Terms of Service

Welcome to SteepleOS. These Terms of Service (“Terms”) constitute a legally binding agreement between you and Climax Enterprises LLC (“Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) governing your access to and use of the SteepleOS platform, including all associated websites, applications, APIs, and services (collectively, the “Service”). Please read these Terms carefully before using the Service.

1. Acceptance of Terms

By creating an account, accessing, or using SteepleOS in any manner, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated herein by reference. If you do not agree to all of these Terms, you must not access or use the Service.

You must be at least eighteen (18) years of age to use SteepleOS. By using the Service, you represent and warrant that you are at least 18 years old and have the legal capacity to enter into this agreement.

If you are using SteepleOS on behalf of a church, ministry, nonprofit, or any other organization, you represent and warrant that you have the authority to bind that organization to these Terms. In such cases, “you” and “your” refer to both you individually and the organization you represent.

2. Description of Service

SteepleOS is a cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) church management platform designed to help churches and religious organizations manage their members, track giving and donations, facilitate communications, coordinate ministries, and streamline day-to-day operations.

We continuously improve and evolve the Service. We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to modify, update, add, or remove features and functionality at any time. While we will make reasonable efforts to notify you of significant changes, we are not obligated to maintain any particular feature or functionality indefinitely.

From time to time, we may offer beta or experimental features that are still under development. Beta features are provided “as is” without any warranty or commitment. We may modify or discontinue beta features at any time without notice, and you should not rely on them for critical operations.

3. Account Registration and Security

To use SteepleOS, you must create an account and provide accurate, complete, and current information during the registration process. You agree to update your account information promptly to keep it accurate and current at all times.

You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials, including your password. You agree to notify us immediately at legal@steepleos.com if you become aware of any unauthorized access to or use of your account.

If your subscription plan permits multiple users, the account administrator is responsible for managing access levels, permissions, and roles for all users within the organization. The administrator is responsible for all activity conducted by sub-users under the organization’s account, including ensuring that each sub-user complies with these Terms. We are not liable for any loss or damage arising from unauthorized access caused by your failure to safeguard your credentials or properly manage user permissions.

4. Subscription Plans and Payment

SteepleOS offers multiple subscription tiers with varying features, limits, and pricing. Details of each plan are available on our pricing page and may be updated from time to time.

Subscription fees are billed in advance on either a monthly or annual basis, depending on the billing cycle you select at the time of purchase. All subscriptions automatically renew at the end of each billing period unless you cancel before the renewal date. You authorize us to charge your designated payment method for all recurring fees.

We reserve the right to change our pricing at any time. If we increase the price of your subscription plan, we will provide you with at least thirty (30) days’ written notice before the new pricing takes effect. If you do not agree to the price change, you may cancel your subscription before the new pricing applies.

If your payment method fails or your account becomes past due, we may suspend access to your account until the outstanding balance is paid. We reserve the right to retry failed payments and to use any updated payment information provided by your bank or payment provider.

All fees are non-refundable except where required by applicable law. No refunds or credits will be issued for partial billing periods, downgrades, or unused features.

5. Free Trials

We may offer free trial periods for certain subscription plans. The duration and terms of any trial will be specified at the time of enrollment. During the trial period, you will have access to the features included in the applicable plan.

At the end of the free trial period, your subscription will automatically convert to a paid subscription and your payment method will be charged unless you cancel before the trial period expires. It is your responsibility to cancel before the trial ends if you do not wish to continue with a paid subscription. You may cancel at any time through your account settings.

6. Data Ownership

You retain all rights, title, and interest in and to any data, content, and information that you or your users upload, enter, or transmit through the Service (“Customer Data”). SteepleOS does not claim ownership of your Customer Data.

By using the Service, you grant Climax Enterprises LLC a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide license to access, use, process, store, and display your Customer Data solely for the purpose of providing, maintaining, and improving the Service, and as otherwise described in our Privacy Policy. This license terminates when you delete your Customer Data or when your account is terminated.

Upon termination of your account for any reason, you will have a period of thirty (30) days to export your Customer Data. We will provide reasonable tools and assistance to facilitate data export during this window. After the 30-day export period, we reserve the right to delete all Customer Data associated with your account and have no obligation to retain it.

