Supporter Terms

These terms govern contributions to Veteran Benefits GPS LLC from people who choose to support the tool. In them, "I", "me", and "my" mean Veteran Benefits GPS LLC. They are written in plain language on purpose. Where they overlap with the tool's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, once published, all three say the same thing.

1. What a contribution is

A contribution is money you choose to contribute to Veteran Benefits GPS LLC, an Illinois limited liability company, to support the tool at vbgps.org. It is a payment to a for-profit business. It is not a charitable donation, it is not tax deductible, and it does not buy a product or a service. Contributions support the tool: hosting and the app stores, the checking of every route against the official sources, marketing and outreach, counsel, and my time to keep all of it current. Contributions are never passed on to Veterans and are never described as reaching one.

Contributions are one lane, not the only one: the tool may also be funded by sponsorships, grants, prizes, contracts, licensing, or services in kind. Not one of those lanes charges a Veteran anything to use the tool, not one of them buys any say in what the tool shows, and no one of them, this one included, decides whether the tool stays free.

2. What the tool costs the Veteran

Nothing. The tool is free to every Veteran, service member, and family member who uses it, with no fee, no upsell, and nothing held back. If the tool offers an optional account, that account is also free, is never required, and puts nothing in the tool behind it: a Veteran without one sees the same content. None of that changes because someone contributes or because no one does. A contribution never changes what the tool shows anyone.

Nothing is gated. No feature, no territory, no step, no speed, and no place in any queue depends on any payment by anyone. No Veteran pays to use the tool, ever.

3. One time or monthly

You can contribute once or monthly. A monthly contribution renews each month on the day of the month it started, or on the month's last day when a month is shorter, until you cancel. You can cancel at any time through the link in your receipt email or by writing to [email protected], and cancellation stops the next charge; I do not refund a charge that has already run, except as sections 4 and 6 say.

4. What supporters receive

Supporters receive my thanks, a receipt, and, if they choose, their name on the Supporters page. A supporter may decline to be listed or ask me at any time to take a listed name down. I may also decline a contribution or a listing, and a contribution I decline is refunded in full. If a level ever carries a printed thank-you or an item that carries the tool's mark, the level and the item are described beside the contribution control before you choose it. No supporter receives any say in what the tool shows, links to, or recommends.

Apart from a supporter's own name on the Supporters page when they ask for it, no supporter ever receives any information about any Veteran who uses the tool, in any form, at any level, for any amount. A supporter never learns from me that any particular person used it. A sponsor may be told how many times a page was viewed, in total, and never who viewed it, which is a count and not anyone's information. That is unconditional and is not subject to a level, a price, or an agreement.

5. What I collect when you contribute

To take a contribution, I need what Stripe, the payment processor, needs: your name, your email address for the receipt, and your payment details, which Stripe holds; I never see your full card or account number. I keep your name and email, and the amount and date of each contribution, so I can send the receipt, honor a cancellation, answer you, keep my books, and list you on the Supporters page if you asked me to. I do not sell that information or share it except as this section says, I do not add you to any list you did not ask for, and I keep it only as long as those purposes, the law, and the processor's rules require.

A contribution is one of the ways I can hold something about you through vbgps.org: the payment itself happens on Stripe's own page, and nothing you type on the support page itself is stored on vbgps.org. Another is the optional account inside the tool, if the tool offers one, which takes an email address and nothing else and has no password because there is none to create. The Privacy Policy, once published, lists every place on vbgps.org that can hold anything about you, including an email address you choose to leave for the launch note. Contributing does not create an account. Creating an account does not contribute. An account stores nothing about any contribution: all it holds is an email address, where you are in the tool, the dates your journey started and was last touched, a version label the tool writes itself, the account's own dates, a scrambled fingerprint of each short-lived sign-in link, and the date and time you accepted the Terms of Use and which version you accepted. A contribution record and an account are never joined, even when they carry the same email address. Apart from your name on the Supporters page when you ask for it, nothing about you from either place ever reaches a sponsor, a supporter, an advertiser, a broker, or any third party other than these: Stripe, which processes the payment; the companies that host the site, the account, my email, and my records, and the one that delivers the account's email, which hold it only to provide those services; Anthropic, whose Claude helps me keep my records and also reads, sorts, and files my email and drafts replies for me to review before any goes out, except a standard reply whose words I have already approved; an accountant or lawyer I engage, who must keep it confidential; anyone a court order or a law compels me to answer; and, if the business is ever sold, its buyer, who takes the contribution records bound by these terms, and an account only if its holder agrees to the move, as the Terms of Use say. It is never sold, rented, traded, or used to target anything.

6. Refunds

If a charge was made in error, made twice, or made after you cancelled, write to [email protected] and I will refund it. Apart from those and a contribution I decline (section 4), contributions are final.

7. Where the money goes, in writing

Once a year I will post a plain statement on the Supporters page of what contributions paid for, in categories, without naming any supporter's amount.

8. Changes

If I change these terms, I will change the date at the top and post a notice on the support page for thirty days before the change takes effect. A change never applies to a charge that already ran.

9. Illinois law

These terms are governed by Illinois law.

10. Contact

Veteran Benefits GPS LLC · [email protected] · PO Box 2, Herod, IL 62947

Veteran Benefits GPS is a for-profit business. Contributions support this tool and are not tax deductible.