Terms of use

Last updated October 14, 2026

These terms are a draft and are still being reviewed.

By creating an account or giving through the Five Dollar Club, you agree to these terms and to our privacy policy. If you don't agree, please don't use the site. Chapter admins also agree to the terms for chapters below.

What the Five Dollar Club is

The Five Dollar Club is a platform that lets fraternity chapters collect donations from members and friends. Each chapter has its own Stripe account, and your payment goes directly to the chapter you choose. The chapter, not the Five Dollar Club, is the seller of record: its name is on the charge, and it receives and spends the money.

Each gift is between you and the chapter. The Five Dollar Club isn't a party to it and doesn't hold donated funds. Anything between you and a chapter, including how it uses your gift, is between the two of you, and we aren't responsible for it. If you have a problem with a chapter, we'll help you reach it, but we don't decide disputes.

Your account

You must be at least 18, or have a parent or guardian's permission, to give. We don't verify ages, so this is up to you.
Give accurate information, keep your password private, and let us know if you think someone else has used your account. You're responsible for what happens under your account.
The display name you choose appears publicly on chapter pages unless you choose "Anonymous". Don't use a name that impersonates someone or is offensive; we may change or remove names that are.

Donations and fees

Before checkout, the donate page shows the gift you chose and the total your card will be charged.
The total includes Stripe's processing fee (3.6% plus $0.30 per payment) and a 5% Five Dollar Club platform fee on your gift, so the chapter receives the full amount you chose. The platform fee pays for running this site.
Payments are processed by Stripe and are also subject to Stripe's terms.

Recurring gifts

If you choose a monthly or yearly gift, you authorize the chapter to charge your card the total shown at checkout on the same day each month or year until you cancel. You can cancel anytime: open your account page and choose "Update card or cancel" next to the chapter. Cancelling stops future charges right away; payments already made aren't refunded. If a payment fails, Stripe may retry it, and the gift may be cancelled if it keeps failing.

Your recurring gift keeps the amount you signed up for. If a chapter changes or removes a package later, gifts already set up aren't affected. If a chapter is removed from the site, we cancel all of its recurring gifts so no further charges are made.

Refunds

Donations are generally final. If you were charged by mistake or something looks wrong, contact the chapter you gave to (it manages payments and refunds in its Stripe account), or contact us below and we'll help reach them. Refunds are at the chapter's discretion. If a refund is given, Stripe's processing fee may not be returned.

Taxes

Fraternity chapters are usually not charitable organizations, so donations through this site are generally not tax-deductible as charitable contributions, unless a chapter says otherwise for its own donations. Ask a tax professional about your situation.

Acceptable use

Don't misuse the site: no fraudulent payments, testing stolen cards, attempts to break in or disrupt the site, or scraping other members' information.

Terms for chapters

This section applies to each chapter on the site and to the people who manage it ("chapter admins"). Where it conflicts with the rest of these terms, this section wins for chapter matters.

Who is agreeing

By setting up or managing a chapter, you confirm that you're authorized to act for that chapter (or the house corporation or other organization that runs its finances), and you agree to these terms on its behalf. In this section, "the chapter" means that organization.

Our role

The Five Dollar Club only provides the website the chapter uses to collect donations. We aren't a professional fundraiser, fundraising counsel, or commercial co-venturer, and we don't solicit donations for any chapter. We don't verify a chapter's status or anything it says on its pages, and we don't hold, manage, or act as a trustee of donated money: it goes straight to the chapter's Stripe account.

Stripe and the platform fee

Donations are collected through the chapter's own Stripe account, which the chapter sets up through this site. The chapter must also follow Stripe's Connected Account Agreement, and must keep its Stripe details (such as its EIN, bank account, and representative) accurate and current.
The chapter agrees to pay the Five Dollar Club a platform fee of 5% of each donation, which Stripe takes automatically from each payment. Platform fees are not returned when a chapter refunds a gift. We may change the fee with notice; a change applies only to payments made after it takes effect.
The chapter is responsible for disputes and chargebacks on its payments, including any amounts and fees Stripe takes for them. Stripe's processing fees usually aren't returned when a gift is refunded or charged back.
The chapter is responsible for its own taxes and for anything it tells donors about whether their gifts are tax-deductible.
The chapter will answer reasonable requests from us or from Stripe for information about its account.
The chapter's admins must keep their logins to this site and to the chapter's Stripe Dashboard secure, and tell us right away if they think someone else has used them.