7. Acceptable Use Policy

You agree to use SteepleOS only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms. You may not use the Service to:

• Engage in any activity that violates any applicable local, state, national, or international law or regulation.
• Harass, abuse, threaten, stalk, or intimidate any individual or group.
• Send unsolicited commercial messages, spam, or bulk communications to individuals who have not consented to receive them.
• Reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code, algorithms, or underlying structure of the Service or any part thereof.
• Use data or information obtained from the Service to build, train, or improve a competing product or service, whether directly or indirectly.
• Resell, sublicense, lease, or otherwise redistribute access to the Service to any third party without our prior written consent.
• Circumvent, disable, or interfere with any security features, access controls, or usage limitations of the Service.
• Upload, transmit, or distribute any viruses, malware, trojans, worms, or any other malicious or harmful code.
• Impersonate any person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity.
• Interfere with or disrupt the integrity or performance of the Service or the servers and networks connected to it.

We reserve the right to investigate and take appropriate action against any violation of this Acceptable Use Policy, including suspending or terminating your account and reporting violations to law enforcement authorities.

7A. Customer Responsibility for Funds, Data, and Compliance

The tenant church and its designated administrators (collectively, “Customer”) are solely and exclusively responsible for the operation of the Customer’s account and the ministry activities conducted through it. Climax Enterprises LLC is a software-as-a-service vendor, not a co-fiduciary, co-custodian, financial advisor, tax advisor, legal advisor, or agent of the Customer. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the Customer shall be solely responsible for:

• Donor funds. Reconciling all contributions with the Customer’s bank records; detecting and resolving missing, duplicate, or misallocated gifts; refunding donors when appropriate; and maintaining fund-accounting records adequate for audit.
• Stripe Connect or other merchant accounts. Onboarding, identity verification, bank-account maintenance, KYC updates, beneficial-ownership disclosures, payout holds, chargebacks, and all fees charged by the payment processor. SteepleOS facilitates the Stripe Connect handshake but does not hold, control, or guarantee tenant funds at any point in the payment flow.
• Tax exemption and reporting. Maintenance of the Customer’s 501(c)(3) or equivalent status; issuance of contemporaneous written acknowledgments under IRC §170(f)(8); filing Form 990 or its equivalent; state charitable-solicitation registration; and any state or local sales/use-tax obligations.
• Member and visitor data. Obtaining all consents required for the collection, use, and disclosure of member data, including children’s data, medical or allergy information, pastoral-care notes, and prayer requests. The Customer is the data controller for all Customer Data; Climax Enterprises LLC acts solely as a data processor under the DPA.
• Employment and volunteer law. Compliance with background-check, child-protection, wage-and-hour, and non-discrimination laws with respect to staff, volunteers, and independent contractors recorded in the platform.
• Communication law. Building opt-in lists that comply with CAN-SPAM, TCPA, CASL, GDPR ePrivacy, and any state or local analog; honoring opt-outs promptly; maintaining list hygiene; and accepting responsibility for the content of every message the Customer sends through the platform or through a third-party provider the Customer configured.
• Access control and credentials. Provisioning accounts only to authorized personnel; enforcing strong passwords and two-factor authentication where offered; revoking access promptly upon role change or termination; and treating API keys, webhook secrets, and step-up tokens as confidential.
• Backups beyond the Service. Independent retention of critical records outside the platform if required by the Customer’s own insurance, audit, or regulatory posture. SteepleOS’s backups meet the targets stated in the SLA but are not a substitute for the Customer’s own records-retention program.
• Content moderation. Monitoring and, where appropriate, removing user-generated content posted by the Customer’s members, including prayer requests, blog comments, group messages, and profile information.
• Business-continuity exports. Exporting the Customer’s data periodically using the export tools provided, so that the Customer retains the ability to operate if the Service becomes unavailable for any reason.

The Customer’s failure to perform any of the foregoing responsibilities is a material breach of these Terms. Climax Enterprises LLC shall have no liability for any loss, damage, regulatory penalty, or reputational harm arising out of or contributed to by such failure.

8. Intellectual Property

The Service, including all software, code, design, text, graphics, logos, trademarks, service marks, and other content provided by Climax Enterprises LLC (collectively, “Platform IP”), is the exclusive property of Climax Enterprises LLC and is protected by United States and international intellectual property laws. Nothing in these Terms grants you any right, title, or interest in the Platform IP except the limited right to use the Service as expressly permitted under these Terms.

