappy with any matter under these Terms please contact us as soon as possible.
15.3 If you and we cannot resolve a dispute using our internal complaint handling procedure, we will:
15.3.1 let you know that we cannot settle the dispute with you, and
15.3.2 give you certain information required by law about our alternative dispute resolution provider.
15.4 If you want to take court proceedings, the relevant courts of the United Kingdom will have exclusive jurisdiction in relation to this contract.
15.5 Relevant United Kingdom law will apply to these Terms, but nothing in these Terms is intended to affect any mandatory rights you may enjoy in your own jurisdiction, including any mandatory rights as a consumer.