Terms of Service

These terms are the agreement between you and Elpys (elpys.vercel.app). By using the site — browsing it, creating an account, submitting an opportunity, or sending feedback — you agree to them. If you don't agree, please don't use Elpys.

Two sections deserve a careful read because they affect your legal rights: section 3, on safety, and section 13, on limitation of liability.

1. Who can use Elpys

Anyone can browse Elpys — you don't need an account to search or view opportunities.

Accounts are for people 13 and older. When you create one, you're confirming you meet that age requirement.

If you're under 18 — which is most of the people Elpys is built for — please read these terms together with a parent or guardian before you create an account or submit anything, and have them agree to them with you. By using Elpys while under 18, you're telling us that a parent or guardian has reviewed these terms and agrees to them on your behalf. We know that's a formality most sites skip; we're stating it because Elpys sends teens to real places in the physical world, and a parent or guardian should know that's happening.

If you're under 13, please don't create an account, submit an opportunity, or send us feedback. You're welcome to read the listings. See section 11 of our Privacy Policy.

2. What Elpys is — and what it isn't

Elpys is a curated directory. We research volunteer opportunities and list the ones that meet our criteria: no adult required on-site, a clear sign-up process, free, and roughly within 20 minutes of Bellevue.

That's the whole of it. Elpys is not:

• the organizations listed on it — we don't own, run, employ, supervise, sponsor, or partner with any of them;
• a party to whatever arrangement you make with an organization when you sign up to volunteer;
• a screening or vetting service. We do not run background checks on organizations, their staff, or their volunteers, and we do not inspect their premises or assess their safety practices;
• an endorsement. A listing on Elpys means an opportunity met our published criteria at the time we checked it — nothing more;
• a placement service, an employer, or a certifier of volunteer hours. Whatever hours you earn, and any documentation of them, is between you and the organization.

3. Safety — please read this one

Elpys tells you where opportunities are. Deciding whether a particular one is right for you is yours to make — and, if you're under 18, your parent's or guardian's too.

Before your first visit to any organization:

• Confirm the details directly with the organization. Times, ages, locations, and requirements change.
• Tell a parent, guardian, or another trusted adult where you're going and when you'll be back.
• Read and follow the organization's own rules, including any waiver, age minimum, orientation, or supervision requirement they set. Those are theirs, not ours, and they override anything a listing says.

Elpys does not supervise you, is not present, and is not responsible for what happens at an organization's site. If something at an organization makes you uncomfortable or feels unsafe, leave and tell a trusted adult. Please also report it to us so we can review the listing — but Elpys is not an emergency service and nobody monitors that inbox around the clock. In an emergency, call 911.

4. Listing accuracy, and what "verified" means

Every listing is checked against the organization's own current published information before it goes live, and listings are rechecked on a regular schedule. We also check that the organization itself is a government body or a registered charity in good standing — How we check organizations sets out the whole process. "Verified" means exactly that and no more. It does not mean we have visited the site, met the staff, evaluated the organization, or formed any judgment about how safe it is.

Organizations change their programs, schedules, ages, links, and requirements without telling us, and listings can be out of date between checks. Always confirm the current details directly with the organization before your first visit. That warning appears on every page of the site for exactly this reason.

If you find something out of date or wrong, please report it — we act on those reports, usually within days.

5. Submitting an opportunity

Anyone can submit an organization for listing. When you submit one, you're telling us that the information is accurate as far as you know, that you have the right to give it to us, and — if you're submitting on behalf of an organization — that you're authorized to do so.

You keep whatever rights you have in what you submit. By submitting it, you give Elpys a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, edit, publish, display, and distribute it on the site and in the weekly digest email, for as long as the listing is on the site. You can ask us to take a listing down at any time.

Every submission is reviewed by a person before publishing. We may edit a submission for clarity or accuracy, decline to publish it if it doesn't meet our criteria, or remove a listing later if it stops meeting them. Submitting a listing doesn't guarantee it will be published, and we don't have to explain a decision.

Please don't put confidential or personal information in the "Notes for the reviewer" box — see section 1 of the Privacy Policy for why.

6. Feedback and reports

Feedback you send us about a listing may be used to correct, update, or remove that listing. We may quote or act on it internally, but we won't publish your email address or identify you publicly. Giving an email address with your feedback is optional.

