Terms of Service

These Terms govern your use of the Rail Funding Brief newsletter, public website, and — for organizations with an account — the matching and application platform (together, the “Services”). By subscribing to the newsletter, creating an account, or otherwise using the Services, you agree to these Terms.

The newsletter and public site are free. The platform lets a registered organization enter information about itself and its projects, see which funding programs it may be eligible for, see what is missing, and assemble an application. Some platform features are or will be available only to organizations with a paid subscription; we’ll describe what’s included in each tier where you sign up. We may add, change, or discontinue features at any time.

A platform account belongs to an organization, not just an individual. Whoever invites you is responsible for who they invite, and an organization’s owner controls its members and its most sensitive data (see our Privacy Policy). You’re responsible for keeping your login credentials secure and for the accuracy of information your organization enters.

The Services are informational. Matching results, gap analysis, and drafting assistance are based on the information you provide and the program data we maintain — they are not legal, financial, tax, or grant-writing professional advice, and they are not a determination by any funder or government agency. We do not guarantee that you are eligible for any program, that any application will be accepted, or that you will receive any award.

You are solely responsible for verifying every figure, statement, and certification before submitting anything to any funder or government agency. Federal grant applications carry certifications signed under penalty of law — that responsibility is yours, not ours, no matter how the Services presented the information to you.

Some features use an AI model to help draft narrative sections or check an application for internal consistency. Every figure a draft states is checked against information you actually entered before it’s shown to you, and any draft that can’t be verified this way is flagged rather than hidden. Even so, AI-assisted output is a starting point, not a finished or reviewed document — you must review and edit it yourself before relying on it or submitting it anywhere.

You keep ownership of the information and documents you or your organization submit. You grant us a license to use it to operate the Services — computing matches, generating reports and drafts for your organization, and providing support. You represent that you have the right to submit whatever you submit.

The program database, matching engine, software, and the Rail Funding Brief name and branding are ours. Your license to use the Services doesn’t include a right to scrape, resell, or redistribute the program database or platform output as your own data product.

Don’t misuse the Services: no scraping or automated bulk extraction of program data, no attempting to access another organization’s data, no impersonation, no interfering with the Services’ operation, no unlawful use.

Rail Funding Brief Premium is a $29/month subscription, billed monthly in advance starting the day you subscribe, that adds full-text investigation articles delivered by email. The free weekly newsletter and the public archive are not affected by this or any other paid tier — they stay free.

Payment is processed by Stripe. We never receive or store your card number; we store only your subscription status, your Stripe customer and subscription identifiers, and your current billing period, so we know what to send you and when.

Cancellation: cancel anytime from the “manage billing” link included in every investigation email, or by emailing us at the address below. Cancelling stops future renewal; you keep access through the end of the billing period you already paid for.

Refunds: charges are non-refundable, including for a partial billing period, except where required by law. If something billed incorrectly, contact us — we’ll make it right.

We may offer additional paid tiers or a subscription for the platform itself in the future; their price, billing cycle, and cancellation terms will be shown to you before you subscribe to any of them, and this section will be updated to describe them.

You can stop using the Services at any time; an organization owner can close the organization’s account. We can suspend or terminate access for a violation of these Terms. See our Privacy Policy for what happens to your data after termination.

The Services are provided “as is,” without warranty of any kind, including any warranty that they will be uninterrupted, error-free, or produce any particular funding outcome.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, our total liability arising out of or relating to the Services is limited to the greater of $100 or the amount you paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose, and we are not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages. Some jurisdictions don’t allow these limitations, in which case they apply to the extent permitted.

You agree to indemnify us against claims arising from your misuse of the Services or from information your organization submits.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Pennsylvania, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.

We may update these Terms from time to time. We’ll post the revised version here with a new “last updated” date, and we’ll notify account holders directly of a material change.

Questions about these Terms: hello@railfundingbrief.com.