Terms of Use

Last updated: June 8, 2026

Fundraising Commons is an open educational resource and a vendor-neutral data standard. By using this site you agree to the terms below. They're meant to be plain and fair, because the commons only works if it stays usable.

Licensing & reuse

We publish under open licenses so you can use, adapt, and build on this work:

• Content (the handbook, the novel, the briefs, and the assessment) is licensed CC‑BY‑4.0. Share and adapt it, including commercially, as long as you give attribution.
• Code & tooling (the website, build scripts, and schemas) is licensed Apache‑2.0.

Use it, embed it, build on it. Just keep the attribution. The commons is the moat.

No professional advice

The materials here are educational. They are provided "as is," without warranties of any kind, and are not legal, financial, tax, accounting, or fundraising-compliance advice. Standards and examples (including all sample data, which is synthetic) are illustrative. Validate anything against your own systems, policies, and obligations before relying on it.

The standard & conformance

The Advancement Common Data Model (ACDM™) is openly published and anyone may build to it, including commercial vendors and competing platforms. Conformance claims are the responsibility of whoever makes them. "Fundraising Commons" and its marks identify the project; please don't use them in a way that implies endorsement or conformance that hasn't been established.

External links & third parties

This site links to external resources, including GitHub, our community forum, and tools in the ecosystem registry. We don't control those services and aren't responsible for their content or practices. Listing in the registry is not an endorsement.

Changes

We may update these terms as the project evolves; material changes will be reflected by the "last updated" date above.

Contact

Questions? Open an issue on GitHub or email [email protected].