7. Your account

If you create an account, you're responsible for keeping your login details to yourself and for what happens under your account. Use accurate information when you sign up, and use an email address that's actually yours. Tell us if you think someone else has access to your account. You can delete your account yourself, at any time, from your account page.

8. Acceptable use

Don't use Elpys to:

• submit fake, misleading, or spam listings, or impersonate an organization or another person;
• submit someone else's personal information without their permission;
• scrape, bulk-copy, or republish the site's listings, or use automated tools to collect them;
• harvest the contact details of listed organizations for anything unrelated to volunteering with them;
• bypass or interfere with our spam-prevention checks or rate limits;
• probe, scan, or test the security of the site, or try to access parts of it that aren't public;
• interfere with the site or with anyone else's use of it, or break the law while using it.

9. Content and intellectual property

The design, original text, code, and logo of Elpys belong to the person who built it. Personal, non-commercial use of the listings — reading them, sharing a link, telling a friend — is entirely welcome and is the point. Copying the directory wholesale or republishing it as your own is not.

Organization names, logos, and trademarks belong to those organizations. They appear here descriptively, to identify real opportunities, and their use doesn't imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.

If you hold rights in something on Elpys and believe it's being used without permission, email hello.elpys@gmail.com with enough detail to identify it and we'll review and, where appropriate, remove it promptly. The same goes for any organization that simply doesn't want to be listed — ask, and we'll take the listing down. No argument.

10. Links to other sites

Sign-up links, organization websites, and map directions take you to services Elpys doesn't control, each with its own terms and privacy practices. We're not responsible for those services or for what they do with information you give them.

11. Elpys may change

Elpys is an actively developed personal project run by one person. Features may change, break, or be removed, the site may be unavailable at times, and we may change or discontinue any part of it. We'll try to give notice of anything major, but we can't promise the site will always be there.

12. No warranty

Elpys is provided "as is" and "as available." To the fullest extent permitted by law, we make no warranties of any kind, express or implied — including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, or accuracy. We don't guarantee the site will always be available or error-free, or that every listing is perfectly current at every moment.

We built Elpys carefully and we stand behind the verification process described in About. We can't promise perfection. Some places don't allow certain warranty exclusions, so parts of this section may not apply to you.

13. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Elpys and the person who runs it are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or for lost data, arising out of your use of the site. Our total liability for any claim relating to the site will not exceed one hundred U.S. dollars (US$100) — Elpys is free and earns nothing, and that figure reflects that.

What this section does not do. Nothing in these terms limits or excludes any liability that can't be limited or excluded under the law that applies to you. In particular:

• Washington law does not permit a minor's claim for personal injury to be released or waived in advance — not by the minor, and not by a parent or guardian on the minor's behalf. Nothing in these terms attempts to do that, and nothing here waives any personal-injury claim of a user under 18.
• Nothing here limits liability for fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, intentional misconduct, or gross negligence.

This section is about the site. What happens between you and an organization you volunteer with is between you and that organization, as section 2 explains.

14. If you break these terms

If you're 18 or older and you use Elpys in a way that breaks these terms or the law, you agree to cover the reasonable costs Elpys incurs as a direct result. This section does not apply to users under 18.

We may suspend or remove an account, decline submissions, or block access if the site is being used for spam, fraudulent submissions, or abuse. You can stop using Elpys and delete your account at any time; sections 5, 9, and 12 through 16 continue to apply afterwards.

15. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Washington, USA, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute that can't be worked out by email goes to the state or federal courts located in King County, Washington, and both of us consent to that venue. Nothing here stops either of us from bringing a claim in small claims court.

There is no arbitration clause and no class-action waiver in these terms, deliberately.

16. The rest of it

If any part of these terms turns out to be unenforceable, the rest stays in effect and that part is applied as closely as the law allows. If we don't enforce something right away, we haven't given up the right to enforce it later. You can't transfer your rights under these terms to someone else; we may transfer ours if Elpys is ever handed to someone else to run, in which case we'll say so on the site. These terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the whole agreement between us about the site. We'll send any notice to you at the email address on your account, or by posting it on the site.

17. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as the site changes. If we make a meaningful change, we'll update the date at the top of this page and note it on the site. Continuing to use Elpys after a change means you accept the updated terms; if you don't, stop using the site and delete your account.

18. Contact

Questions about these terms? Email hello.elpys@gmail.com.