Terms of Service

RightStart provides a nonprofit compensation benchmarking tool that analyzes publicly filed IRS Form 990 data. The tool helps users build comparability sets and generate compensation reports for informational and research purposes. By accessing or using the service, you agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference.

You must be at least 18 years old to use this service. By creating an account or using the tool, you represent that you are at least 18 years of age and have the legal capacity to enter into these Terms.

When you create an account, you must provide accurate and complete information. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. Accounts are personal and non-transferable — do not share your credentials with others.

You agree to notify us promptly at help@rightstart.co if you become aware of any unauthorized access to your account.

This tool is for informational purposes only. Nothing provided through this service constitutes legal, tax, financial, accounting, or compensation consulting advice. Compensation data is derived from IRS Form 990 filings, which are self-reported by organizations and may contain errors, omissions, or outdated information.

You should not rely solely on this tool when making compensation decisions. All compensation decisions should be made in consultation with qualified legal, tax, and financial advisors who can evaluate your specific circumstances.

All compensation data comes from publicly available IRS Form 990 returns. RightStart does not create, verify, audit, or guarantee the accuracy of the underlying filing data. We apply reasonable data quality filters (described on our Methodology page), but these filters cannot catch all errors. Errors, omissions, and inconsistencies in source filings may propagate into the data, statistics, and reports produced by this tool.

You are solely responsible for independently verifying any data before relying on it. RightStart is not responsible for any errors, inaccuracies, or omissions in the data, or for any decisions, actions, or consequences arising from the use of data or reports produced by this tool. This includes, without limitation, compensation decisions, board approvals, regulatory filings, tax positions, and any other use of the tool's output.

The service and all data, reports, analyses, and content are provided “as is” and “as available” without warranty of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, completeness, timeliness, and non-infringement. RightStart makes no representations or warranties regarding the reliability, availability, correctness, or suitability of the service or its output for any purpose.

Features may change, data coverage may be incomplete, and uptime is not guaranteed. We reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue the service at any time without notice.

You may use this tool for legitimate compensation research, benchmarking, and analysis purposes. You agree not to:

• Misrepresent outputs as having been produced by a licensed professional or as constituting professional advice
• Use automated systems to scrape, crawl, spider, or bulk-download data from the service, whether by manual or automated means
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble any part of the service
• Use data obtained from the service to build a competing product or create derivative databases
• Use data from the service to train artificial intelligence or machine learning models
• Attempt to interfere with, disrupt, or compromise the security of the service
• Use the service for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable law or regulation

Certain features of the service require payment. When you make a purchase, you agree to pay the applicable fees as displayed at the time of purchase. All fees are in U.S. dollars.

• Payment is processed by our third-party payment processor (currently Stripe). RightStart does not store your full credit card number. Your use of the payment processor is subject to their terms of service.
• All purchases are final. Due to the nature of digital data products, we generally do not offer refunds. If you believe there was an error with your purchase, contact us within 14 days at help@rightstart.co and we will review your request.
• Prices may change at any time. Price changes will not affect purchases already completed.
• You are responsible for any applicable taxes associated with your purchase.

By creating an account, you consent to receive transactional and service-related communications from us by email, including:

• Account notifications (verification, password resets, security alerts)
• Purchase receipts and subscription confirmations
• Service announcements (scheduled maintenance, data updates, changes to these Terms)

These communications are part of the service and cannot be opted out of while your account is active. You may close your account at any time to stop receiving them.

We may also offer optional product update and marketing emails (new features, benchmarking tips, promotional offers). These require your separate opt-in consent and you can unsubscribe at any time via the unsubscribe link in each email.

RightStart grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use reports and exports you generate through the service for your internal business purposes, including sharing them with your clients. You may not remove RightStart branding or attribution from generated reports.

The service itself — including its design, code, analysis methods, algorithms, and branding — is the property of RightStart. All trademarks, trade names, and branding elements are the property of RightStart. You receive no rights to the underlying methodology or analysis engine.

IRS Form 990 data is public record and is not owned by any party.

If you submit feedback, suggestions, ideas, or other communications to us (through the in-app feedback tool, email, or any other channel), you grant RightStart a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, modify, and incorporate that feedback into the service without any obligation to you. Do not submit feedback that you consider confidential.

The service relies on third-party providers for authentication (Clerk), hosting (Vercel), data storage (Neon), and payment processing (Stripe). We are not responsible for the availability, performance, or data practices of these providers. Your use of the service may also be subject to the terms and policies of these third parties. RightStart is not liable for any loss or damage arising from third-party service failures.

We may suspend or terminate your account at our discretion, with or without cause, and with or without notice, if we believe you have violated these Terms or if continued access poses a risk to the service or other users.

• Upon termination, your access to the service ceases immediately.
• Reports and exports you have already downloaded remain yours.
• No refunds will be issued for termination due to a Terms violation.
• We may delete your account data after 90 days following termination.

You may close your account at any time by contacting us at help@rightstart.co.

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless RightStart and its owner, employees, and agents from and against any and all claims, actions, losses, liabilities, expenses, and costs (including reasonable attorney fees) arising from or related to:

• Your use of the service
• Your violation of these Terms
• Reports you generate and distribute using the service
• Your violation of any third party's rights
• Any claim by a third party arising from decisions made based on data or reports obtained through the service

To the maximum extent permitted by law, RightStart and its owner, operators, employees, and agents shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages, or any loss of profits, revenues, data, business opportunities, or goodwill, arising from your use of the service. This includes, without limitation, liability for decisions made based on data or reports generated by the tool, liability for errors or inaccuracies in compensation data, liability for regulatory penalties or adverse tax consequences, and liability for any reliance on the tool's output.

RightStart's total aggregate liability for all claims arising from or related to these Terms or your use of the service shall not exceed the greater of (a) one hundred U.S. dollars ($100) or (b) the total fees you paid to RightStart in the twelve (12) months preceding the claim.

We want to resolve disputes fairly and efficiently. Before filing a formal claim, you agree to first contact us at help@rightstart.co and attempt to resolve the dispute informally for at least 30 days.

If the dispute is not resolved informally, you and RightStart agree to resolve it through binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Commercial Arbitration Rules. The arbitration will be conducted in English.

You and RightStart agree that each may bring claims against the other only in your or its individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, consolidated, or representative proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's claims.

Either party may bring an individual action in small claims court as an alternative to arbitration. Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking injunctive or other equitable relief in court for intellectual property claims.

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict of laws principles. For any disputes not subject to arbitration, you consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in California.

We may update these Terms from time to time. For material changes, we will notify registered users by email at least 14 days before the changes take effect. The “Last updated” date above will always reflect the most recent revision.

Continued use of the service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms. If you disagree with any changes, your remedy is to stop using the service and close your account.

RightStart is not liable for any failure or delay in performance due to causes beyond our reasonable control, including natural disasters, government actions, internet or infrastructure outages, third-party service failures, or changes to IRS data availability.

• Entire Agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and RightStart regarding the service and supersede all prior agreements.
• Severability. If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.
• Assignment. You may not assign or transfer your rights under these Terms without our prior written consent. RightStart may assign these Terms freely in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
• Waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision of these Terms does not constitute a waiver of that provision or any other provision.
• Survival. Sections 4, 5, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, and 17 survive termination of these Terms.

Questions about these terms? Contact us at help@rightstart.co.