Packages and refunds

The chapter sets its own packages and may change them at any time. Changes never apply to recurring gifts already set up. Whether to refund a gift is up to the chapter, which handles refunds in its Stripe Dashboard.

The chapter's pages and donors

The chapter is responsible for everything on its pages (text, photos, package graphics) and for how it uses the donations it receives. Content must be lawful, must not infringe anyone's rights, and must follow the chapter's fraternity and school rules on fundraising.
The chapter is responsible for following the laws that apply to its fundraising, including charitable solicitation, consumer protection, and disclosure laws in the states where it asks for donations.
The chapter keeps ownership of what it uploads, and lets us display it on the site and show the chapter's name in the chapter directory.
The chapter keeps a working way for donors to reach it (such as the support contact in its Stripe account), and we may pass donor questions on to it.
We don't have to get involved in disputes between a chapter and its donors, and we don't give legal advice. A chapter can report a donor who breaks these terms, and we'll decide what to do.

Donor information

The chapter can see its donors' names, email addresses, and payments in its Stripe Dashboard, and is responsible for how it uses them. It must use that information only for the chapter's own purposes (such as receipts, thank-yous, and answering questions), keep it secure, and follow privacy laws. We may remove a chapter that misuses donor information. We may share totals and leaderboard data with a chapter but don't have to.

Leaving or being removed

A chapter can stop using the site at any time, and we can suspend or remove a chapter that breaks these terms (see Suspension and deletion). If a chapter is removed, we cancel all of its recurring gifts so donors aren't charged again. The chapter remains responsible for any refunds its donors are owed, and platform fees already paid aren't returned.

Other chapter terms

The chapter will cover any claims against the Five Dollar Club that come from its content, its use of donor information, or its breaking these terms.
The chapter isn't our agent, partner, or employee, and can't make commitments on our behalf.
The parts of this section about fees, refunds, donor information, and covering claims keep applying after a chapter leaves.

Disclaimers and limits

The site is provided "as is", without warranties of any kind. We try to keep it running and accurate, but we can't promise it will always be available or error-free. To the fullest extent the law allows, the Five Dollar Club and the people who run it aren't liable for indirect or consequential losses, and our total liability for any claim is limited to the greater of $100 or the platform fees paid in connection with you in the 12 months before the claim.

Suspension and deletion

Breaking these terms can lead to your account being suspended or deleted. We reserve the right to suspend or delete any account, including a chapter admin's account or a chapter itself, that we believe has broken these terms, at our discretion. We'll usually tell you first and give you a chance to fix the problem, but we may act right away when we need to, for example to stop fraud or protect other members.

A suspended account can't sign in or give. If we delete an account, we cancel its recurring gifts so no further charges are made; payments already made stay with the chapter and aren't refunded by us.

Ending your account

You can stop using the site at any time; cancel any recurring gifts first, then contact us to delete your account.

General

These terms are governed by the laws of [state to be confirmed], without regard to conflict-of-law rules.
If any part of these terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies.
These terms, the privacy policy, and anything they refer to are the whole agreement between you and us about the site.
You can't transfer your account or these terms to someone else without our permission.
We may send you notices about your account or these terms by email, to the address on your account.
We aren't responsible for delays or outages caused by things beyond our reasonable control, such as failures at our hosting provider or at Stripe.
Parts of these terms that by their nature should continue (such as limits on liability) keep applying after your account ends.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. We'll change the date at the top of this page, and for significant changes we'll let members know by email or a notice on the site. Using the site after a change means you accept the new terms.

Contact

Questions about these terms: contact details coming soon.