You may not copy, modify, create derivative works from, publicly display, publicly perform, republish, or distribute any Platform IP without our prior written consent.

If you provide us with any feedback, suggestions, ideas, or recommendations regarding the Service (“Feedback”), you agree that we may freely use, incorporate, modify, and commercialize such Feedback without any obligation to you, including without payment of royalties or any other consideration. You hereby assign to Climax Enterprises LLC all rights in and to any Feedback you provide.

9. Third-Party Services

SteepleOS integrates with and relies upon certain third-party services to deliver functionality, including but not limited to payment processing (such as Stripe), email delivery providers, cloud hosting infrastructure, and analytics services.

Your use of any third-party service is subject to that provider’s own terms of service and privacy policy. Climax Enterprises LLC is not responsible for the availability, accuracy, security, or performance of any third-party service. We shall not be liable for any loss, damage, or inconvenience caused by outages, errors, or changes to third-party services that are beyond our reasonable control.

9B. Non-Stripe Payment Methods

SteepleOS allows each tenant church to display contact information for third-party payment services (including but not limited to PayPal, Cash App, Zelle, Venmo, bank transfer, mailed check, and in-person cash) alongside Stripe as options for receiving gifts.

SteepleOS is not a payment processor for any method other than Stripe. For any non-Stripe method, the following applies:

• Direct transaction. Any transfer initiated via PayPal, Cash App, Zelle, Venmo, bank transfer, check, or cash is a direct transaction between the donor and the church. Climax Enterprises LLC is not a party to, nor does it hold, process, facilitate settlement of, or take custody of funds for such transactions.
• No liability. Climax Enterprises LLC is not liable for failed transfers, chargebacks, refunds, disputes, fraud, misdirected payments, unauthorized transactions, tax receipts, donor acknowledgment letters, or any other aspect of non-Stripe payments. Disputes regarding such transactions must be resolved directly between the donor and the church and, where applicable, the relevant third-party payment provider.
• Church’s responsibility. The tenant church is solely responsible for (a) the accuracy of any payment handles, links, addresses, or instructions it configures within the platform; (b) compliance with all applicable tax, anti-money-laundering, and payment regulations; (c) reconciling non-Stripe gifts with its member records; and (d) issuing any tax-deductible contribution statements required by law.
• Receipts. Only gifts processed through the SteepleOS Stripe checkout generate an automated SteepleOS payment receipt. Donations made via any other method do not receive such a receipt.
• Third-party terms apply. Donors using third-party services agree to those providers’ terms of service and privacy policies. Climax Enterprises LLC makes no representations about the security, availability, fees, or reliability of third-party payment services.

The liability disclaimer shown on the SteepleOS donation interface alongside each non-Stripe method is incorporated into these Terms by reference and is legally binding on every donor who uses those methods through the platform.

9A. Affiliate Links and Referral Partnerships

SteepleOS may participate in affiliate or referral programs with certain third-party service providers. This means that when you click on links to third-party services within the SteepleOS platform and subsequently sign up for or purchase those services, Climax Enterprises LLC may earn a commission or referral fee from the third-party provider.

Important disclosures regarding our affiliate relationships:

• No Additional Cost to You. Affiliate commissions are paid by the third-party service provider, not by you. Your use of any linked service through SteepleOS does not result in any additional cost, markup, or price increase compared to signing up directly with the provider.
• Freedom of Choice. You are under no obligation to use any third-party service linked within SteepleOS. You are free to use any compatible service provider of your choosing, whether or not we have an affiliate relationship with that provider.
• Editorial Independence. Affiliate relationships do not influence our recommendations, feature integrations, or the prominence of any third-party service within the platform. Our integration and recommendation decisions are based solely on quality, reliability, compatibility, and value to our users.
• Categories of Affiliate Services. We may maintain affiliate or referral relationships with providers in the following categories of services:
  • Payment processing (e.g., Stripe)
  • Email delivery and marketing services
  • SMS and messaging services
  • Cloud storage and hosting infrastructure
  • AI and machine learning services
• FTC Compliance. In accordance with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines, we disclose affiliate links within the platform where they appear. Links that may result in affiliate compensation are identified with a “Partner” label or similar disclosure.

If you have questions about any specific affiliate relationship, please contact us at legal@steepleos.com.

