Grovefund complies with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) and the Federal Trade Commission's COPPA Rule. Because children are beneficiaries of the education funds we administer, we collect limited information about them directly from their parents or legal guardians. This policy explains what, how, and under what controls.
1. Who This Policy Covers
This policy applies to information about children under 13 that is provided to Grovefund by a parent or legal guardian in connection with a child fund page. Children are not permitted to create Grovefund accounts themselves.
2. What We Collect from (or About) a Child
We collect only what is operationally necessary. Specifically, we collect:
- First name — used as the public-facing name on the fund page.
- Date of birth— stored privately; only the child's age (derived from DOB) is shown publicly, and only if the parent has toggled the fund public.
- Optional short bio — provided by the parent; shown publicly only if the parent opts in.
- Optional profile photo — currently not enabled; when enabled, will be opt-in only, with clear parental disclosure.
- Chosen URL username — e.g.,
/f/emma-smith. Parent-chosen, lowercase alphanumeric; we recommend using a nickname rather than a full legal name.
3. What We Do Not Collect
- Last name or full legal name (last names are not required and not shown publicly).
- Home address, phone number, or email address for the child.
- Geolocation data.
- Behavioral data (we do not build advertising profiles of children).
- Biometric or health information.
- Social security numbers or government IDs for the child.
4. Verifiable Parental Consent
Only a parent or legal guardian may create a child fund page. Creating a fund page and agreeing to our Terms of Serviceconstitutes verifiable parental consent under the COPPA sliding-scale standard, because the consent is tied to the parent's own authenticated account. The parent attests to their relationship and legal authority.
For higher-sensitivity features (e.g., enabling a child profile photo), we will require an additional, more rigorous consent step before that feature becomes operational.
5. How We Use Children's Information
- To display the public fund page (only if the parent has enabled public visibility).
- To track the fund balance and education-spend eligibility.
- To fulfill charitable-purpose reporting required by the IRS and state regulators.
We do not use children's information for advertising, profiling, or sale.
6. Sharing
Children's information is never shared with brand sponsors, marketing affiliates, or any third party for commercial purposes. It is shared only with service providers (hosting, database, payment processor) under strict confidentiality, and only as required by law.
7. Parental Rights
As a parent or guardian, you may at any time:
- Review the information we have collected about your child — available in your dashboard or upon email request to legal@grovefund.org.
- Deleteyour child's fund page and associated information. Fund balances will either be redistributed under our charitable-trust rules or, where legally permissible, refunded to contributors.
- Revoke consentat any time. Revocation terminates further use of the child's information.
- Toggle visibility — you may switch a fund between public and private at any time from your dashboard.
We will respond to parental requests within 10 business days.
8. Retention
We retain children's information for as long as the fund page is active, plus any period required for charitable compliance and record-keeping (typically 7 years post-closure for financial records). Upon a deletion request, personally identifying fields are removed while redacted financial records required by law are retained in a separate, access-controlled archive.
9. Safe Harbor Certification
As Grovefund scales, we intend to seek certification through a COPPA Safe Harbor program recognized by the FTC. Status updates will be reflected on this page.
10. Contact
COPPA-specific inquiries: legal@grovefund.org
Subject line: COPPA Inquiry