This Acceptable Use Policy governs your use of Ministry Planner and supplements our Terms of Service. Ministry Planner is designed for church and ministry management. Using the platform in ways that fall outside this purpose may result in suspension or termination.
2. Permitted Uses
Ministry Planner is intended for:
Planning and coordinating worship services, teaching calendars, and ministry events
Managing volunteer teams, schedules, and communications
Maintaining a people/member directory for your church
Processing charitable donations and managing giving records
Building and hosting a church website
Communicating with your ministry team via built-in chat and email tools
Managing children's check-in and event registration
Illegal activity: Conduct any activity that violates local, state, federal, or international law
Fraud: Misrepresent your identity, your organization, or the purpose of donations
Spam & unsolicited communication: Send bulk unsolicited emails or messages to people who have not opted in, or use the email campaign tools to send non-ministry-related marketing
Abuse of giving: Use the giving feature for money laundering, fraudulent fundraising, personal enrichment disguised as charitable giving, or any purpose that does not qualify as a legitimate charitable contribution
Harassment: Use the platform to harass, threaten, bully, or intimidate any person
Harmful content: Upload or distribute malware, viruses, or any code designed to harm systems or users
Copyright infringement: Upload copyrighted materials (sheet music, chord charts, audio recordings, images) without proper licensing. Churches using copyrighted worship music must hold a valid license (e.g., CCLI, OneLicense) as applicable
Data scraping: Systematically extract data from the platform through automated means (bots, scrapers, crawlers)
Reverse engineering: Decompile, disassemble, or reverse engineer the platform or its APIs, except as permitted by applicable law
Unauthorized access: Attempt to access accounts, data, or systems that you are not authorized to access, or circumvent security measures
Reselling: Resell, sublicense, or provide the Services to third parties as your own product
Competing use: Use the platform to build a competing product or service
Overloading: Intentionally overload the platform or its third-party integrations (Planning Center, Stripe, etc.) through excessive API calls or abuse
Non-ministry use: Use the platform for purposes unrelated to church or ministry management (e.g., running a for-profit business, political campaigning, personal projects)
4. Content Standards
Content published through Ministry Planner (including church websites, email campaigns, and public-facing pages) must not:
Contain defamatory, obscene, or threatening material
Infringe on intellectual property rights
Contain personally identifiable information about individuals without their consent
Violate any applicable law or regulation
Contain deceptive or misleading claims
5. Children's Data
Churches that use check-in or event registration features to collect information about children must:
Ensure they have appropriate parental/guardian consent
Limit data collection to what is necessary for the ministry program
Restrict access to children's information to authorized staff only
Not use children's data for any purpose other than the specific ministry program it was collected for
Promptly delete children's data when it is no longer needed
6. Email & Communication Rules
When using Ministry Planner's email campaign and messaging features:
Only send to recipients who have a legitimate relationship with your church or who have opted in
Include a working unsubscribe mechanism in every campaign email (this is built into the platform)
Honor unsubscribe requests promptly (the platform handles this automatically)
Do not send content that is primarily commercial advertising unrelated to your ministry
Comply with CAN-SPAM, CASL, and other applicable email regulations
Understand that we may review, delay, or reject outbound emails to protect platform integrity and deliverability. Sends from new or unverified accounts may be held for manual review before delivery
7. Giving & Financial Integrity
Churches using the online giving feature must:
Use giving funds only for legitimate charitable purposes
Accurately represent the purpose of giving funds and campaigns
Comply with IRS regulations for tax-deductible charitable contributions
Issue accurate donation receipts
Not use the giving feature as a payment gateway for commercial transactions
8. Security Responsibilities
You are responsible for:
Keeping your account credentials secure
Enabling multi-factor authentication (recommended for all admin accounts)
Ensuring that team members with platform access understand their responsibilities
Revoking access for staff who leave your organization
9. Enforcement
Violations of this policy may result in:
A warning with a request to correct the behavior
Temporary suspension of your account or specific features
Permanent termination of your account
Removal of content that violates this policy
Reporting to law enforcement where required by law
We will make reasonable efforts to notify you before taking action, except where immediate action is necessary to prevent harm or comply with legal obligations.
10. Reporting Violations
If you become aware of a violation of this policy, please report it to hello@ministryplanner.church. We take all reports seriously and will investigate promptly.
11. Changes
We may update this policy. Material changes will be communicated via email or in-platform notice. Continued use constitutes acceptance.