10. Service Level and Availability

We strive to maintain a target uptime of 99.9% for the Service. However, this target is an aspiration and not a guarantee or warranty of any kind. Actual availability may vary and is subject to factors beyond our control.

We may perform scheduled maintenance from time to time, during which the Service may be temporarily unavailable. We will make reasonable efforts to provide advance notice of planned maintenance windows and to schedule them during off-peak hours when possible.

Climax Enterprises LLC shall not be held liable for any downtime, data loss, or service interruptions, whether caused by scheduled maintenance, unscheduled outages, infrastructure failures, cyberattacks, force majeure events, or any other cause.

11. Limitation of Liability

11A. Specific Liability Exclusions

Without limiting the general disclaimers above, you expressly acknowledge and agree that Climax Enterprises LLC, SteepleOS, and steepleos.com are not responsible and shall bear no liability for any loss, damage, cost, claim, regulatory penalty, or expense of any kind arising out of or relating to the following categories. This list is illustrative, not exhaustive:

• Customer Funds and Donor Finances. Any loss, delay, misallocation, misdirection, duplication, double-charge, failed settlement, reversal, or non-receipt of donor or customer funds, whether processed via Stripe, a third-party payment processor, peer-to-peer app (PayPal, Cash App, Zelle, Venmo, etc.), ACH, bank transfer, check, cash, cryptocurrency, or any other payment mechanism. The tenant church bears full responsibility for reconciling incoming gifts, confirming deposits with its bank, and identifying any discrepancies.
• Chargebacks, Refunds, and Payment Disputes. Any chargeback, refund request, ACH reversal, dispute, or fraud claim brought by a donor against the tenant church. SteepleOS is not a merchant of record for tenant donations and has no obligation to investigate, contest, settle, or fund such disputes. Any chargeback fees, penalties, or reserves imposed by a payment processor are the sole responsibility of the tenant church.
• Tax Receipts, Statements, and Deductibility. The accuracy, timeliness, or legal sufficiency of any giving statement, tax receipt, acknowledgment letter, or IRS Form 1099/990 generated by the platform. The tenant church is solely responsible for compliance with IRS Publication 1771, Section 170(f)(8) substantiation requirements, state charitable-solicitation laws, and all other tax-reporting obligations.
• Sub-Processor and Integration Failures. Outages, latency, data loss, data corruption, API changes, deprecations, or security incidents at any sub-processor, payment processor, hosting provider, email/SMS provider, cloud storage provider, AI provider, or any other third-party service used to deliver SteepleOS. This includes but is not limited to Stripe, Supabase, AWS, Cloudflare, Resend, SendGrid, Mailgun, Twilio, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and any successor providers.
• Customer-Originated Data Loss. Data loss, overwrite, or corruption arising from the tenant’s own actions or the actions of the tenant’s staff, members, contractors, or agents, including accidental deletion, misconfigured imports, bulk updates, failed merges, role changes, account deletion, API-key misuse, or the use of unsupported or deprecated platform features.
• Customer-Staff Misconduct or Negligence. Any unauthorized access, exfiltration, disclosure, alteration, or destruction of data by a tenant’s own officers, directors, employees, volunteers, contractors, agents, or former staff, including without limitation disgruntled-employee scenarios, credential sharing, failure to revoke access upon termination, or phishing compromise of a tenant account. The tenant is solely responsible for role provisioning, access reviews, offboarding, and credential hygiene.
• Data Breach Caused by Customer Action. Any data breach, unauthorized disclosure, or regulatory notification obligation (including HIPAA, GLBA, state breach-notification statutes, GDPR, or CCPA) to the extent caused by weak passwords, disabled 2FA, unsecured endpoints, shared credentials, public-link sharing, or any other security lapse on the tenant’s side. Where multiple parties contribute to a breach, Climax Enterprises LLC’s liability is strictly limited to the aggregate cap in Section 11.
• Pastoral Care, Prayer Requests, and Children’s Data. Any content submitted to the platform by a tenant or its members, including pastoral-care notes, prayer requests, medical information, allergy data, child check-in information, or any other sensitive personal information. The tenant is solely responsible for obtaining any required consents, for lawful basis under applicable privacy law, and for any resulting claims.
• Non-SteepleOS Communications. The content, deliverability, timing, or consequences of any email, SMS, push notification, printed mail, social-media post, or other communication sent by a tenant through or outside of the platform, including CAN-SPAM, TCPA, CASL, or equivalent violations arising from the tenant’s sender lists, opt-in practices, or message content.
• Indirect and Reputational Harm. Any loss of ministry opportunity, loss of donor trust, reputational injury, decline in membership, or other indirect harm claimed to arise from the Service or any component thereof.
• Force Majeure. Any failure or delay caused by circumstances beyond Climax Enterprises LLC’s reasonable control, including natural disasters, pandemics, war, terrorism, civil unrest, strikes, utility or internet outages, governmental orders, sanctions, cyberattacks not originating within our infrastructure, or denial-of-service attacks.

