These Terms of Service govern your access to and use of Improve Your State, including its website, community-service resources, volunteer project tools, project-submission system, peer-review features, HourLog records, and related services (collectively, the “Platform”).
By creating an account, submitting or reviewing work, or otherwise using account-based features of the Platform, you agree to these Terms. Certain public portions of Improve Your State, including educational materials, project ideas, and free downloadable resources, may be used without an account.
1. About Improve Your State
Improve Your State, Inc. (“Improve Your State,” “IYS,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is a charitable and educational nonprofit organization in Denver, Colorado.
Our mission includes encouraging voluntary community service and civic engagement and providing information, guidance, resources, and technology that help people identify community needs, plan useful projects, perform service, document their actions, and contribute to their communities.
2. What the Platform Provides
Depending on the feature being used, participants may:
- Learn how to identify community needs and plan responsible service projects.
- Browse community-service ideas and educational resources.
- Download free worksheets, guides, checklists, and other community-service resources.
- Perform remote or in-person community service, including projects that may be completed independently and on the participant’s own schedule.
- Document completed service and submit supporting information or evidence.
- Participate in peer review of other participants’ submitted projects.
- Maintain a record of verified service activity through an HourLog.
- Request additional review or official documentation when those services are available.
Access to educational materials, project ideas, downloadable resources, and ordinary community participation does not require the purchase of service hours. Community-service hours must be legitimately earned through qualifying activity.
3. Eligibility and Accounts
Users must be at least 13 years old to create an Improve Your State account. Participants under the age of majority should use the Platform in accordance with applicable law and any requirements imposed by a parent, guardian, school, court, probation department, employer, agency, or other supervising authority.
You are responsible for providing accurate account information and maintaining the confidentiality of your credentials. You may not share your account, impersonate another person, or use another participant’s credentials.
Public educational features do not require an account. An account is required for submitting projects, documenting service, participating in account-based peer review, and maintaining an HourLog.
4. Community-Service Projects
Improve Your State supports both remote and in-person community service. Some projects may be performed independently and on your own schedule, while others may involve a community organization, property owner, public agency, or another responsible person.
You are responsible for selecting activities appropriate for your age, abilities, location, circumstances, and any service requirement you are attempting to satisfy. Follow applicable project instructions, safety information, evidence requirements, time limitations, and location restrictions.
5. Safety, Permission, and Personal Responsibility
Community service involves real-world activities and may involve ordinary risks. Use reasonable judgment and do not undertake work that is unsafe, unlawful, beyond your abilities, or properly reserved for trained or licensed professionals.
You must not trespass, enter restricted or dangerous areas, interfere with traffic, handle hazardous materials, perform unauthorized repairs, or knowingly create an unreasonable risk to yourself or another person. Obtain required permission before performing work on property or for an organization you do not control.
6. Documenting Your Service
Participants with an account may document community service they actually performed. A submission may include descriptions, dates, locations, claimed service time, photographs, supporting evidence, project results, and other information needed to evaluate the activity.
Submission of a project does not automatically make the project verified and does not guarantee that the claimed amount of service time will be approved.
7. Accurate Submissions and No Falsification
All submitted information must be truthful. Prohibited conduct includes:
- Submitting another person’s work as your own.
- Claiming service that was not actually performed.
- Falsifying or materially exaggerating service time.
- Falsifying dates, locations, descriptions, project results, or other material facts.
- Submitting misleading, staged, unrelated, copied, fabricated, generated, or materially manipulated evidence.
- Reusing evidence from another project or participant in a misleading manner.
- Attempting to bypass evidence, timing, review, account, or verification controls.
- Manipulating the Platform, HourLog, review system, database, or account records.
Suspected falsification may result in rejection, reduction or removal of service credit, additional review, account suspension or termination, or other appropriate action.
8. Evidence and Technical Review
By uploading evidence, you represent that you have the right to provide it and that it does not unlawfully violate another person’s privacy, copyright, or other rights.
Uploaded files may be examined for technical information useful for verification and fraud prevention, including file type, size, dimensions, cryptographic hashes, camera information, capture dates, file timestamps, GPS metadata when present, and indicators associated with screenshots, editing software, or generation software. Metadata is one part of the review process and may not be conclusive by itself.
9. Peer Review
Improve Your State may use independent peer review as part of project verification. Participants may review another participant’s submission and evaluate whether the evidence supports the claimed work and whether the claimed service time appears reasonable.
Peer reviewers must act honestly, independently, and in good faith. Reviewers must not approve or reject work for improper reasons or attempt to identify, contact, harass, or investigate the submitting participant.
Peer-review decisions may be combined with additional peer reviews, administrative review, supervisor review, technical checks, or other verification procedures.
10. Review and Verification Decisions
Submitted service may be approved, rejected, returned for further review, escalated, or approved for less service time than claimed. Improve Your State may reconsider a prior decision when later information indicates that it was inaccurate, incomplete, duplicated, fraudulent, or affected by error.
11. HourLog Records
Verified project activity and other eligible service may be recorded in a participant’s HourLog. Improve Your State may correct, reduce, void, or adjust HourLog entries when reasonably necessary to address errors, duplicate credit, invalid submissions, fraud, later verification findings, or other recordkeeping issues.
12. Court-Ordered and Other Required Community Service
Improve Your State may be used by voluntary participants and by participants seeking to satisfy requirements imposed by a court, probation department, school, employer, agency, program, or other organization.
