Terms and Conditions For Volunteers

I. Subject, definitions, legal relations

1. Meaningful Travel GmbH, Rolandstr. 44, D-40476 Düsseldorf (hereinafter referred to as the "platform operator") provides a platform at www.volunteerworld.com (hereinafter referred to as the "platform") on which volunteering assignment are advertised and through which persons interested in volunteering (hereinafter referred to as "volunteer") may apply for a voluntary position.
2. Volunteering assignments are officially offered by welfare organizations, charities and non-state or government-related organizations (hereinafter uniformly referred to as “social projects”). However, some social projects also use agencies as an intermediary for voluntary positions. One agency may act for several social projects.
   
   The organizational unit – the social project or the agency – which is the direct representative in relation to the platform operator and who manages the respective volunteering assignment on the platform shall hereinafter be referred to as the organization.
3. Through a volunteering agreement concluded via the platform, a contractual relationship shall arise exclusively between the organization and the volunteer. The organization shall be responsible for the modalities of the volunteering agreement concluded with the volunteer and for the performance of his/her contractual obligations. The platform operator merely provides its platform for the presentation and placement of volunteering assignments.
4. The contents, presentation, design, functioning and all other characteristics of the platform shall be at the sole discretion of the platform operator. This shall include the right to redesign, modify, remove or change the contents, presentation, design, functioning and other characteristics of the platform and individual elements, aspects, parts or features, or to restrict access to the same, at any time.
5. These Terms and Conditions of Use shall govern use of the platform by the volunteer and accordingly the legal relationship between the platform operator and the volunteer. They alone shall govern the legal relationship between the platform operator and the volunteer unless agreements to the contrary are entered into in individual contracts. Agreements which deviate from these provisions in this regard must be in writing.
6. The platform operator’s Terms and Conditions of Use shall form the exclusive basis for the legal relationship. Any terms of use of the volunteer shall not apply. These Terms and Conditions of Use shall also apply where the platform operator, in knowledge of conflicting terms of use of the volunteer, performs its services without reservation and does not previously expressly object to the deviating terms of use of the volunteer.

II. Reservation of right to amend

1. The platform operator shall be entitled to amend these Terms and Conditions of Use subject to a reasonable period of notice.
2. The platform operator shall only be entitled to do so where the amendment can be deemed reasonable for the volunteer taking into account the interests of the platform operator.
3. The platform operator shall announce the amendments to the volunteer in text form at least six weeks prior to their taking effect.
4. Where the volunteer does not agree with the amendments, it may object to them. The platform operator shall in its notification of amendment draw the volunteers attention to its right to object and to the fact that the amendment shall be deemed accepted unless the volunteer objects in writing within a period of one month from receipt of the notification of amendment.

III. Services of the platform operator

1. The platform operator shall provide the technical conditions for use of the platform to the extent described below.
2. Any volunteer may set up its own account on the platform and create a profile. Here, individual settings may be adjusted and detailed information on interests and skills may be added.
3. In addition, the volunteer shall have the opportunity to evaluate social projects or organizations. These contents (so-called user generated content) shall not be checked for legal permissibility by the platform operator. The volunteer shall be solely responsible for this content.

IV. Setting up an account, creating a profile

1. Registration is required to set up an account. For this purpose the volunteer is required to complete the predefined mandatory fields completely and accurately, to provide a valid email address and, in order to secure the account, set up a password.
2. Registration may only be completed and transmitted if the volunteer accepts these Terms and Conditions of Use by clicking the button ”Sign Up” and thereby incorporates them in its application.
3. Completion of this initial registration on the platform shall constitute a binding offer on the part of the volunteer to conclude an agreement for use of the platform. After registration has been completed the volunteer shall receive a confirmation email to the specified email address. Dispatch of this confirmation email shall constitute acceptance of the offer to conclude an agreement for use of the platform.
4. The confirmation email shall contain a link which must be used by the volunteer to confirm its registration on the platform and complete the setup of its account.
5. The platform operator shall be entitled to refuse the volunteer’s offer to conclude an agreement for use of the platform for any reason. The volunteer shall have no claim to the conclusion of an agreement for the use of the platform.
6. Following conclusion of the usage agreement, the volunteer may edit its own profile.
7. Registration on the platform is free of charge; however, according to the volunteering agreement, the volunteer undertakes to pay a participation fee to the organization in the event of the successful conclusion of a volunteering agreement.