The aggregate liability cap set forth in Section 11 applies to all claims in this Section 11A. The exclusions in this Section 11A are a material inducement to Climax Enterprises LLC’s willingness to provide the Service at the pricing offered; you agree that the pricing reflects this allocation of risk.

12. Disclaimer of Warranties

13. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Climax Enterprises LLC, its officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, affiliates, successors, and assigns from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, losses, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees and court costs) arising out of or relating to:

• Your use of the Service or any activity conducted through your account.
• Any Customer Data or content you upload, transmit, or make available through the Service.
• Your violation of these Terms or any applicable law or regulation.
• Your violation of any third-party right, including intellectual property, privacy, or publicity rights.
• Any claim by a third party that your Customer Data or use of the Service caused damage to that third party.

We reserve the right, at our own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, and you agree to cooperate with our defense of such claims.

14. Termination

You may cancel your subscription and terminate your account at any time through your account settings or by contacting us at legal@steepleos.com. Cancellation will take effect at the end of your current billing period, and you will continue to have access to the Service until that time.

We may suspend or terminate your account and access to the Service immediately, without prior notice or liability, if we reasonably believe that you have violated these Terms, engaged in fraudulent activity, failed to pay fees when due, or for any other reason at our sole discretion.

Upon termination, your right to use the Service ceases immediately. You will have thirty (30) days from the date of termination to export your Customer Data. After this 30-day period, we may permanently delete all Customer Data associated with your account without further notice or obligation.

The following sections shall survive termination of these Terms: Section 6 (Data Ownership, with respect to the export window), Section 8 (Intellectual Property), Section 11 (Limitation of Liability), Section 12 (Disclaimer of Warranties), Section 13 (Indemnification), Section 15 (Governing Law and Dispute Resolution), Section 17 (Severability), and Section 18 (Entire Agreement).

15. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Georgia, United States of America, without regard to its conflict of law provisions.

Any dispute, controversy, or claim arising out of or relating to these Terms, or the breach, termination, or validity thereof, shall be resolved exclusively by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) in accordance with its Commercial Arbitration Rules then in effect. The arbitration shall take place in the State of Georgia. The arbitrator’s decision shall be final and binding, and judgment upon the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

YOU AND CLIMAX ENTERPRISES LLC AGREE THAT EACH PARTY MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN YOUR OR ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS, CONSOLIDATED, OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION. YOU EXPRESSLY WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT OR CLASS-WIDE ARBITRATION.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, either party may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in any court of competent jurisdiction to prevent the actual or threatened infringement of intellectual property rights. Additionally, claims that qualify for small claims court in your jurisdiction may be brought in small claims court rather than arbitration.

16. Modifications to Terms

We reserve the right to modify these Terms at any time. If we make material changes to these Terms, we will provide you with at least thirty (30) days’ advance notice by posting the updated Terms on our website and sending a notification to the email address associated with your account.

Your continued use of the Service after the updated Terms take effect constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms. If you do not agree to the modified Terms, you must stop using the Service and cancel your subscription before the changes become effective.

17. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid, illegal, or unenforceable by a court or arbitrator of competent jurisdiction, that provision shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid and enforceable, or if modification is not possible, it shall be severed from these Terms. The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision shall not affect the validity or enforceability of the remaining provisions, which shall continue in full force and effect.

18. Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Climax Enterprises LLC regarding your use of the Service. These Terms supersede all prior or contemporaneous agreements, representations, warranties, and understandings, whether written or oral, relating to the subject matter hereof.

No waiver of any provision of these Terms shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such provision or any other provision. Our failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms shall not constitute a waiver of that right or provision.

19. Contact Information

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding these Terms of Service, please contact us at:

By using SteepleOS, you acknowledge that you have read and understood these Terms of Service and agree to be bound by them.