Verified Improve Your State service may be accepted for court-ordered or other required community service in many circumstances, but we do not guarantee acceptance by any particular authority or organization.
13. Free Participation and Optional Administrative Services
Improve Your State provides free access to community-service education, project ideas, downloadable resources, and ordinary volunteer participation. Participants do not purchase or pay for community-service hours.
Certain optional administrative, verification, record-review, access, documentation, or official HourLog services may involve fees. When a fee applies, the charge and the service being purchased will be disclosed before payment is requested.
Payment does not purchase community-service hours, convert unverified work into verified work, or guarantee approval or third-party acceptance.
14. Service Providers and Contractors
Improve Your State may use independent contractors and third-party service providers to operate, host, maintain, secure, support, develop, administer, review, verify, or otherwise provide portions of the Platform and related services.
An authorized contractor or service provider may perform administrative review, technical services, customer support, record processing, or other functions in connection with Improve Your State. The use of a contractor does not change the requirement that service hours must be legitimately earned and verified.
15. No Guarantee of Third-Party Acceptance
Improve Your State does not guarantee that a project, HourLog, verified entry, signed document, or other record will be accepted by a particular court, probation department, school, employer, agency, program, or other organization. Acceptance remains within the discretion of the recipient.
16. Free Educational and Downloadable Resources
Improve Your State may make educational articles, project-planning materials, worksheets, checklists, guides, and other resources publicly available without registration or payment. These materials are general educational resources and do not constitute legal advice, professional safety advice, or a guarantee that an activity will satisfy a third-party requirement.
17. User Content
You retain any ownership rights you may have in original content you submit. By submitting content, you grant Improve Your State and its authorized contractors and service providers a non-exclusive license to store, reproduce, process, display, transmit, analyze, and review that content as reasonably necessary to operate the Platform, evaluate and verify service, maintain records, prevent fraud, provide support, investigate misuse, and provide requested documentation or related services.
18. Privacy
Our collection, use, storage, and disclosure of personal information is described in our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. Avoid unnecessarily including private information about other people in project descriptions, photographs, or evidence.
19. Acceptable Use and Code of Conduct
You may not use Improve Your State to:
- Threaten, harass, intimidate, abuse, or unlawfully defame another person.
- Submit unlawful, harmful, deceptive, obscene, malicious, or fraudulent content.
- Attempt unauthorized access to accounts, servers, databases, evidence, or administrative systems.
- Interfere with the security, availability, integrity, or normal operation of the Platform.
- Introduce malware, malicious code, or other harmful technology.
- Use bots, scraping tools, or automated systems to extract protected Platform data without authorization.
- Use the Platform to facilitate fraud or create false evidence of community service.
20. Intellectual Property
The Platform and its software, branding, designs, workflows, documentation, project materials, text, graphics, and other proprietary content may be owned by Improve Your State, licensed to Improve Your State, or provided by an authorized technology or service provider.
Except where a resource is expressly made available for downloading, printing, sharing, or another permitted use, you may not copy, republish, sell, reverse engineer, or commercially exploit proprietary Platform materials except as permitted by law or written authorization.
21. Communications
Account holders may receive service-related communications concerning accounts, submissions, reviews, HourLog records, security, verification, support requests, required actions, and material Platform changes. Promotional communications, if any, will be handled in accordance with applicable law and available opt-out requirements.
22. Suspension and Termination
We may suspend, restrict, or terminate access when we reasonably believe a user has violated these Terms, falsified service, abused another person, created a security risk, misused the Platform, interfered with review, or engaged in unlawful or fraudulent conduct.
23. Service Availability
We do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free access. Maintenance, technical problems, software changes, third-party outages, security events, or circumstances outside our reasonable control may temporarily affect availability. Participants with deadlines should not wait until the final day to complete or document service.
24. Disclaimer of Warranties
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Improve Your State, the Platform, its resources, and related services are provided on an “as is” and “as available” basis. We do not warrant uninterrupted availability, that every project will be appropriate for every participant, that every submission will be verified, or that any third party will accept a participant’s service or documentation.
25. Limitation of Liability
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Improve Your State and its directors, officers, personnel, volunteers, reviewers, contractors, and service providers will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages arising from use of the Platform, inability to access it, loss of data, rejection of service by a third party, or participation in a community-service activity.
Community-service activities are performed in real-world environments that Improve Your State generally does not own or control. Participants remain responsible for exercising reasonable care and judgment. Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.
26. Indemnification
To the extent permitted by law, you agree to be responsible for claims, losses, liabilities, or expenses arising from your unlawful conduct, material violation of these Terms, falsification of service, infringement of another person’s rights, or unauthorized use of the Platform.
27. Changes to the Platform or These Terms
Improve Your State may add, remove, modify, or discontinue Platform features and may update these Terms periodically. Revised Terms will be posted on this page with an updated effective date. Where required by law, additional notice will be provided.
28. Electronic Acceptance
Checking a box acknowledging these Terms, creating an account, submitting service, participating in peer review, or otherwise using account-based Platform services constitutes electronic acceptance of this agreement.
29. Severability
If any provision of these Terms is determined to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in effect to the extent permitted by law.
30. Contact
Questions about these Terms may be sent to helpdesk@improveyourstate.com or through our Contact Us page.