V. Obligations of the volunteer

1. The volunteer shall be responsible for the security of its account.
2. Information, trademarks, brand names, designations and other contents belonging to the platform may not be changed, copied, duplicated, sold, leased, exploited, supplemented or otherwise used without prior written authorisation by the platform operator.
3. The volunteer shall be under obligation
   1. to provide complete and accurate information on his person.
   2. to refrain from setting up more than one account.
   3. to notify changes in its personal details without delay. Until the personal details are changed, the information provided by the volunteer on the platform shall be deemed correct and complete in respect of the platform operator.
   4. to keep the password set up to secure the account secret.
   5. to prevent use of the volunteer’s account by third parties.
   6. to notify the platform operator without undue delay of any misuse of the volunteer’s account.
   7. to ensure that the evaluations added to the platform by the volunteer are accurate and truthful and do not violate the rights of third parties, as well as to refrain from inserting contents which are immoral, discriminating, racist, left- or rightwing extremist, or offensive to religious sensitivities.
4. Where the first contact between the organization and the volunteer is made via the platform, the volunteer shall be under obligation to use exclusively the platform’s functions for concluding the volunteering agreement. Any communication between the organization and the volunteer which does not take place via the platform shall in this case constitute a major breach of these Terms and Conditions of Use which shall entitle the platform operator to extraordinary termination of the usage agreement. The platform operator expressly reserves the right to assert further claims.

VI. Responsibility for contents, indemnification

1. The platform operator does not inspect the contents of the volunteer for violations of rights of third parties. The volunteer shall be responsible for the permissibility of contents which it inserts, and for such contents not violating the rights of third parties, in particular in respect of copyright, competition law and criminal law.
2. The volunteer herewith indemnifies the platform operator against all claims which third parties assert against the platform operator due to a violation of their rights through contents inserted by the volunteer.
3. The platform operator shall be entitled to block evaluations inserted on the platform temporarily or permanently, to remove them from the network or to change them in a manner which removes the violation of rights of third parties, or to issue the demanded declarations to desist, if third parties apply for a prohibitive injunction against the platform operator due to contents which an volunteer has inserted on the platform.

VII. Duration and termination of the agreement

1. The usage agreement is concluded for an indefinite period. Either party may declare ordinary termination of this usage agreement without notice at any time.
2. Following termination the volunteer’s account, including its profile, shall be deleted.
3. A termination of this usage agreement shall not affect any legal relationship existing between the organization and the volunteer.
4. The right to extraordinary termination for cause remains unaffected.
5. Termination must be declared in writing.

VIII. Liability

1. The platform operator shall be fully liable in cases of intent and gross negligence and for absence of a guaranteed property.
2. In the event of ordinary negligence the platform operator shall be fully liable for cases of personal injury or death. In all other respects, the platform operator shall be liable for ordinary negligence only where a duty is breached, the performance of which is essential to the proper implementation of the agreement, the breach of which jeopardises the purpose of the agreement, and on the performance of which the volunteer may regularly rely (cardinal duty). Liability for breach of a cardinal duty shall be limited to foreseeable damage typical of the type of agreement.
3. Liability on the basis of the product liability law and other mandatory statutory provisions shall be unaffected.
4. The platform operator shall not be liable in cases where the performance of its obligations from this agreement is delayed or does not take place due to reasons, events or other circumstances which are outside its reasonable sphere of influence (force majeure).
5. The above Sections X (1)-(4) shall apply mutatis mutandis to the statutory representatives and vicarious agents of the platform operator.
6. Claims for damages are excluded where the platform operator is unable to perform a contractual obligation because, without gross negligence on the part of the platform provider, its suppliers or service providers have failed to provide due delivery, or any software or network services supplied by the same do not function properly.
7. The platform operator is not in a position to guarantee that services provided by third parties, in particular network services and other acts of cooperation by third parties, shall be free from disruption or error and secure at all times.
8. The platform operator shall not be liable for compliance with any promises of donations made by the organization.
9. A travel cancellation insurance and insurance covering the costs of return travel in case of accident or illness is strongly recommended.

IX. Data protection

1. The data provided by the volunteer shall be saved and processed by the platform operator exclusively for the purposes arising from this agreement and in observance of the relevant statutory data protection provisions and the German Tele Media Act. In particular, in the absence of the appropriate authorisation, no personal data shall be disclosed to third parties.
2. For security reasons, the platform operator shall be entitled to monitor the communication between the organization and the volunteer on the platform. Conclusion of this usage agreement shall constitute express consent by the organization to the above.

X. Applicable law and place of jurisdiction

1. Amendments and additions to these contractual terms and any side agreements must be in writing and be signed by both parties unless the above provisions expressly stipulate otherwise. This shall also apply to any waiver of the requirement for written form.
2. Where individual or several provisions of these contractual terms are or become invalid in whole or in part this shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions or agreements in any cases of doubt. In lieu of the invalid provisions, a provision shall apply which approximates as closely as possible in legally permissible ways to the economic meaning and purpose of the invalid provision.

Version of: May 2015

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